Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Roughly half an hour after the second World Trade Center tower was attacked, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Two days later, High Point native and military chaplain Bob Shackleford was sent to Washington, D.C., to help.
Shackleford had just gotten out of a meeting at Randolph Community College, where he was serving as Dean of Student Services, when he noticed a large gathering in front of a TV. He says watching the Twin Towers burn was incredibly difficult. But when the Pentagon was hit, he was stunned.
"I thought the Pentagon was just untouchable," he says. "I felt so vulnerable. And I thought, Oh no, we are in a war. We’re under attack."
As a military chaplain, Shackleford was trained in critical incident stress management. When he arrived at the Pentagon, he and the other chaplains were teamed up with mental health professionals to treat groups of 12 to 15 people grappling with the attack.
He says the meetings lasted about an hour. Afterwards, 2 to 3 people would approach him to request one-on-one sessions, which were followed immediately by the next group meeting.
"And this went on morning, noon, and night," he says. "It was very, very intense. The only way I know to explain it was, if you'd come up to me and tap me on the shoulder and said, What time of day is it? I couldn't have told you if it was 9:00 in the morning or 6:00 at night."
Shackleford continued his work for three weeks. He says afterwards officials sent in another team of chaplains to help those like Shackleford work through their weeks of intense conversations with traumatized military men and women.
Looking back, Shackleford calls the entire experience a special privilege.
"I came back with an understanding that life is more fragile than we anticipated; it's more uncertain than we ever thought," he says. "And take time every day to hold your loved ones close, and to appreciate your friends, and to make connections. And I came back knowing that better than I'd ever known it before."
Shackleford retired as president of Randolph Community College in 2022 and is currently the founder and owner of Shackleford Leadership Institute.