On Sept. 11, 2001, Byron Bagby was a colonel serving in the Pentagon.
Twenty years later, the memories of that day are still vivid for the retired U.S. Army major general, who grew up in Fulton and who had two of his staff members killed in the attack.
"The attack was personal because I was an American citizen who happened to be a military officer," said Bagby, who earned an undergraduate degree from Westminster College and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of William Woods University. "They just didn't attack a building, they attacked the nerve center of our military."
Bagby, who was an executive assistant for one of the Army's staff directors at the time, said the day started out like a normal day would.
"I got there around 5:30 a.m. And around 8:50 a.m., we learned of the hijacked aircraft flown into the north tower at the World Trade Center," Bagby said. "That got our attention. Then, 15 minutes later, the south tower of the WTC was hit, so we knew we were under attack.
"Thirty minutes later, I was standing in an office watching TV about the attacks," Bagby continued. "I was talking with another person who commented how lucky it had been that such an attack hadn't happened there with 40,000 people working there."
It was five minutes later, Bagby recalled, that they felt shaking and heard a huge blast.
"We thought a truck bomb had gone off, but we of course found out later it was another hijacked aircraft that hit us," Bagby said. "When we were informed a fourth hijacked aircraft could be coming to Washington, we had to leave the Pentagon. Two-thirds of our personnel left, but after that plane crashed in Pennsylvania, we came back."
Bagby said a third of the office space in the Pentagon was damaged by smoke, fire and water.
"Despite 25 percent of the building being uninhabitable, the Pentagon continued to function, providing information and other services to the military," Bagby added.
Six personnel in Bagby's section of the building were hospitalized with injuries; two of his staff were missing.
"One of the missing was a married father of two, and the other was a sergeant who was a single parent," Bagby said.
Four days later, Bagby said, the remains of the missing were recovered, and they were able to identify his two staff members with the help of DNA.
"By Defense Department policy, we had to notify the next of kin, and I had to notify the next of kin of the single parent sergeant who passed away," Bagby said. "It turned out her only next of kin was her 6-year-old daughter."
Taking a chaplain and another sergeant who knew the victim with him, Bagby set out on what he called, "The hardest task I have ever done in my life."
"Having to notify a 6-year-old that her mom is deceased is the last thing in the world I would have ever wanted to do," Bagby said. "I tried to remember what I was like when I was 6, and I wondered if I, or any 6-year-old, would have understood the magnitude of such a tragedy."
Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks, 184 of those were killed at the Pentagon.
"These were not faceless people or just a name posted on walls or memorials," Bagby said. "They were mothers, grandparents and neighbors. They were human beings who had their own networks of people. The deaths of those at the Pentagon affected more than 100,000 people.
"There was one positive thing to come out of the attacks, and that was it united the nation," Bagby said. "Within 45 minutes of the plane crashing into the Pentagon, we had clergy from all denominations coming to provide support. There were first responders who came from 100 miles away to help with relief efforts. We came together for a common cause, and I saw a degree of patriotism I've never seen in my life."
In looking back on what happened before the attacks, Bagby said it was not so much an intelligence failure as it was a lack of sharing information between agencies that showed or indicated there was the potential for such an attack.
"I think the formation of the Homeland Security Office is one of the biggest benefits following the attacks," Bagby said. "That brought agencies together so they could start to share the information that can help prevent these type of attacks.
"I do think the possibility of terrorists attacks remains," he said. "But I also think the steps we have taken have prevented similar 9/11s from happening."