Inc. Magazine – September 2019

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54 ● INC. ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● ● ● ● ● ●

and talking a little bit before we started

working. 

This kind of tells you that God has a

hand in everything, but Sunny’s birthday

was September 13 and her fiancé’s was

September 10, so she was going to be in

the office only a couple of days that week. 

That particular morning, we were just

kind of gossiping. Sunny had TVs in her

office. She was like, “Did you see what

happened in New York?” At that point,

we didn’t know that both towers had

been hit. We didn’t know how serious

it was. We thought it was an accident. 

Suddenly, she screamed and the phone

went dead. I tried calling her back and

got a busy signal. I still knew the exten-

sions in that office. I would call a number,

get a busy signal. Call another number,

get a busy signal. All of a sudden, it hit

me: Something had happened.

Someone came running into the room

and said, “There’s been an explosion at

the Pentagon.” And immediately I was

like, oh, my gosh. I called Chris and told

him what had happened. He got in his

car and drove to the Pentagon.

There was a lot of hope that she was

unconscious in some hospital somewhere

and we just needed to find her, so we

started making calls. That went on for a

couple of days. Then there was hope that

they might find her stuck somewhere

in the building. After a week or so,

we finally had to give up hope on that. 

A few weeks later, Sunny’s family got

the call that they had found her. Her

desk had been right near the area that got

hit. Around that time, we found out that

General Maude had died, too. They

were renovating the Pentagon when the

attacks happened, and their team had

been moved there just a few weeks prior.

There was a lot of guilt. Had General

Maude let me take the secretary job, it

would have been me. And great sadness.

It was really difficult to lose her and to

lose such a good mentor to me as well.

Sorry, I just don’t talk about it very

often. 

I worked a few different jobs over

the next few years. I met my husband,

Adam, when we were both working

for the Defense Information Systems

Agency in 2003. That job let me see

how the contracting world worked.

A lot of it is networking and knowing

people. I realized all those years I had

spent in the military and the people I’d

worked with were going to help me get

to the next step.

We officially founded SABG in 2013.

We provide programmatic and technical

support for the most advanced military

systems in the world. Our biggest client

is the Missile Defense Agency, where

Adam and I both worked for several

years before we broke away and started

SABG. We’ve grown to 150 employees. 

I remember when I worked for

General Maude, my son was 6 months

old and had to have ear tube surgery.

General Maude called me after the

surgery. He took time out of his day

to ask how my son was, how I was,

whether I needed anything. I just

remember thinking he cared. I want

those types of things to transcend what

our employees do for our company.

I want them to know: You’re not just a

number, you’re not just somebody I’m

selling off to the government. I want you

to feel like you’re a part of this. You’re a

part of making us all successful. 

We’ve started something that we

call Honoring a Hero. We ask employ-

ees for stories about a hero they

know, and then we try to honor that

person on social media and in the

company newsletter.

I don’t think I’ll ever be the same

person I was before. That day really

changed everything, even my relation-

ships at the time, and kind of pushed

me in a whole other direction.    

Something like that makes you recog-

nize the opportunities you’ve been given

and be more grateful for them. Sunny

and General Maude didn’t get those

opportunities. They didn’t get to go on

and live the life that I’ve been able

to live. In my work and in my life, I try

to make sure I’m honoring them.

We ask

employees

for stories

about a

hero they

know, and

then try to

honor that

person.

The Mentor Who

Changed Everything

Keri Mungo with

Lieutenant General
Timothy Maude, for

whom she worked
at the Pentagon.

Maude died on 9/11,

but in many ways set
Mungo on a path to

an ambitious career.