From staff reports
Contributions of scores of men from the Redbank Valley area during World War I will be highlighted in a public program to be offered at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, at First Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Wood and Penn streets in New Bethlehem.
The program is being conducted by the Redbank Valley Historical Society as it continues its recognition of the “War to End All Wars” that was fought in Europe a century ago.
The wartime heroics of Fred Otte and his brother, Carl, who had lived in Fairmount City, will be the topic of the program, according to the society’s president, Cindy Morgan.
Pennsylvania’s historic 28th Division will be featured in the presentation, and that division earned the title of the Iron Division by Gen. John (“Black Jack”) Pershing after the unit won a “breathtaking” victory in the second battle of the Marne in July 1918.
Morgan said the society’s efforts in the upcoming program are designed to help show how area men and women, in all periods of American history, have stepped forward and put on the uniform of their country when duty called.