Where were you on April 19,1995 ? This is not a debate thread. View with Caution

[Jay]

This not a debate thread. Be respectful to all posters in this thread. If you want to debate or debunk some else's story please do it in another thread. This is a touchy subject for many people because it may kindle some unwanted memories. Share your story if you would like. Just post your memories and tell how that day made you feel if your up to it.


Thank you in advance for your cooperation,
Oklacity75






Here is my story...














I was senior at Westmoore High School on April 19, 1995. The school was holding a spring sports assembly. I and a friend of mine were photographers for the yearbook. We were taking photos of the students and the athletes. I remember seeing our Principal Wayne Canaday walk in to the gymnasium. I mentioned to my friend."Hey look over at Canaday something bad has happened." Mr. Canaday had a long look on his face. I said to my buddy. "I wonder what someone did this time." When the assembly ended Mr. Canaday approached the microphone. He stated "Students if you have family members that work downtown stay seated". He then dismissed everyone else back to class. I never will forget the look on his face. He stood there for what seemed like forever. When he finally spoke he said. "Students I don't tell you this...The federal building in downtown Oklahoma City has been bombed. The latest news reports state the entire building is gone. The buildings in the surrounding area have been heavily damaged and many injuries have been reported." The teachers and principals quietly ushered us to areas in the school were televisions had been placed.


My group was taken to the library. As they were tuning the TV to channel 9 I started worrying about my Grandpa. He worked at Globe Color Press on NW 4th. I wondered if he was one of the injured or what if he was killed.

When the image finally came on the TV I heard Kelly Ogle’s voice. He was talking to the pilot of Ranger 9. When the helicopter arrived at the building we all saw the south side of the building. I remember someone stating.” It’s not as bad as we thought." As soon as the helicopter panned around to the north side the room fell quite. We were all in shock all you could hear was the air conditioner running and one of the girls sobbing.



After a few minutes I left the library to find a phone. I went to my journalism teacher's office. I was on verge of crying. I told Mrs. Burr I need to make a call. She silently nodded and I made my call. I had to know if my grandpa was okay. I found out that he called my Grandma. He said that he felt the blast and him and some coworkers took refuge under a heavy table. They thought it was a gas main that exploded. They took cover and watched everything hit floor around them. I was so happy he was okay. The rest of the school day was a waste. We spent the rest of day in each class discussing the day’s events and consoling those who needed it.



The biggest thing I will remember from the bombing is the togetherness. The radio stations quit playing music and they opened the phone lines to everyone. The DJ's just listened to the callers and comforted those that were clearly in pain. I really admired how giving the people in this city were. What ever they needed down at the federal building was there in minutes. For every time we feel a need to complain about this great city we need to remember April 19, 1995. This city became a family that day. We came to each others side with compassion, money, food and anything else that was needed. The only city that shares a bond like ours is New York City.

[poe]

i was in eighth grade algebra class in fort smith. our teacher, who was from oklahoma as well, had the radio on and everyone just sat around listening. it was one of those days where time stopped and everyone was feeling the same emotion.

[windowphobe]

I was at work on the city's northeast side. At 9:02 we all wondered "What was that noise?"

We found out shortly thereafter, and not a lot of work got done the rest of that day: we were still trying to recover from the shock.

[Karried]

I was in Calfornia watching CNN - it was on every channel live for hours. My friends had just moved here and I knew they worked downtown. It was horribly scary to be so far away and not know what happened.

[Keith]

I was at home, eating breakfast when it happened. My office was downtown, however, since I worked the 4 pm-midnight shift, I was not there.

As I ate my breakfast, I heard what sounded like a sonic boom and my house shook. I live around SW.44 & Western, so I wasn't that close to it, yet I felt the shaking. I turned on my police scanner, and the first thing I heard was Engine 1 arriving at the scene, and trying to explain the devastation. Then the police frequencies got busy. I turned on my other scanner and had it programmed to the police frequency. I turned on the TV to Channel 9, and within minutes, Ranger 9 was over the Murrah Building.

I can't remember who the reporter on the helicopter was, but he was very shaken. There was still some question as to what may had happened.

I called my office, and they had informed that many ceiling tiles had fallen off the ceiling and that several windows were shattered. Since nobody really knew what had happened at the time, my co-workers stayed where they were at.

When I reported to work, I was told to go to 621 N. Penn, at the Overholser Treatment plant, so that we would be away from downtown.

When it was finally discovered that a bomb had exploded, I started calling some friends. In the end, I had 5 good friends that were seriously injured. One friend that went to my church had just stepped to the south side of the Murrah building when it blew, however, she got out by going down the back stairs. Fortunately, she was not injured. Another friend, who was newly married and who had gone to our church, was sitting at her desk on the north side of the building, and she did not make it. As a matter of fact, they didn't find her body until 2 weeks later.

[Midtowner]

I was in the hallway at Bishop McGuinness at 50th & Western. I guess it would have been my Sophomore year of HS. Heard the boom then, didn't find out what it was until 2nd period.

My father was in the District Courthouse at the time. Had the windows explode in on the courtroom. There would have been a lot of injuries had it not been for the thick curtains.

[metro]

I was in my sophomore spanish class at the old Bethany High School. The windows were facing towards the north. A large boom was heard and the north wall and windows shook. At first we thought it was a semi that drove by and backfired. About 5 mins later, every classroom in school was watching the news to watch the tragedy. We watched it for about 2 days straight. Unfortunately one of my friends, who is now my best friends wife, her mother was one of the 168 unfortunate.

[Patrick]

I was a freshman at Northeast High School here in OKC...NE 36th and Kelley....not too far from downtown. I was in 2nd hour Biology class, when we heard the boom and the build shook for several seconds. We were all left in shock wondering what had just happened. Some wondered if a small earthquake had just occurred. Finally, about 15 minutes later, the announcement was made, and school would be cancelled for the afternoon.

[mranderson]

I was living in Plano,Texas. At that time, I was working temporarily on the 3-11 shift training a new dispatcher, so I was at home when the bomb expolded. I had just gotten out of bed, and was watching the news and saw the coverage. Stunned, I kept watching. Later that night, and into every possible minute, I taped the coverage on between seven and nine tapes.

About a month later, I left Texas, moved to California, then back to Oklahoma City. Had it not been for my feelings toward the bombing and it being "my people," I may not have returned.

[zuluwarrior0760]

I was asleep, it was my day off......
I lived at 122nd and May Ave. at the time....
The sound I heard was similar to a garbage dumpster being dropped from about 10ft
up....it knocked a picture off my wall (AT 122ND AND MAY!)

The most enduring memory I took from the bombing was driving out that night around
10PM to just get away from the Television, me and my wife drove down broadway
extension and counted only three cars between edmond and downtown (both directions)
the city was absolutely and unequivocally shut down.......
We had always noted the Christmas tradition of the Fluorescent Crosses being
lit at Bank One Tower around the 2nd week of December......and Thru new years.....

It was 10PM on April 19th, 1995......nowhere near Christmas.....

and the crosses were lit

[Underling]

I was a junior in high school at (the still being constructed) Edmond Santa Fe high school. I was in my 2nd period German class when we heard the noise at the same time that the windows in the interior doors started rattling. We assumed that the people putting in the A/C units in the new wing had dropped one of the units on the roof.

Right before passing period, the principal came over the speaker and asked us all to remain in our classrooms when the bell sounded. She told us that there had been some sort of a gas explosion downtown and until they knew what was happening, we were to stay put.

About 30 minutes later I remember being let out to go to our third period class. Mine was AP US history. I remember walking in and Mrs. Hartman had the TV on and was sitting at her desk on the verge of tears (that was enough to scare the crap out of me, she was one of those cool people that I'd wondered if she'd EVER cried). We sat there and watched the coverage until they finally started to make some sense of the scene. That was when several students in many different classrooms lost it, realizing that their parents worked in that building or in the courthouse or somewhere down in the area.

I remember seeing one of my female classmates just walking down the hall, her chin on her chest, sobbing uncontrolably, bumping into the wall in support.

[Zoedith]

I was in my first year at Francis Tuttle Votech. I had actually been having some trouble with my car. I couldn't get anyone to help me fix it, and my friends wouldnt pick me up that day. So my irish temper took the best of me and after banging a few things under ther car hoping one was the starter, and then still finding out the car wouldn't start, I decided to walk (I didnt know back then that I could pop the clutch).

So I started off at 10th and Sara road, and decided to walk down a dirt road and take the route around Overholser. While I was walking around the lake to get to 39th, I heard what sounded like a metalic bang, I think someone saying a dumpster being dropped is very close. I saw a little construction far off and didnt think anything of it. I then saw a bunch of smoke coming from the downtown direction. When I got to 39th, a fellow stopped to see if I needed a ride, but I was still a little upset and decline. He did tell me there was some type of explosion downtown and all nurses, him being one, were being called there.

At 39th and council, a friend of mine saw me (thank god.....my legs were killing me), and he knew nothing about an explosion, nor were the radio stations saying anything about it right then, or his wasn't. So he took me the rest of the way to 122 and Rockwell. Once inside, there wasn't anyone to be seen. The had all congregated in the electronics room to watch the news, and that's when I had found out what happened. The students there sayed the windows bowed and ceiling tiles shook.

My cousin was working at the day care of the building that day, and had her son with her. They did not survive.

[okcpulse]

I was in 10th grade at Edmond Memorial High School. I was called into the vice principal's office because of numerous absences (I was skipping school, I know, I know), which I was about to get Saturday detention for two Saturdays. When he began printing the attendance report, I heard the boom. However, it sounded like someone dropped a huge cooling unit on the roof, since there had been workers on the roof the week earlier. In twenty minutes, the TV's were on, and students began scattering to call loved ones. We were required to follow the class schedule for the rest of the day, but no lessons were given. Just a class full of students trying to make sense of what just happened.

Days later, I went to the Myriad with some friends to donate goods to the rescue workers. The wind was out of the north, so the scent on the air was a sobering reminder of the lives lost in this senseless tragedy.

What I'll never forget were the children, and McVeigh's claim that he didn't know that the day care center was directly in harm's way. The children never got a chance at life, but at least it's comforting to know they are in God's arms now, surrounded by love.

Another memory that keeps me curious about structural integrity was Leadership Square. Of all the buildings that had glass blown out, Leadership Square didn't lose a single pane of glass, considering the building's entire exterior.

I have a photo from The Daily Oklahoman in 1977 of the south facade of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The caption celebrated the opening of the new nine story building, noting its architectural sophistication. The building stood less than 20 years. I'll try and get it posted.

[Jay]

I vividly remember the weather conditions during the first few days after the bombing. It was cold wet and rainy. I took a friend from work down there so she could pray for her friend that was later found dead. I remember it felt like it was January. Oklahoma is usually never that cold in April. It made me think as if nature was grieving the loss of life. I think the same thing happened after September 11th. If I remember right, it rained for several days in NYC during the recovery efforts.

[GrandMaMa]

I was living in Dallas at the time, and was finishing up some housekeeping chores and listening to the TV at the same time. I caught the last of the first announcement and just sat down in front of the TV and became rivited to it for hours. I was raised in McLoud, so have a lot of friends and relatives here, so I began calling all I knew. I only found one person that had a relative but many had friends in the building, some made it, some did not. I had a very hard time accepting that it had really happened, sort of like when Kennedy was shot. Shocked is an understatement. My chest actually hurt as my heart went out to those that had been in the building and those that had loved ones and friends in there.

[fromdust]

i was in seventh grade history class. we all heard a noise and several minutes later another teacher rolled a tv into the class and turned it on. being stunned is what i remember.

[ksearls]

I always remember that it was a beautiful morning, a perfect spring day. I also remember that it was the coldest, wettest longest, night I will ever remember.

I was in my office on the 17th or 18th floor of 50 Penn Place where I was the marketing director. We had a great view of Downtown, nice office. At 9:02 the leasing chick and I were chatting in my doorway when we heard and felt what we thought was a double sonic boom. We looked out the window and saw the plume of smoke almost as it happened. My boss Alison, who is now the VP of operations at DOKC, was on the phone with someone downtown and they said the courthouse had blown up.

Minutes later we found out it was the Federal Building. I freaked out because the FBI occupied the top floors directly above our floors and I made the FBI/Waco connection right away. I left that building FAST and went over across NW Expressway to The Tower to the Price Edwards home offices. I stood in an office there with about 20 others watching as the channel 9 helicopter arrived and circled the building. It was so surreal and bizarre.

About 15 minutes later the FBI evacuated 50 Penn but I was not there to help. I rushed down to my son's daycare at 24th & Classen, I was worried that the windows might have shattered there, but all was fine. My husband was with a group of sports writers in Florida on a bass fishing trip. He called because he saw everything on CNN in the airport, he was really worried about us.

I went home with my 8-month-old son and remember laying in bed crying, by myself, watching TV all night long while the weather turned totally cold, gray and wet. It was just so sad.

The next day everyone was afraid to go back to 50 Penn and the FBI was totally unresponsive to our calls asking for security updates to pass on to our tenants. It was a long, sad and scary week.

I will always remember the contrast in weather, and that basically, I saw 168 people die right before my eyes.

[MadMonk]

Wow, how did I miss this thread?

I was in Las Vegas at the time on a vacation with my in-laws. My brother-in-law woke me up with a phone call and told me to turn on the TV. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't personally know anyone that would've been affected, but I called into work to get some news on what was happening (I worked for Soutwestern Bell Mobile System at the time). Unfortunately, the phone lines were completely jammed.

We came back home and I was able to help with a cell-phone charging station that was set up at One Bell Central. Someone from SBMS was down there 24hrs/day. We had a huge battery charging station so that all the rescue workers could just come in and swap batteries on their phones as needed. SBMS donated hundreds of phones for their use. Once per hour we would walk around the perimeter of the work area with a bag full of batteries

On one resupply trip, we offered a guy batteries and he said he didn't need any but he knew some guys who did. He led us into a secured entrance gate and on into part of the building where there was a staging area for the rescue workers. I couldn't believe we were going in there. It looked unbelieveably shakey. Standing right in front of the building looking up, you got such a sense of the destruction that you can't get on TV.

Another thing that was really amazing was that there were so many people that were bringing in food and supplies and handing them out to all the workers. There were people there 24 hours/day cooking and helping out however they could. Anything you needed was easily available; food, toiletries, etc. I remember Pizza Hut had a mobile kitchen set up down there. There was a chiropractor who set up a station on the 2nd floor of the Bell building. During one shift, we walked back in from a resupply run and he told us to have a seat and gave us all "adjustments". It was really amazing to see how so many people pulled together during such a terrible time for the city. That's one of the things I'll never forget about living in Oklahoma.

[shane453]

I was in kindergarten at the time, but the day of the bombing is one that I remember very clearly- in fact, that time makes up the clearest memories that I have from that long ago. Mom and I were in the kitchen (I had afternoon kindergarten, so I wasn't in school) and she was washing dishes. We heard thunder (we live all the way up in far south Logan County), and mom wondered why because it wasn't cloudy. Our screen door shook on our window. then my grandpa from minnesota called, and told us to turn on the TV, and we saw what had happened.

The mother of one of my best friends had been at the building that day. We were so little but even at that age I remember watching the TV every day and praying for them to find something; the waiting to find out if my friend's mom was alive or not was terrible even for a 5 year old. I can remember when I stayed with my friend because she hadn't wanted to go to the funeral. I also remember standing in a circle in kindergarten with our red ribbons pinned on and praying or thinking about the victims while the search was still going on.

I still can't believe that I was so young with such deep emotions and thoughts. I guess it shows that some things are universally understood.

[SoonerDave]

I've lived in Oklahoma nearly all my life, and been fortunate enough to have a job that doesn't impose much in the way of travel requirements. Oddly enough, however, on April 19, 1995, I found myself on one of those very rare trips - to Pax River, Maryland.

That morning, I was attending a programming class with some coworkorers at the base there. As we were setting up our computers, someone asked me if I was from Oklahoma. "Yes, I'm from Oklahoma City."

"Oh, did you hear about the pipe bomb at the post office?" she asked.

"No," I answered, having no clue what she was talking about. Then, phones behind me started ringing off the hook - we were set up in the midst of a working office area - when a manager came up and advised us there had been a "problem" in Oklahoma City. Out of pure reflex, I blurted out, "I'm FROM Oklahoma City. What happened??"

We crowded into a manager's office, who had a large TV on to a local Maryland TV station, showing a live video feed of KOCO-5's coverage, and the destroyed Murrah building. You cannot fathom the surreal feeling; here I was, half a country away, watching footage of a place I'd driven by a hundred times. Even weirder was seeing Jack Bowen (then KOCO anchorman) in the middle of the picture.

I was allowed to make a call to my wife (we had been married five months at the time), who was at work at a daycare in SW Oklahoma City. She told me they heard the "boom," but no one really knew what was going on. My mom, who worked at the now defunct Lucent plant, told me she *saw* the cloud of smoke go up over downtown OKC from her office window.

The rest of the day, and week, were a bit confused and distracted. We had planned to drive into Washington DC that afternoon to at least try some sightseeing, but were told that security had essentially closed off most of DC in response to the event. We spent the rest of the evening at the hotel watching more live feeds, each one more incredible than the one before. When we went into restaurants for dinner that week, and told waiters we were from Oklahoma, they almost didn't want to talk to you. They didn't know how to react to you. And I didn't quite know how to react to them.

When I flew home later that week, our airplane made a slow descent through the cold, gray, rainy weather over the north side of downtown Oklahoma City as it approached Will Rogers. The reality of the shredded building was nothing like TV. It made my heart hurt in a way I'd never experienced before; my own little patch of home, Oklahoma City, had been horribly wounded; and as we descended onto the runway, I couldn't help but feel the tears roll down my cheek. My wife and mom greeted me at the airport terminal, and the phrase "there's no place like home" took on a new reality for me.

For me, joy emerged from the desolation. Celebration came quite literally 364 days later, as our son was born. Out of the sad ashes that tried to etch a permanent memory of sadness sprang a wonderful baby boy, one that ultimately turned April 18th from one marking the eve of destruction to one marking the joy of wonderful new life for my family..

I'll never forget April 19th, 1995 - not because of what I witnessed, but what I *didn't* witness for the sake of being on a business trip that very day. The irony of *not* being here on that day will remain with me forever.

-SoonerDave

[bandnerd]

I was in 8th grade, on a school bus with my little high school band on our way to the state competition in Stillwater. I didn't feel the explosion, some said they did. Someone turned on a radio (back in those days there weren't many kids with personal cd players so we just brought a big boom box to listen to on the bus) and the news spilled over as soon as we found an OKC station.

We stopped for breakfast at I think Burger King or McD's, and we were all trying to figure out ways we could help. Someone had heard a Wal-Mart was opening its doors to volunteers. We tried to convince our band director that we needed to help, but he assured us the situation was in better hands than ours.

We went on to the competition, getting our requisite II, and started home. We were going to stay in the Ramada near the explosion, but the school board had called and wanted us home, obviously concerned there would be another blast.

On our way home down dear old I-35, the radio started that familiar warning sound and announced there was a tornado near Sulphur. Guess where we were at that time? It was quite late for us at that point, 10 or 11pm. Hail started pounding the bus, but our band director, who was driving my bus, couldn't pull over because it's evidently illegal for school buses to stop on the interstate. We all put our coats over our heads and huddled away from the windows, but not in the aisles as my mom had instructed us. My friend, who had recently moved to my town from California, was literally freaking out. We all were. Many of us were only 14 or 15.

We finally got to the Sulphur exit and parked under a gas station, our only source of shelter. We got out of the pounding hail-on-metal noise and started to calm down. I don't remember much else of the trip except that it was announced to us we were to go to school the next day, regardless of the fact that we had previously been cleared for about half a day since we were going to stay in OKC.

Our band director informed us he wasn't taking attendance during band 1st hour.

My sister and I came about halfway through the morning. I think some nasty storms had rolled through our town, too, because there was some roofing on the ground near the auditorium where our band class was held.

A year later, we played for our school's memorial to those that died. I still cry.

[EdwardEll]

I felt the wood floors tremble and a loud noise....similar to an electric transformer exploding...(sometimes happens in older neighborhoods) in my older home on 17th street as I was talking to a friend planning a golf game later in the week...."did you hear that" I asked him...and he was further out of the city...so he answered "no"....a few minutes after getting off the phone...another friend called and asked if I heard the noise and I said yes...and he said he was going to call his friends in the police force to see what it was....I thought this was a trivial matter....and a few minutes later he called yelling and screaming that the federal building downtown was blown up...and to turn on the radio.... I was in shock and still feel that way when I think of this event...

[mburlison]

I was working in our office just west of 122nd and Santa Fe. My cubicle was next to the south window. I'll never know why, but just a half an instant before I heard the explosion, I looked at the window (as if I had felt something) and saw it bow in just a bit. Then, the explosion itself, though we were that far north, just shook that south wall like a rag doll. I honestly thought that a backhoe or something had got into a gasline and caused an explosion very nearby, if not in our own parking lot! One of the programmers said, "maybe a sonic boom" as we were yet to turn on our radios... another (a young lady who was a young girl when her family fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon) said, "that was a bomb". Someone else said, "a bomb?, really??", to which the young lady responded "trust me, I know what a bomb sounds like and that was a bomb". I'll never forget the calm but grim way she said that. As it turns out, this young lady's sister (who also worked for our company, but at the downtown office) had a child over in the Murrah Building. He was the little boy they showed on the news over and over as the clip was replayed, just caked in dust, but he had survived. As the day progressed, it seems many, no, I'd say "most" people that had lived around OKC for awhile (of course, many who had not been here so long also) knew people that had been killed, injured, directly affected, or had a connection to many of the people there. It truly touched everyone in the city, as OKC, though so large, really has more of a smaller city's feel to it when something like this happened.
When I go to the Memorial, I still hear that explosion, it was very distinctive. God bless all the families affected.

[Elmofromok]

Being home from college, I was sleeping in my bedroom in nw okc. The noise woke me up and shook my house. My bedroom door, which had been shut, swung open. Since we live near a small OGE substation, I assumed one the transformers has exploded. But then I realized we still had power.

I went into the livingroom and turned on the tv and heard that they thought there had been some sort of gas explosion downtown...

I am still amazed at how loud it was so far from downtown.

[OklaCity_75]

One thing I think will always be stuck in my mind is the bright shining light coming from downtown. No matter where you where in the city you could see those lights.

I worked at Pratt Foods at the time. Back then we were the only thing open after 11 because us and 7-11 were the only 24 hour stores southside.

I was there late goofing off with some friends on Cue Ball Wizard (It's a pinball game). We were walking out and some rescue workers asked us how to get back downtown.

I just pointed at the light and told them to head north on walker toward the light until they hit police cars. The cops, will show you the rest of the way if you need.