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.”

Donald Durgin, the 3rd Infantry Division’s command sergeant major, was a young staff sergeant taking part in Intrinsic Action exercises in Kuwait.

When he and his fellow soldiers saw the television coverage, Durgin said they couldn’t comprehend what they were watching.

“The first thing that went through my mind is the world is forever changed,” he said. “Every definition of freedom changed 25 years ago and what that meant to people.”

What impressed Durgin in the days that followed the 9/11 attacks was the resilience the nation displayed.

“We saw the best of America come out,” he said. “That was mind changing to see a world come together.”

Durgin, a veteran of deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, offered his sincerest thanks to fellow soldiers who have deployed to combat areas over the last 25 years.

On 9/11, Caslen stayed at the Pentagon until around 10 that night. When he returned to his new truck to go home, there was an airplane wheel next to it. Broken windshields of vehicles damaged in the crash and explosion were all around.

Caslen 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.”

Caslen commended the 9/11 generation, remarking he “can’t say enough” about them and their willingness to defend their nation.

“They joined the military when our country was at war, knowing full well they were going to war and yet they went,” he said. “I had the privilege and honor of leading them. Now the 9/11 generation’s sons and daughters are now serving.

“Their moms and dads can be proud that their son or daughter is taking in the footsteps of them when our country needed them the most.”

Caslen retired from the Army in 2018 and acknowledged he missed the service life and the camaraderie of the troops, along with the trust the people put in soldiers to defend the nation.

“But I’m honored to have served our country and I served for 43 years and I would do it all over again,” he said.

Caslen, served in Afghanistan and commanded the 25th Infantry Division during an Iraq deployment, remains proud of the generation of soldiers he got to lead.

“These young men and women, knowing that our country was at risk, they still wanted to serve our country,” he said. “It says a lot about them and who they are and what they stand for ad it says a lot about their homes and the values of the homes they grew up. Watch these men and women today and you’ll see was right about this country.”

Durgin said he hopes those who commemorate and honor the losses on 9/11 continue to do so for the current generation and the future ones who weren’t witness to that day. More than 10,000 soldiers hit Fort Stewart’s streets for a run Friday morning — many of them were not born the day the hijacked airliners slammed into both World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

“It’s important for us for those who were there to keep that memory alive for those who were not there,” he said.