Remembering Oklahoma - 15th year anniversary of city bombing

April 19 2010 , Written by thediversetraveller Published on #9:02am, #empty chairs, #gates of time, #McVeigh, #memorial, #memorial gates, #National memorial, #Oklahoma, #Oklahoma City, #Ola Fagbohun, #terrorism, #Travel News

In 2006 my cousin and her family moved from near San Francisco to Oklahoma.

Up until their move, the only things I knew about Oklahoma were there was a musical of the same name, and the Oklahoma City bombing.

On my last trip to Oklahoma, in 2008, in the quest to learn more about Oklahoma, I took my two nieces, 16 and 19 to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial site.

Today thinking about that visit, It's strange to think that it was 15 years today, that Oklahoma entered world infamy and was changed forever.

Background

On the morning of April 19, 1995, The Oklahoma City bombing, as it is now known, became the most significant act of domestic terrorism on American soil, perpetuated by Timothy McVeigh and co-conspirator Terry Nichols.

Timothy McVeigh parked a rental truck full of explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building; a United States Government office, home to the Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and other government agencies.

At 9:02am, Timothy McVeigh detonated the bomb that led to the destruction of the entire north side of the federal building and killed 168 people of which 19 were children in day care on the second floor. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered building glass in a three mile square area.

In 1997, the bombers were tried and convicted. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.

Picture: The Oklahoma bombing devastation. Source Wikipedia.com

Fence of hope

Our approach to the memorial site, led us to Harvey Street, where the first thing we came across was a simple chain link fence. This chain fence has become a place for visitors to leave personal messages of hope and remembrance, along with colourful cuddly toys, flowers and personal items. I left a blue Kipling Monkey from my Kipling bag .

Picture: Chain fence of hope

The position of the chain fence is deliberate, as it sits on the 'healing' side of the Memorial at the 9:03 gate.

Children remembering children

After the Chain Fence, on the way to the Memorial Museum, we passed through the children's area. This is a small, but not insignificant section, home to walls of colourful hand painted palm prints and messages from children from all over North America. Apparently 5,000 were received in the days after the bombing, those not on display are stored in the Museum archive.

Further on we came across pavements, I later learnt these are over-sized in-ground chalkboards, decorated with chalk messages and pictures. Children are encouraged to leave a message or picture depicting their feelings. This site is a heart-breaking reminder that 19 toddlers, who were starting their day in the building's day care, lost their lives.

Wall of handprints made by children from around the globe

Picture: Children around the world.send their messages of hope.

A chilling experience

The tour of the National Memorial Museum silenced the protestations from my neices, who didn't want to walk around yet another museum. The tour material describes this tour as 'powerful' and it was not kidding. Our walk through was an evocative and moving experience for us all.

The museum takes visitors through the key times and events of that day i.e April 19, 1995:

From 9:01, before the bomb blast
9:02, the time of the bomb blast,
9:03 immediately after, and
the rescue and recovery in the days that followed.

The museum contains everything found in the debris including teddy bears and toys from the day care. There are also videos and audio including one that chilled me. at 9:00am the Oklahoma Water Resources Board started recording its meeting, that morning, in a nearby building, the bomb went off at 9:02 a.m. The audio made me shudder as I heard and felt the impact of the explosion, apparently this is the only known audio recording of the blast.

Click here to take a virtual tour of the Memorial Museum

Gates of time - 9:01 to 9:03

After the museum we headed for the Memorial Park, where we came across the Memorial gaGes. The gates mark the formal entrances to the Memorial area and commemorate the moment the bomb went off - 9:02 a.m.

The East Gate represents 9:01 a.m. on April 19, before the attack ...

while the West Gate represents 9:03 a.m, the moment Oklahoma was changed forever.

Field of empty chairs

Near the gates are 168 Empty Chairs. The 168 chairs represent the lives taken on April 19, 1995. The chairs that light up in the evenings, stand in nine rows to represent each floor of the building, and each chair bears the name of someone killed on that floor. Nineteen smaller chairs stand for the children. The field itself is located on the footprint of the Murrah Building.

Reflection

"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity."

It has been two years since I visited the Oklahoma Memorial, and the sense of the site is still with me. This is the 15th year since the Oklahoma City bombing, the remembrance celebrations, again, this year remind us to not only to remember the dead, but to hope that one day we will no longer need to build memorials to those who lives are taken by terrorists. As my mum says, "we can only hope."