Inc. Magazine 09.2019

PHOTOGRAPH BY HEATHER STEN ● ● ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● INC. ● 53

I joined the Army in April 1997. After

boot camp and school, I was sent to

South Korea. My company met people

when they got off the plane and deter-

mined where within the country they

were needed. It was an interesting job. 

My first sergeant had just come from

the Pentagon. I was on orders to go to

Fort Worth when I finished in Korea, but

she convinced me I should take a role at

the Pentagon. I reported to Lieutenant

General Timothy Maude, the Army’s

deputy chief of staff for personnel.

I started at the Pentagon in January

1999. I was working in the management

support office. That’s where I met Sunny

Pak Wells. She and I were both lower

Army ranks, and there weren’t a whole

lot of us in the Pentagon, so we were

propelled together immediately. Every

morning, we would get coffee and chit-

chat before work.

We spent a lot of time together outside

of work. On weekends, she and her

fiancé, Chris, would come over and play

gin rummy with me and my husband at

the time. She and I usually were partners

and would try to beat our significant

others. She was my best friend. 

One day, General Maude’s secretary got

a new job and left. He needed a new

secretary quickly. They pulled me in and

I started working for him while they

looked for a permanent replacement.

At the time, I was getting ready to

transition out of the military. I decided

I’d ask General Maude if I could keep

working for him as his secretary, since it

was a civilian job. I was so nervous to ask. 

He said no. I was kind of caught off

guard. He told me, “What you’re doing

now is going to help you in the future,

but you’re going to do bigger and better

things.” He wrote me a letter of recom-

mendation and got me my first job inter-

view. The interviewer’s wife had worked

for General Maude, and he said, “If you

can work for General Maude, you can

work for anyone, so you’ve got the job.” 

I left the Pentagon in March 2001.

Sunny ended up taking my old position.

To replace our coffee meetings, we

started a ritual of calling each other

Keri Mungo is co-founder and CEO of SABG—the Strategic

Alliance Business Group—which provides technical services for

the federal government, including the Missile Defense Agency

and the Department of Defense. Prior to starting her company,

she spent four years in the Army and worked at the Pentagon—a

job she left several months before September 11, a decision

that will stay with her the rest of her life. —AS TOLD TO KEVIN J. RYAN

A Heavy Burden

For years, Keri Mungo carried the

guilt of handing off her job to her best
friend at the Pentagon six months

before the building was hit on 9/11.