Lt. Gen. Tim Maude shares the distinction of being the highest ranking American soldier to lose his life in military action.

But unlike Lesley J. McNair and Simon B. Buckner Jr., both lieutenant generals who died during World War II, the battle he died in was not one he expected.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists commandeered an American Airlines flight out of Dulles International Airport and crashed it into the southwest wall of the Pentagon, killing Maude and more than a hundred other military and civilian workers. Scores of other people were injured when the airliner ripped through the building at 530 miles per hour.

At the time of his death, Maude served as the deputy chief of staff for personnel, the Army's chief executor of personnel policy and manager of the various programs affecting the strength and moral well-being of America's land forces.

As one of only five members of the Army's Adjutant General's Corps to rise to the rank of lieutenant general, his story is one of triumph and celebration, and an abiding commitment to family, country, and service.