Chief Stony

Lohr, assistant Chief Ed Eiswerth, and family members pinned insignia

on two newly minted fire department lieutenants and eight new sergeants

in a first-of-its-kind promotion ceremony at Leach Station Sunday.

Peki Prince

and David Williamson were promoted to lieutenant. Sergeants receiving

insignia were Chester Cannady, Chris Campbell, John Dunlap, Robert Harkins,

Mike Hunnicutt, Darrell Neese, Scott Waller, and Mark Gelhardt. Jeremy

Carlisle and David Winkles also made sergeant, but were not present.

Lohr said these

officers met national standards used as benchmarks and guidelines for

the accreditation process in which the department is currently engaged.

"Accreditation mandates that there be current written job descriptions

for every position and that persons selected for those positions meet

the requirements," he said.

Candidates

were evaluated by representatives of other fire departments to ensure

that "there is an open and fair competitive process to select the

best qualified person or persons for promotion." None received less

than a "very good" rating.

All the newly

promoted officers except Gelhardt are career firefighters/paramedics.

He is a volunteer firefighter/EMT who recently retired as a lieutenant

colonel in the U.S. Army and is now with World Airways. Throughout his

22 years of service to country, he also was a volunteer with local fire

departments.

Prince is a

16-year veteran, having begun with Fayette County EMS. She's been with

Peachtree City for 10 years. She is in charge of EMS operations, including

training, and is the department liaison with state and regional level

public health officials. She also serves as commander of the departmental

honor guard.

Her teen-aged

son Kyle, a member of the department's Explorer Troop, is already planning

to follow both his parents into a career with the fire service.

Williamson

is the training lieutenant under Capt. Tom Hughey, and is responsible

for both career personnel and volunteers meeting national and state training

standards. He coordinates the specialty instructors needed to keep firefighters

abreast of current technology and skills, and serves as volunteer coordinator.

The new officers

have been with the local department from one year to almost 13 years.

Dunlap combines nearly six years as a volunteer with seven as a career

member; Campbell began as a member of the department's Explorer Scout

troop, served two years as a volunteer, and hired on eight years ago.

Campbell also

was part of a team that received the city's first Distinguished Service

Citation for Valor in 1999. They entered a burning building ­ "a

significant house fire," according to Prince ­ and found a child

hiding upstairs. "It was definitely a save," said Prince.

All but one

or two of the new promotees have bachelor's degrees; Gelhardt holds a

master's. Every one of them has added extensive credentials as hazardous-material

specialists, members of the dive team, fire science and emergency medical

instructors, fire inspectors, or fire safety educators.

A few noted

special areas of interest: Carlisle is considered the best cook in the

department. Hunnicutt is a certified police officer. Waller, whose father

is a lieutenant with the Clayton Co. Fire Department, was the official

ice sculptor for the 1980 presidential inauguration. And Neese was a member

of Georgia Tech's 1990 national championship football team.

Chief Lohr

told the new officers and their families that while the fire service must

face new challenges with new technology and new services, their basic

mandate stays the same to take care of people.

"I am

extremely proud of all the promotion candidates," he said. "They

have worked very diligently and have achieved a level of nationally recognized

professionalism that is as good or better than any department in the country.

"That

is why," he concluded, "all the outside evaluators could truthfully

say that they would have been proud to take any one of the candidates