17 years ago

[LBnM]

I returned from the memorial site a little while ago. On that day I was in Houston giving a class to the members of the Houston Field Office. I was standing near the Secretary's desk when my son called and said "Dad, they've blown up the building." I went to the TV and watched the first reports going out nationwide. Was soon on the next plane out with mostly news crews heading for Oklahoma City. I was the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of our field office on the third floor. My Secretary, my Boss, two Special Agents and a Special Agent sitting in for me were killed. Our office, next to the Credit Union and above the Nursery was gone. A sad time.

 

[faler55]

may they all rest in peace and god bless them all

 

[jrusling]

I was working in the MPB at the Aeronautical Center. I felt the explosion and saw the smoke cloud and initially thought that a building and a gas explosion. Everyone clustered around the radios. I heard when Feed the Children as for people that had trucks to come and help to haul stuff around. I worked at their site downtown to help support the rescue people. It took a couple of days before it really sunk in.

 

[SMS]

RIP to all the fallen, and to Airman First Class Cartney McRaven....3d Combat Comm Group. She was newly married and was at the fed building taking care of paperwork with the social security office as a result.

I was returning with my team from a deployment to Central America on that day...we had no idea. All the phone lines were jammed, and our usual check-ins with the unit wouldn't go through. When we got to Houston, with cased rifles and sealed bags of crypto, airport security had a fit and it took us awhile to clear the red tape. We still had no idea until we got on the plane to OKC when a guy carrying a tv camera clued us in.

Crazy days.

 

[reddog1]

God Bless everyone involved.

I dont remember a thing from that time. My soul was in a different place.

 

[ratski]

My daughter was at the OU Dental Hygiene school at the time. Downtown.

She drove past that area every morning on her way to class.

She had just pulled into the parking lot when it happened. She said that she heard and felt the explosion. At that time,she thought that they were demoing a building.

Getting through to the dental school after we found out what was going on was infinitely difficult. I finally got thru and explained that I needed to check and verify that she was OK.

I was on AOL at that time. I remember everyone in my office standing around my computer as I got news wire feed pictures.

Dave

 

[elwoodtrix]

I had just dropped my step daughters at school and got in to our apt at 63rd and meridian.... felt like a sonic boom... then turned on the tv...

 

[VitruvianDoc]

I was in 1st grade, I remember my Mom checking me out of school telling me some bad stuff had happened. I met my dad at home who said he was going to be gone a while and I maybe saw him once or twice for the next two weeks. He was (now retired) an OCPD and worked the bombing for quite a while. He has a few things in the museum including his picture in a few places and he was on the America's Most Wanted episode that aired about the Murrah bombing.

 

[68mustang]

I was on the NW side of OKC at a playground because I had afternoon kindergarden. I remember hearing it from 20+ miles away. My mom worked downtown and her whole building shook. I lost an aunt in the bombing.

 

[Shadowrider]

I was at work at Baker Hughes on South Sooner Road. I didn't hear the explosion because I was working in the shop that day instead of the engineering office. I heard the report on the radio and didn't think too much about it, I just thought one of the gas mains down there blew or something. A good friend, one of the CNC programmers, his wife worked in the Federal Courthouse building. He came out and said that it was bad and was a little shook up. He said he was leaving to go see his wife at the hospital. Now being that I knew exactly where she worked and that it was on 4th street and not 5th Street, it started to compute a little. So I went up to the front conference room, took off my boots and went in. Just as I go in, on the TV I see the first pass around the front of the building from the channel nine helo live shot. I had to sit down. Someone noticed that I was shaken a little and asked if I was okay, the whole thing is still surreal to this day, the timing of the TV visual when I walked in and the utter devastation of the building was a little much. I had always looked at that building and thought it was overbuilt. The amount of steel and concrete was mind boggling to a young guy that had worked building houses as a teenager. I replied to them that I had been going in that building ever since it was built, I had just been there at lunch the day before because I decided to go during my lunch that day instead of taking an hour off and going this morning. Then I explained that I was a member of the Federal Employees Credit Union and knew damn near everyone in there and that the lady that ran it was a family friend. Luckily she made it. She also had a very compelling story. She was having a meeting in her office and was sitting at her desk one instant and the next everyone was just gone and she was starring into the blue sky. Somehow she was able to get down and out of there with a bit of help. I distinctly remember an odd sense of calm when I left that day. I left through the South exit and walked through the courtyard on the South side of the building and circled around to my truck which was parked not 50 feet from where the bomb truck would be parked. I did this often because that courtyard was like a park. It was really pretty. The church bells were ringing at the old church next door. It was noon. It was an awesomely gorgeous spring day and it felt really peaceful and oddly quiet right in the middle of downtown OKC on a week day. I had not a clue that hell was coming the next morning.