DAPHNE — Daphne’s community came together yesterday in remembrance of lives that were lost during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

During the solemn ceremony, Mobile County Sheriff’s Office Chaplain Ron Pierce recalled a personal experience.

The FBI had called upon Pierce to go to New York as rescue and recovery teams worked.

Pierce, who served in the Air Force, witnessed firefighters who spent hours during the recovery efforts because they wanted to be there, he said.

He recalled when the workers raised the American flag on that site.

“When they raised that flag, everything stopped: all the machines, all the work.

Everyone was cheering and hollering,” Pierce said.

“The flag still stands,” he said of the nation’s unity.

“I can tell you that as long as America has the resolve that it has, you slap us, we wake up; and that’s what happened on Sept. 11,” Pierce said.

Public Works Superintendent Melvin McCarley rang a bell for each airplane crash that occurred that day, while fire Chief James White spoke of the crashes and lost lives.

On Sept. 11, 2001, nine Alabamians died as a result of the crashes, White said.

Daphne police Officer Andrew Shaffer has recently returned from overseas, after having served two tours in Iraq with the 226th Battalion of the Alabama National Guard.

Since that time, 16 men and women in the military from Alabama have died; two were from Daphne, the Rev. Grant Barber, Daphne police chaplain said.