PALATINE, Ill. (CBS) – First responders in Palatine marked the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Tuesday with a ceremony at the town’s firefighters’ memorial.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports firefighters and police officers marched in a procession from Palatine fire station 85 to the firefighters’ memorial.

“Sept. 11, 2001, will be thought of as America’s darkest day,” said retired Palatine Firefighter Mark Hallet.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports

Hallet said 9/11 is the Pearl Harbor Day for his generation, since his generation is too young to remember the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

“This is our day of infamy, and we’ll never forget this,” he said. “It doesn’t change at all. I think we see the images of this every single day in our lives. There is not a day we go by where we are not reminded of the changes that have happened because of what happened 11 years ago.”

Hallet said the anniversary of the attacks serves as a reminder that disaster can strike at any time, and police officers and firefighters will always walk straight into the danger.

“The very fact of these people gathered around this memorial today bears testimony that we are a people willing to risk, so that others might have life,” he said.

Hallet served 29 years as a firefighter in Palatine before retiring.