Never forgetting … and moving on: Former Tattnall Square coach reflects on Sept. 11

There are stories you cannot outrun, outlast or outlive.

You cannot erase or rewrite them. The ink is set on the page. The stories have been told and retold, tossed around in fitful dreams a million times during the night.

Larry Dudney walks the line between never forgetting September 11 and trying to move on with his life two decades later.

Only those in his inner circle are aware he was working at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. That’s when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the second-largest office building in the world, killing 125 people at the Pentagon and all 64 people on the plane.

Dudney is a retired brigadier general. He celebrated his 67th birthday a few weeks ago. He lives with his family in Canton, a bedroom community north of Atlanta at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

He served his country in Iraq, where he was deputy commander with the Georgia 48th Brigade, and in Afghanistan, where he was joint task force commander of a coalition of more than 11,000 soldiers from 20 nations.

He chooses not to talk about Sept. 11 with his children at the supper table or share war stories with his neighbors. He does not pull out the Purple Heart he received for his injuries that day at the Pentagon. He keeps it tucked away at his mountain home in North Carolina.

“Since I’ve retired, I have sort of moved some of the bad experiences – 9/11, losing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan – to the back pages of my life,’’ he said. “I will never forget them or their families, but I have tried to move on.’’

He does not ignore Sept. 11. He acknowledges it. 

“I will get some texts on Facebook or a text on my phone on 9-11, Memorial Day or Veterans Day,’’ he said. 

Dudney was a military strategic planner in the Army Quadrennial Defense Review Office. He was talking on the phone at his desk on the first floor of the Pentagon. It was 34 minutes after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

The plane’s impact knocked Dudney backward into the cubicle behind him. He was dazed and confused. The ceiling had collapsed. There were only small pockets of light. He could hear screaming. There was the strong smell of jet fuel. His throat and lungs burned from the smoke.

“I equated it with being T-boned in a car wreck,’’ he said. “It’s like going through a traffic light and somebody hits you. You never see it coming or hear the squealing of the tires.’’

Around him, what was not damaged by the plane’s impact was  scorched by the jet fuel’s 2000-degree temperatures. While no one in his office was killed, others died as close as 40 feet away.

As he scrambled to safety, there was no need to look for doors. He and others walked through where walls used to be. It was later that afternoon before he could contact his parents, Lawrence and Barbara Dudney.

“You talk about the faith of a mustard seed … people had been calling my mother all day to see if she needed them to be with her,’’ Dudney said. “She would tell them it was fine if they wanted to come visit, but not to feel like they needed to come for her. God had already told her I was OK.’’

When he finally reached the outside of the Pentagon, reality gave him another jolt.  He saw how close the plane had missed his office – a little more than the length of a football field.

Dudney knows about football fields. It was 40 years ago this season he joined the coaching staff at Macon’s Tattnall Square Academy. 

He was there for 17 years. The Trojans won seven GISA state titles with him as their defensive coordinator. He left in 1999 to pursue a full-time career in the military. 

So, he was still coaching defense … just on a different kind of playing field. 

When he lived in Macon, a local minister used to refer to him as the “Egyptian.”  He was born and raised in Egypt, a small town in southeast Georgia.  

He did not play football or other sports. He helped his father, who was a truck driver and a farmer. Every summer, he went to his grandparents’ home in North Carolina to work in the tobacco barns. He returned home on Labor Day weekend, just in time to start school. 

He graduated from Effingham County High School in 1975. Next year will be his 50th high school reunion. 

He enrolled at Georgia Southern in Statesboro, just 30 miles west of Egypt. Dudney admitted he was not class valedictorian.

“I was on the seven-year program,’’ he said, laughing.  “I was there for two terms – Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.’’

It was at Georgia Southern that two things happened that changed his life – he joined the National Guard and became lifelong friends with Barney Hester, who gave him his first job at Tattnall.

 Hester was one of the most successful high school coaches in Macon history, winning 11 state championships and finishing runner-up seven times. He later coached at Howard High and retired as Bibb County’s athletic director in 2021.

  Dudney was not the only person with ties to Tattnall Square who was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. Cole Hogan, who attended Tattnall when he was in elementary school, was killed in the terrorist attacks.

 A former Green Beret, Hogan was serving as a general’s aide.  He had moved into the Pentagon’s remodeled west wing only three weeks earlier. His office was at the point of impact.

 He was one month shy of his 41st birthday and his second wedding anniversary to his wife, Pat, a medical doctor at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington.

Dudney said as he has gotten older, his circle of friends has gotten smaller. He doesn’t speak to many groups much anymore. The last time was about four years ago when a friend from the National Guard asked him to speak at a ceremony for an airport renovation in Griffin.

He retired from the military in 2012 but is still doing government contract work, getting units ready for mobilization. He travels about twice a month to the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.

His focus now is on his family. He tries to spend as much time with his wife, K.T, and children, Harley Christine (6th grade) and Werner Michael (4th grade). And, of course, his dog, Rocky Bark-boa, a 140-pound bullmastiff.

The coach in him never left. For the second year, he is helping coach his son’s 4th-grade football team.

“He is a sports junkie whatever is in season,’’ Dudney said.  “He plays football, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse.  My daughter is in dance and has been since she was 4.  She participates in the Nutcracker every year at Reinhardt College.  She also does Irish dance as well.’’

Dudney became a father later in life. At 67, he is old enough to be his children’s grandfather. His beard is white. His son has caught grief at school about the old man. 

“We have stopped to get something to eat somewhere, and someone will say: “Well, I see you brought your granddaddy with you,’’ he said.

He lets it roll off. He is dismissive about his advancing age. So many fathers miss out on their kids’ childhood because they are busy working to provide for them.

At this stage in his life, Dudney gets to watch his children grow as their father through the same lens as if he was their grandfather.

Sept. 11 is now a holiday, Patriot Day. He still holds his hand over his heart when the national anthem is played. He gets emotional at military funerals. He cries when he hears bagpipes.

In his own, quiet way, he will take time to reflect on the day. He will be grateful. He is a survivor. He will remember those who lost their lives and pray for their families.

And he will try to move on. 

He will try.