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Philadelphia Honors City Cops Who Responded On 9/11 And After

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia Police Department today marked the tenth anniversary of 9/11 by honoring those who have served their city and their country.

At a ceremony at the National Constitution Center, the city paid tribute to members of the police department who became first responders on September 11, 2001, and those who served later in the US armed forces.

Police commissioner Charles Ramsey says it's fitting and proper for the city to honor the 141 police officers have also seen active duty overseas during the past ten years.

"By not only putting your lives on the line on the streets of our city -- you chose to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever that threat lay -- and take action, to put yourself into harm's way, there is no greater sense of duty than that," Commissioner Ramsey told the officers being honored today.

Ramsey and Mayor Nutter also lauded the 15 cops who traveled to Ground Zero just after the September 11th terrorist attacks and volunteered their services.

Philadelphia crime scene investigator Leo Rahill (photo) was up there for ten days and says the memories will remain with him for the rest of his life.

"You would see steel beams everywhere, embedded in the ground," he recalls.  "Some of the pictures I have are the outside skeleton of the office building, which was approximately 15-20 stories high."

Reported by Paul Kurtz, KYW Newsradio 1060

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