Maj. Gen. Byron Bagby, now retired, was standing in an office at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when the world shook.
"I was serving as a staff officer for a three-star general," he told a group of students gathered at Westminster College Monday evening. "We were standing in his office and looking at CNN and watching the second (World Trade Center) building fall. My boss said, 'Boy, we're lucky that hasn't happened here at the Pentagon.' Not five minutes later, we felt our large office building shake."
There were 450 people who needed to be found after an airplane, originating at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., hit the southwest corner of the American military headquarters building at 9:37 a.m.
"My boss asked me to account for every one," Bagby said. "It took until 3 the following morning."
He accounted for people who survived, injured and non-injured. He accounted for those killed. He said two were missing, and their remains were found several days later: a colonel and a staff sergeant, a single mother.
"My boss asked me to notify her next of kin," Bagby said of the staff sergeant. "They had a home near Washington. In this case, the next of kin was her six-year-old daughter."
He said that was the hardest act of his life.
"I'm a trained commando. I've been in some very tough situations," he said. "That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. It makes you take a look at what is really important in life."
He used that and other episodes in his life to learn.
"When you experience those things, it helps you grow," Bagby added.
The major general spoke as part of a group at the college's second annual Westminster Institute for National Security prgogram. Bagby lives in Alexandria, Virginia, but he is a Fulton man, having graduated from Fulton public schools and Westminster College. He now sits on Westminster's board of trustees and likes to come share his experiences with students.
"I have lived in five countries and visited about 60," he said. "I've met heads of state. I have opinions on most things."
He told a group of students he welcomed dialogue about their opinions, too.
After graduating from Westminster, Bagby served more than three decades in the U.S. Army. He received the Distinguished Service Medal - the Army's highest peacetime award.
"I was in the Army; it's the only branch," he said, laughing. "It gave me a chance to be a leader. I went through ROTC here, and I found it
interesting and enlightening. I graduated and became a leader immediately."
Bagby said he led a small group, then larger and larger groups.
"If you're good at it, they give you a larger group," he said. "I liked it. I was good at it. I stayed for 33 years."
Bagby served as operations director of NATO Joint Force Command-Brunssum, chief of staff for the Army in Europe; commandant of Joint Forces Staff College and more. Now he is a leadership coach and facilitator and said he has no political aspirations.
Bagby said he scored more than 100 parachute jumps. He qualified as an Army Ranger, running and climbing with 100 pounds on his back. He was posted in Egypt and knows "people" there. He's done a lot, he said.
"I retired four years ago," he added.
Bagby presented a lot of food for thought to students and others who attended the informal session. He touched on topics such as the European Union and Brexit, the United Kingdom's vote to leave the EU. He mentioned relations between the U.S. and other countries and relations of other countries with other countries.
"There's ISIS and their last-ditch efforts to try and retain control. There are police shootings," he said. "The world we live in is complicated."
Another complication is the way women are treated worldwide. He said men in Saudi Arabia are beginning to recognize women deserve freedom. But horrific events still happen, such as the kidnapping of 276 young female students in April 2014 by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Most are still missing.
"Three hundred young girls were kidnapped, and I don't think the world blinked," though some people waved some placards, Bagby said. "The world didn't blink. Had it been in western Europe, they would have been all over it."
Not all the presenters who came to Westminster to discuss security issues for the WINS program this week have agreed with each other. For example, Bagby said he thinks the U.S. military's budget is adequate for now, and if armed forces officials think need more money to function, they will ask Congress.
"Our military is strong, and we take whatever funds we are given and use them to the best of our ability," he said. "Are our armed forces in bad shape? No, I wouldn't agree with that. We have the best military in the world. I've worked with others on every continent."
He also said war is not always the answer.
"When you think about strategy, don't let them walk you down the path of just war," he said.
Bagby said unlike some high-end Republican candidates, he thinks NATO, an alliance of 28 nations, is still pertinent. He doesn't believe Putin's Russian army will launch a full-scale assault on the Ukraine. He thinks a military representing the American people is best when under civilian control. He doesn't believe local law enforcement agencies are being militarized. He does think a real discussion about race needs to continue.
"What I think we need is to have an open discussion of race in this country," he said. "I find it horrible that our nation has had 10 highly publicized killings in the last two weeks. That violence is horrible."
Bagby, who is black, said he has been stopped on many occasions by police when he wasn't breaking the law or driving recklessly.
"I have been stopped on more occasions than I can tell you," he said. "I think, on most occasions, it was because I'm black. Black men are stopped at five times the rate of other groups."
He said people often are being pushed to choose between police or African-American men.
"They're trying to push people to one extreme or the other - either the cops or African Americans," he said. "But we need the viewpoints of both."
Some students, such as Mitch Weller, a Westminister junior majoring in security studies, knew a lot about current events.
"It seems interesting how things seemed to have improved, but in other ways, they've degraded," he said.
Bagby said police forces have excellent training in tactical skills, "but what may be needed is more training in sensitivity," he added.
He ended the evening talking about attitude.
"Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you deal with it," he told the students. "It's the hand you're dealt, and it comes down to attitude."
He ended with one piece of advice.
"Read a newspaper every day," he said. "I do believe in that."