“None of us will ever forget that day,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in her address, “but as DHS employees, we are especially tied to it, carrying it with us every single day.”

click for hi-res DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin honor the 9/11 fallen during an invocation by Assistant Chief John Guinn to open the commemoration ceremony. Photo Credit: Donna Burton

“When I travel to DHS offices all over the country, and all over the world,” said Napolitano, “I see framed photos of the twin towers and the Pentagon, and plaques bearing the words ‘Never Forget’ in offices in Seattle, Houston, Chicago and everywhere I visit.

“These are small symbols of how we, as DHS employees, keep Sept. 11 with us, in our work, every day,” she added.

CBP Commissioner Alan D. Bersin also thanked DHS employees for the ways “big and small, dramatic and invisible, you stand up each day to secure our nation.”

“For each of the 3,650 days since war was waged against us on our homeland, your solemn vow has been to keep faith with those who lost their lives or loved ones that fateful morning with the pledge of never forgetting and always protecting,” said Bersin.

	click for hi-res “We keep faith with the victims of 9/11 by ensuring that America remains not only safe and secure, but free, welcoming and strong,” said CBP Commissioner Alan D. Bersin during the commemoration. Photo Credit: James Tourtellotte

“We keep faith with the victims of 9/11 by ensuring that America remains not only safe and secure, but free, welcoming and strong,” added Bersin. “That the America we help to build is the America we know, the country of our dreams.”

Napolitano encouraged DHS employees to “rekindle the spirit of service we saw in the days and months after 9/11, and work together to continue to make our homeland more resilient and secure – one hometown at a time.”

The ceremony opened and closed with moving performances by the CBP unified honor guard and pipes and drums. A video at the top of the program featured former Homeland Security Secretarys Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, as well as leaders of all the DHS component agencies. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) also attended.

An exhibit showcasing artifacts and mementos of 9/11, entitled We Will Always Remember: CBP Commemorates 9/11, was formally opened this morning in the CBP headquarters lobby by Bersin, Deputy Commissioner David Aguilar and other CBP leaders. The exhibit will be open for employee and public viewing until October 2012.