Remembering 9/11: Retired New York officers, firefighters join Governor DeSantis for Palm Harbor ceremony

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - On a somber day marking 24 years since the September 11th attacks, a large ceremony took place in Palm Harbor honoring thousands of lives lost in 2001.

Local perspective:

Thursday's ceremony at Curlew Hills Memory Gardens featured bagpipes, speeches from firefighters and the winners of a 9/11 essay contest.

There was also the traditional laying of a wreath and the ringing of the bell.

Dozens of retired firefighters and police officers who were working in New York on 9/11, or who went there immediately after to help, attended the ceremony.

What they're saying:

Retired firefighter Bob Dwyer spoke about the feeling of unity in the days following the horrific attacks.

"The highway was lined with hundreds of people with signs saying ‘God bless you’ ‘We love you firefighters,’ ‘Be safe,’ whatever. Everybody wanted to do something," retired NYFD firefighter Bob Dwyer said. "I just remember crying and saying, ‘Oh my God, this is so beautiful. This country has never been more together than it is right now.’"

Gov. Ron DeSantis also spoke, receiving loud applause when he talked about Florida's 9/11 curriculum requirement in schools.

"We're teaching our kids: one, just about the fact that we were attacked by an enemy that day. It was not a foreign army. These were individuals who were motivated by an ideology that is foreign to this country's founding and foreign to our way of life," DeSantis said.