Oklahoma City Bombing - 10 years later

Murrah Federal Building Bombing

At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a bomb ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, burying dozens of people in its rubble. That was ten years ago and was at that time the worst terrorist act ever committed in the United States. One hundred sixty-eight people lost their lives and it is estimated that several hundred thousand people in the close knit Oklahoma community knew someone who was killed or injured in the bombing.

The following is a timeline tracing my experience with this event and my coming to grips with the fact that I was supposed to be in the building that morning. I haven't talked about it this much before, as I never wanted to belittle the tragic outcome of the victims, their families or others who may have been injured and managed to get out of the building safely that day.

Social Security Bureaucracy

I had been working and living in Oklahoma City for several months by April of 1995. The project I was working on was just wrapping up and it was becoming apparent that my involvement was still required for months to come. So I convinced my wife that we needed to move to Oklahoma City from Calgary that spring. The Human Resources (HR) manager of my employer prompted me to get my Social Security Number (SSN) at the beginning of April or “I would not be getting paid in May!”

So I went to the Murrah Federal Building one afternoon in the second week of April. I filed out the forms I thought I needed to apply for a SSN under my Trade NAFTA (TN) Visa and proceeded to wait in line. After about an hour, I realized the agents weren't going to go through the several people in front of me much more quickly than the two or three they had completed since I queued up. I could see the coworker who agreed to chauffeur me fidgeting in her truck parked outside the building. So I decided to leave and come back another day...

Tuesday April 18^th, 1995

It was the usual day at work with non stop meetings and reviews with coworkers on the product that we were trying to deliver in May.

Towards the end of the day, I received a call from the HR manager in the Houston office : “Steve, I didn't receive your fax with your SSN for our payroll records!” I tried to explain the pressure with the deadlines we were under for May 1^st and the impossible wait at the Social Security office, but I finally gave in to her pleading to go queue up again. I promised I would be there tomorrow morning – early, after the Social Security office opened so I wouldn't have to wait for hours and the application for my SSN would get completed.

9:00am Wednesday, April 19^th, 1995

I was in the CFO's office of the company that I was outsourced to for my computer design/programming skills. The CFO was the major stakeholder or client that specified the billing system. He called me the previous evening and requested that we meet “first thing tomorrow morning with the other team leads." Of course, his urgency trumped my HR manager's request and I was sure we would get the SSN thing worked out soon enough.

Half awake, I leaned back in my chair - against the large window that overlooked the vast parking lot, expansive grass plains and far off in the distance, Oklahoma City's downtown buildings.

The window I was leaning against moved slightly with a *whump*! I quickly sat up in my chair and gave the window a scowl. We glanced at each other with a “wtf was that?” look and then quickly decided that it must have been the construction on the floor above us.

After the meeting ended, somebody poked their head in with the news - “something has exploded downtown!” We stared out the window and noticed a large black, almost mushroom cloud (more like a thundercloud) hanging over the downtown area. A few more rumours circulated and the CFO started up his tiny tv that he kept in his office to watch the news when he worked late.

Nobody had a TV crew downtown yet, but reports were coming in : "that a building has exploded and there is a lot of chaos with a lot of injuries – no confirmed deaths, yet."

We were a little shocked, but unsure of what has happened. Perhaps a gas leak ? A coworker made a joke about my failed trip to the Social Security office and that I might be the unabomber. I snapped at him that I didn't think that was funny and he shouldn't repeat that, even in jest. I realized later that he didn't know the scope of the explosion (none of us did at that time) and he was really just trying to lighten the mood.

We went back to work and I mentioned the news reports to a couple more people. I was told that a few coworkers rushed off as their spouses “work downtown in the federal building!”

Noon Wednesday, April 19^th, 1995

My roommate and I decided to stop by the apartment on the way to lunch. We had a large screen TV that the company (well, the CFO – it is who you know sometimes) provided for us to use on weekend stays away from home. The news was on every channel, and not just local. They were showing the view(s) from a helicopter - many shots of destruction and the news anchor claimed they have mixed reports, "but it appears to have been a large terrorist bomb that was detonated outside the building. The Murrah Federal Building has almost completely collapsed and they are searching hard for survivors trapped in the rubble."

The Murrah building was a very distinct building. It had a wall of glass on the front (north side) and a very large entrance with columns that went to the top of the building. I probably will never forget the chill that most people describe as 'spine chilling' as I realized that was the building I was in a week ago!

We watched for as long was we could – before we had to return to work. I tried to phone Calgary (home) a couple more times. "All the lines are busy" claimed the automated operator's voice...

3:00 p.m. Wednesday April 19^th, 1995

The HR manager from Houston “finally got through” to my work phone. She claimed that she was trying franticly to reach me at the office, my apartment, my boss's cell phone & pager – anybody that knew where I was! The last time we talked, I promised her that I would be in that building “first thing when they opened.” She told me that my boss claimed that : "Steve never gets up before 9am, there's no way he would have been there when it happened." That was almost funny, considering the circumstances (and that it came from a phb).

It didn't really sink into my brain at that point still that I was supposed to be there. I don't remember mentioning it to anybody (except my roommate).

5:00 p.m. Wednesday April 19^th, 1995

After many tries, I finally got through to Edmonton on the phone – my wife was visiting her family. I told her the news and asked if she saw it on the TV yet. She claimed she heard about it, but when somebody mentioned it (“Isn't your husband in downtown Oklahoma?”) - she said she knew that I was on the outskirts of the city, far out of harm's way. I explained that I should/could have been there at the time of the incident. I don't think she understood what I was trying to tell her.

The rumour in the office at this time was that our coworker's newlywed wife was missing...

Saturday April 22^nd, 1995

I was supposed to have flown back to Calgary this weekend. I can't remember now if the reason I didn't leave was because of the bombing, project deadlines or the schedule for us to move from Calgary to Oklahoma.

May 1^st, 1995

We were on the road in our u-haul with all our possessions (not that many at the time). It was a good adventure for us – but I do remember explaining to my wife that the city she was moving to felt like “the city of death.” I regret that remark now. It was more reflective of the close community that was feeling the pain of friends, coworkers and family that had lost somebody in the building.

May 23rd, 1995

Five weeks after the bombing – the building was demolished. I remember hearing that they never found our coworker's wife's body and a few others in the rubble. It was determined that the building was too unstable to leave standing any longer. It was not a healing day for the city.

News reports released names of the dead and details that nobody who was in the Social Security office survived (It was the closest agency/office to the blast).

My wife and I had escaped for a vacation to Florida – we didn't tell many people that we were there vacationing from Oklahoma. We didn't have accents/drawls (yet), so many figured we were on holiday from Canada.

8:55 a.m. Friday April 19^th, 1996

The first remembrance ceremony was being held at the site that had been scraped of all existence of the building destroyed one year earlier by Timothy McVeigh (the trial is just getting underway).

The announcer recounted many stories of heroism, including the good samaritan nurse Rebecca Anderson, who died after getting hit by debris in the aftermath. She was passing by with her husband and two kids - when she decided that she had to stop and help. This is just one of many tragic stories being told this week. I remember avoiding all news on the topic, as it was too painful...

As will become the tradition of future remembrance ceremonies at the site, 168 seconds of silence was followed by the reading of the names of those who were killed. By the time they reached the minute marking the event that changed everybody's life – I was already on the road to work. I figured that with this timing of my 15 minute commute, I won't have to endure the ceremony.

9:03 a.m. Friday April19th, 1996

There was literally nothing on the radio as I drove to work. All stations were broadcasting the live feed from the site and the ceremonies had just reached the 168 seconds of silence for each of those that were killed. I was on the interstate/freeway that was part of my usual commute and of course, the traffic was pretty light that morning. During the moments of silence you could hear the wind in the microphone and the odd cough or stifled sob from the attendees.

A baby's wail came over the radio. It instantly reminded me of the now famous picture of a firefighter holding what was obviously the first child victim taken out of the rubble. I remembered that 19 children at the daycare were killed, including the one in the picture. My wife and I were starting to talk that spring about having a family ...

I had to pull over.

Now, I don't remember if I have told anyone about what happened on my commute that morning, but it was a life changing event. I realized that Oklahoma would heal and what I saw wasn't going to be reported in the media – CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS or HNN! Even the most popular evangelist of the area was not going to be able to promote or even recount the emotion of the event that happened next.

Almost everybody on the interstate had pulled over also. People got out of their cars, head slumped slightly and proceeded to hug each other on the side of the interstate. For several minutes there was no moving traffic on a normally very busy highway.

Fall 1996

My wife's parents came to visit and we agreed to take them to the site. There wasn't much to see other than a large chain link fence covered with children's drawings of thoughts of remembrance around the perimeter of where the building used to be. The buildings across the road were still damaged and there was some rubble in the parking lot to the north.

We touched the elm tree that somehow survived. There was a weird hushed tone about the place that made me very uneasy and an indescribable 'rumbling' that I could feel internally that seemed to get louder/stronger the longer we stayed there. I attributed it to anxiety - as it was the first time I had stood here since the week before the bombing.

11:01 a.m. Tuesday June 10^th, 1997

Richmond, Virginia : My first daughter was born. This magical moment really had nothing to do with that eventful day in Oklahoma City – but it has everything to do with the fact that I wasn't in the Murrah building that morning. At 32, I was a 'dad' now ...

8:14 a.m. Monday June 11^th, 2001

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the worst act of domestic terrorism to date in the U.S., was put to death by lethal injection. I remember hoping that the families of the victims had found some closure.

Resources

http://www.okcbombing.org/timeline.htm

http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial9/mcveigh/index.htm

http://www.okcbombing.org/images/firefighter.jpg
In one of the most dramatic images of the day, firefighter Chris Fields carries Baylee Almon, who later died of her injuries. AP photographer Charles H. Porter IV won the Pulitzer Prize for this photograph. (AP photo)

http://www.okcbombing.org/images/murrah2.jpg
The north wall of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was blown off by explosives packed into a rented truck. (AP photo)

- posted by Steve @ 9:02 AM 0 comments

 
Update - 20050406



Calgary
I was in Calgary this week. Ah, the land of conspicuous consumption - large chrome bush guards on 4X4s (that will never see dirt) and a laser cosmetic clinic on every corner. But I do miss that city, even though it amazes me that their "planners" (for lack of better term) continue to build office and condominium skyscrapers with hardly a though for parking.

Next Contract
Did I forget to mention that I found another contract at a "major telecom company in Canada from Alberta-BC?" I was prepared to sit out April and hunt down jobs in Calgary as well as Edmonton (which is why I was in Calgary this week...) But a resume I sent out on the last day at the DOE contract got a hit for a match to a Sr. Java Developer opportunity. So, by Monday afternoon, I had a job offer to consider. Just signed the papers today - Wednesday and I start next Monday - downtown Edmonton @ a large "plaza." So much for any time off, eh?

The Publication Ban

Want to drive some traffic to your blog that you just created a couple weeks ago ? Place a link in it to a highly talked about, but unspecified blog in the U.S. that nobody in Canada is supposed to know about or read because of a publication ban (in Canada). My sitemeter shows that some visitors to 'That's My Stapler' has been referred from several blogs about blogs regarding this unmentioned site :

• BlogsCanada - "Multi-partisan political punditry"


• Technorati - Search results using the American blogger's url

So, Canada's attorney general is "probing possible breaches of a publication ban set up to protest explosive testimony at the Adscam inquiry." They claim they're looking for websites (Canadian I assume) that are reproducing excerpts of the latest testimony and providing a link to the U.S. blog that "features more extensive coverage of the hearing.

I personally won't comment on that anymore than I already have in my "We all want to know" posting. I have not listed any excerpts of the inquiry. You, if you wish to oppose the ban, may seek out that information - I followed the court transcripts during the Bernardo, Simpson and McVeigh trials. However, if anybody makes a formal request (without threats of persecution or other), I will consider removing my link to the American blog. But I'm sure by then the genie will be out of the bottle...

Sexiest on Hill
I have to comment on the report that a friend of mine - Rona Ambrose, now an MP, has been named sexiest MP on the hill. Rona doesn't deserve sexist drivel like this. I shouldn't have to point out she is one of the brightest (young) stars on the hill and got there by her worth (not money - like the 'best dressed MP'). But I digress. Review this article and then her website that includes her accomplishments. I feel she represents our area very well. The article quotes that "rookie Edmonton MP Rona Ambrose, was rendered speechless after learning she was named Sexiest Female MP." She was right to not even offer a "no comment" comment. I was speechless for a minute also - but I can comment on it here!
- posted by Steve @ 8:49 PM 0 comments

 
Mr. Mom
Today's blog is a diary of my weekend of being Mr. Mom with my two daughters (3 and 8 years old). Names and relevant details have been removed to protect the innocent - because I have a "memory like a sieve" and things didn't turn out as planned...

Friday
11:00 am "By the way, we need cat food and bread - I made a list for you!"

"Yup, uh-huh. Yes dear. No dear. Of course dear" - the canned responses to my wife's last minute reminders when I'm not really listening. She's fussing and running around as she prepares for her first weekend away in a year.

5:00 pm So far so good. Cat, Plants, Kids - check. All alive. But my oldest has an earache from swimming this morning. I guess she can walk it off or watch TV until it goes away (where did she say that medicine was ?). The laundry is done - check. Well, okay - my wife did the washing machine load and I did remember to remove the lint from the dryer lint screen before I put the clothes into the dryer (At least I thought I removed the lint from the screen).

6:00 pm Dinner @ Dairy Queen. The kids find a new friend in the closed off area with the slides. The new friend's aunt and uncle remark how well the kids get along and what a saving grace this place is! They hope out loud that we live nearby...

7:30 pm Put the kids to bed. They appear tired, but my youngest wakes up crying a couple times later in the night - I figure it's probably because of the "mom's not home" nerves or I didn't sing "itsy bitsy spider" right (again).

Midnight Before I went to bed, I left out the Post AlphaBits^(c) cereal, bowls and spoons - knowing that my kids will be up before 6 am...

Day 2 of my internment

Saturday
6:15 am I heard them in the kitchen. By the time I got up, had my shower and came out - they were almost done their cereal. But instead of milk, they mixed it with peanut butter!?

9:00 am Kids, Cat, Plants - crap! The cat ran out of food and started eating the plants (I forgot to check the list). Speaking of crap, the cat litter needs changing. I ask the eldest child to remind me later about it.

9:30 am We go to town for my morning coffee, the paper and if I remember - Cat food and bread (and a stick of butter?). I succumb to the pleading for treats @ the convenience store - and they agree that they can eat them later "if they behave." The older one picks the most sugar filled candy she can find. At least it'll be nice outside and they can run around.

By noon of day 2, I feel like the kids have driven me to the edge to where I've tripped over it and fell down the cliff... "Stop slamming your (bedroom) doors!" "Stop tying your sister to the post!" "Don't jump on the couch!" "Stop fighting over that!" ...

Rocks in my pocket....

Noon We go for a walk after they eat their Kraft Dinner^(c) and treats/sugar. On the way my youngest lets me know that she has "rocks in her pockets!" I reply with "and you don't know what to do with them? ¹" An oblivious 'whatever dad' look is returned... I later learned from her that "horses have ears like cats - they're triangles daddy and they can turn them towards the sound they hear!" Now I feel like Forest Gump with his son.

1:00 pm I move my miata from it's storage spot to the garage. I let the kids sit in it "for a while." ... "Don't slam the doors!" "Don't touch that..." I'm starting to sound like my dad when we used to play in his '68 Dodge Charger !? *sigh*

4:00 pm They're starting to fight more now, but my voice is holding out.

I let them do some painting for a while. Some turned out pretty neat - a folding craft idea to produce butterflies... except they set them down to dry on my papers with notes about my job interview for Monday afternoon. But they were being very creative!? *sigh*

You fed the baby chili? ²

5:00 pm I burnt the grilled cheese sandwiches. That never happened before when I cooked them when my wife was home!? My wife phones and tells me that her mom may not be able to take the kids tonight after all... I try to explain to them why they may not go for a sleepover. (Their great-grandma had a stroke). We get into a discussion on how we don't live forever and "people get old." They start to ignore my explanation and go back to watching little house on the prairie.

6:30 pm Received a call from Grandma and "they're home now - I could bring the kids over." We run around trying to make sure all the toys, pillows, rubber boots and stuffed toys are packed.

7:00 pm Drop the kids off at the grandparents' house. My father-in-law says that his mom is "okay." They ask how it's going. I sheepishly tell them about the peanut butter & cereal incident - but they have had supper. The licorice comes out (yeah, grandma!). The youngest lays down as soon as her bed is ready...

8:00 pm Go home, watch TV, drink beer, and other stuff that guys do when left on their own that I won't discuss here (you women can keep guessing, unless you have a nanny-cam or NetNanny). I realize that the house is too quiet and I crank up the tunes...

You weren't listening.

Sunday
7:15 am Phone rings. I start to realize that it's really 8:15am and I didn't change the clocks last night. Grandma says that the youngest is wheezing a bit and she could use her ventilator/mask that vapourizes the steroid medicine for her asthma - she asks me if I could bring it over asap!? (Grandma has been through all of this when my wife was diagnosed with asthma at/near the same age as our youngest daughter).

9:00 am Can't find the ventilator. Found the medicine and fanned out from there. I remember my wife mentioning that it was by the, the ... dang. Where's a hypnotist when you need one? Maybe I need to call a CSI ³ !?

9:30 am Call Grandma with news that I can't find it. She offers to come over and look.

10:00 am Got my coffee and paper from town - picked up Grandma and we look around the house for the ventilator. No luck. We both figure my daughter should be fine until mom comes home.

11:00 am Drop Grandma off, say hi to the kids and then go back to my place to read the paper.

1:00 pm Read/Send email with ex-coworker. We compare notes of our last day at the Dept of Energy (see previous posts).

2:00 pm I start this blog after watching the NCAA basketball games recorded on my PVR from Saturday. I realized that I forgot most of the timeline for this blog (where does it go?).

3:00 pm I hook up sitemeter.com to see how much traffic this blog gets - just curious. I get 5 hits in the first 20 minutes. Huh ? It appears that most (today) are coming from the "next blog" link on the top right hand side on blogger.com blogs. Interesting. Blogger probably put my blog near the top of a next (random) blog queue when I updated it. I'm such a geek...

4:00 pm Time to go to Grandma's for dinner (roast beef!) and see if the kids are still alive.

4:10 pm Realize the house is a mess. Did the dishes, swept the floor, made the bed, got the dry clothes out of the dryer, cleaned the TV room, cleaned up the beer cans, looked for the cat (!?), put the dishes away, watered the plants (the ones that still looked alive), picked up the kids' toys and logged off⁴ the computer to check voice mail...

5:00 pm Went to grandma's and ate with the family after my wife arrived from her long day(s) away at the first aid (CPR) course.

8:00 pm Arrived home from Grandma's. We put kids to bed and I listened to the my wife's weekend and the obligatory verbal list of things I didn't do or did wrong... Ah, I do love her so - even when she's annoyed ...

---

1 The Monks - Bad Habits (1979)
Drugs In My Pocket (Hudson/Ford/Cassidy)

• "I got drugs in my pocket - I dont know what to do with them. I've got drugs in my pocket, am I really through with them?"

2 "You fed the baby chili?" : A classic line from the movie Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton.

3 CSI - Crime Scene Investigator from a TV show on CBS Network

4 I do not have high speed internet. There I admitted it! My geek license will probably be revoked soon.



- posted by Steve @ 9:30 AM 0 comments