After watching the World Trade Center’s South Tower get hit on the morning of 9/11, Robert Caslen knew the Pentagon – where he was stationed – might be a target.

Caslen, who retired as a lieutenant general, returned to Fort Stewart on Friday to take part in the observance of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. And he was an eyewitness.

He was two sides away from the plane’s impact, but he and two others worked their way around to where Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.

“We snuck in and we started working with the evacuation and helping to treat people,” he said.

They also worked to get a command center functional so senior military leaders could have communications with President Bush, who was aboard Air Force One and was whisked out of a Tampa, Florida elementary school to the safety of the presidential jet.

“I knew our lives were going to change as a result of 9/11,” Caslen said. “When you stand there and see that damage, you know that there’s someone out there who hates us, and what we stand for and the values of our country. We knew we couldn’t stand there and take that.”

Caslen later was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division as the assistant division commander for maneuver and became the deputy director for the War on Terror at the Joint Staff. He retired from the Army after serving as the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy.

“Every time 9/11 rolls around, it gives me the opportunity to recommit myself to the values of our nation,” he said, “the values of duty and honor and country and service and to the values of a 9/11 generation – young men and women who saw their country attacked and decided to do something about it.

“I can’t say enough about the 9/11 generation. Now it’s 9/11 generation’s sons and daughters serving in the military.”

For more, return to coastalcourier.com or pick up the September 17 edition of the Courier.