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On a warm, bright weekday morning much like Sept. 11 of five years ago, Upstate residents gathered around flagpoles and outside government buildings to remember what happened on that day and to take stock of life in an age of terror.

It was a day marked by sadness, thanksgiving and resolve, as hundreds who had been transfixed by catastrophic television images on this day in 2001 came together to look back, and to draw strength from each other for what lies ahead.

"By any measure, 9-11 was an awful tragedy," Gov. Mark Sanford told a crowd of more than 100 in the plaza below Greenville City Hall. "But in the wake of every tragedy, heroes emerge."

Brian Watson, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who now works for the city, gave the crowd a history lesson on the growth of radical Islamic terrorism leading up to 9-11 and warned that even more deadly attacks could be planned.

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"The threat of a biochemical weapon from Iraq, Iran and, yes, the former Soviet Union, being used by terrorists is a very real and grave threat," he said.

"There are many dark and troubling times ahead of us and difficult times ahead of us. But as I said before in my speech to you today, there is no doubt in my mind that we will be victorious," he said. "We always have been in the past."

More than 70 flags set up by the Woodruff Road Exchange Club in a display called the Field of Remembrance waved in a slight breeze as people squinted in the sun and listened to the poignant tones of singers and bagpipes. A somber formation of police officers and firefighters kept watch over the ceremony.

U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-Greenville, just back from a trip to Iraq, said the terrorists lack the ability to understand the possibility of a pluralistic society, where diverse groups of people are able to live together in harmony.

"In America, it works because we're committed to the dignity of the individual," he said. "An individual joins in and makes things happen for the whole collective, but it starts with the dignity of the individual."

Mayor Pro-Tem Lillian Brock Flemming read a proclamation setting Monday as "Patriot Day" in Greenville.

"We will never forget the terrible events that unfolded on Sept. 11, 2001, nor the heroism and selflessness of Americans who responded with compassion, courage, prayer and hope," the proclamation concludes.

In an interview just before the program, the Rev. Robert Dennis, pastor of Cedar Grove Baptist Church, recalled watching live TV when the second tower of the World Trade Center was hit.

"I just couldn't believe it. It was a shock," he said. "It really changed America forever."

After the downtown event, local law enforcement and emergency officials had lunch at a Hometown Heroes Luncheon at the Palmetto Expo Center, sponsored by Wachovia bank.

"We're proud to stand today as a partner to this country ... and to say how proud we are of all that you do every day to keep us safe in our homes," Kendall Alley, the bank's South Carolina president, told officers.

Earlier in the morning, around the time the first plane crashed in New York, Red Cross staff and volunteers gathered at the flagpole in front of the agency's Greenville headquarters to mark the anniversary.

The group of about 30 paused for a moment of silence before chapter CEO Ann Wright read a poem commemorating the nation's worst terrorist attack.

Several volunteers who served at Ground Zero in New York and in Washington were in attendance.

"Sure there's always a sense of loss, but the job we had to do was more important than any sentimentality to me," said Jim Moore, who helped out at the New York emergency operations center about a week after the attacks. "I came away with a sense of what a great country we have and how we can pull together."

"I felt like this is our country and we need to step up and do our part when something like this happens," said Aileen Cox, who arrived at the Pentagon the day after the attack for six weeks of relief work.