Oklahoma City - the former Murrah Federal Building

To our loyal fans, sorry its been a while since the last blog entry. Its been busy so lots to share. I'll not get up to date now but at least get one or two more entries...

When we got to OKC on the 23rd and went through the now very familiar unloading ritual, I left the kids and Deb in the room and walked the few blocks to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and walked around the memorial garden and museum. Its thought provoking and well done. A somber reminder that the worst terrorist atrocity committed on US soil (prior to 9/11) was NOT committed by Bin Ladin or one of his ilk but rather by an American, decorated, gulf war veteran.

Its difficult to imagine how anyone could become so fanatical as to bomb an office building, containing a day care, in the middle of a downtown area, at 9:01am with around 5000 pounds of explosives. And then to refer to the dead babies and toddlers as "collateral damage" just goes way beyond anything I can begin to fathom.

The reflecting pool goes along the length of the street where the van bomb was parked by Timothy McVeigh.  The targeted building was on the right.

There is a chair made of glass and marble for each of the 168 victims.  They are arranged out roughly where they are thought to have died (most are along the front of the street (ground floor).  The chairs vary in size, regular for the adults who perished and heartbreakingly small chairs for the kids.

A good 50% of the building was just blown away.

About 2 hours after the explosion, McVeigh was driving north when he was pulled over for not having number plates.  When he leaned over to get his registration the cop noticed this .45 Glock in a shoulder holster.  He was arrested and sat in jail for about 5 days, enough time for the FBI to connect him to the bombing and come get him.

They kept a part of the building that the museum is in as it was after the bombing.  Suffice to say it was devastated.  Hard to imagine how anyone could have survived.  In all 16 buildings collapsed or had to be destroyed.

As they did in droves after the bombing, people are still leaving notes, flowers, personal items in memory of the victims on the chain link fence outside the memorial.