I'm surprised no one brought up the 15th anniversary of the OKC bombing today, April 19, 1995. I meant to start a thread earlier, but I've either been busy around the new place, or immersed in the media coverage of the event.

I was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and after a stint in the Navy, moved back and lived in Oklahoma by the time of the bombing. My mother worked just north of downtown OKC where the bombing happened. She heard the bomb, even the few miles away that she was at her work place. I was in Tulsa, and she immediately called me when it happened. It was over a year before I made it down to OKC to visit the site. The building was long gone by then, but the fence we all saw on TV still stood w/ hundreds of wreaths, cards, signs, candles, stuffed toys, flowers, etc.

168 people died that day, including 3 unborn fetuses. 19 of the victims were children, 15 of whom were in the America's Kids Day Care Center. Most of the deaths resulted from the collapse of the building, rather than the bomb blast. Those killed included 163 who were in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, one person in the Athenian Building, one woman in a parking lot across the street, a man and woman in the Oklahoma Water Resources building, and a rescue worker struck on the head by debris.

May Their Souls Rest In Peace, and may justice be served eternally for Timothy McVeigh.

What a terrible day that was. For some reason, I thought it happened in 1993.

RIP to everyone who lost their lives

I watched the documentary on MSNBC last night "The Timothy McVeigh" tapes or something like that and I was like

That bastard had ZERO remorse for what he did. He was saying some shit that made me just

I hope his ass is suffering in a special section of hell.

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

I watched that too. At some point in his life, he snapped, and went .

Yeah he really did snap. And its really sad. I mean a lot of us were picked on growing up, a lot of us have distinct opinions about the government, family issues, etc. etc. but his ass just took it to a WHOLE other level. Its really tragic.

And like that one lady said in the documentary, I think she was one of the detectives....she was like "how could he say he had so much compassion for the people of the Branch Davidians who died in Waco, but he had NO compassion or remorse for killing all those people in OKC? Just sad.

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

But in his head, he felt the US was the aggressor, and said "if the rules of engagement aren't written then they are set by the aggressor", meaning (to him) that if the US government can kill innocent people, then he can do the same back against the government.

For me, it wasn't even the bombing, it was the utter disregard for life. He had one said the children were just "collateral" casualties.

Somewhere along the way to April 19, he lost his soul and his humanity.

It's amazing to me when these things happen. I really am curious about the mindset. 300,000,000 people in the US. Folks go daily about their lives, working, keeping to their own little world, etc. Yet someone like McVeigh sits in his little world and creates some larger, conspiracy-ridden portrait of "the man", and that he's in some sort of war that no one else sees or acknowledges. HE had to do something. HE felt he needed revenge. I apply the same thing to Muslim extremists who blow up cars and planes. Sure they inflict terror, but they will never bring a country down. Ever. Their efforts, like McVeighs, are trite, and pointless. They feel they've won some battle by killing 168 people, yet people in Denver, or Minneapolis, or Atlanta are still going to the grocery story and buying white bread, and corn chips. What did their alleged victory gain for them besides a huge stroke to their ego?

al Qaeda thought they won some major victory with 9/11. They killed around 3000 people. That's what percentage of 300,000,000??? In the past 9 years, it's easy to say that another 3000 American, plus more, have been born. Do they not see that their declarations of fatwa against the US are pointless? (or any country, really, not just us).

ernestsewell said:

Exactly...that's what got me was just him having absolutely no remorse and just told the families to "get over it". I was like WOW!! That's so fucked up.

I have lived in this area for 13 yrs...and each year you hear about the families gathering around the tree at the memorial. This year, I didn't hear to much. I can't visit the memorial without crying. Breaks my heart.

Never forget.

MoniGram said:

I've been home one time between 1997 and today; that being 2000. I didn't go down to the memorial in 2000. I'm not sure if it was completed at that time or not, but I just couldn't go to it then. The ground had been leveled out when I was home a year after the incident.

Elle85n09 said:

Oklahoma City is where my mom is from and where my sis and brother live.

MoniGram said:

I lived in Oklahoma at that time too-very sad. Will never forget such a tragedy

I remember that day. I was working at Fort Snelling. After the terrible incident happened, we locked down the building. Nobody knew anything until a few hours later. Then we heard about what had happened in Oklahoma. Very sad day.

I didn't know so many Orgers were Oklahomans or had history there.