CO
UR
TE
SY
SU
BJE
CT
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.