OT - Oklahoma City Memorial

[Botch.]

Just returned from a business trip to Oklahoma City. Yesterday our meetings finished early so myself and a coworker had a chance to visit the Alfred Murrah Building Memorial. The first hallway gave a short history of OkC and a brief description of the morning of April 19, 1995. We were then led into a plain room with just a tape recorder, where we sat down; all doors closed automatically behind us. The tape player started playing, it was a recorded "minutes" of a meeting that started at 9:00 the morning of the 19th. Two minutes into the meeting you could hear the bomb go off, the floors collapsing, and the people in the meeting screaming and yelling. The lights went off, then a few seconds later the next set of doors opened. The next set of displays had many graphic photos, and all recorded narratives were playing at once, very loud, replicating at least a bit the mayhem and confusion the victims must have gone through; some of the displays had just eyeglasses, or purses, or baby's shoes. My coworker started crying and I was close. The rest of the museum followed the day-by-day rescue efforts, investigations and personal accounts. We were both drained by the time we left. The memorial outside the museum, and the memorial wall, are also a must-see. I don't really know why I'm posting this here, guess its just because this visit had a great effect on me (I'm still pretty down) and now with the WTC/Pentagon attacks we can see this type of thing is a little closer to all of us. If you ever get down to Ok City I highly recommend a visit, even though its not pleasant. We need to remember. Thanks for listening.

[Tedster]

Yep. Weird. I was in Ok City just a week before the bombing, at a class at the FAA Academy there. I keep thinking..."What if they had postponed the class for a week, and had to have the class at the Murrah building due to all the classrooms at the Academy being booked?" A lot of sad places to visit and remember how horrible we can be. But, advice, go visit someplace really cool, and see how good us humans can be, too...

[oliveloafe]

yeah, I'm from OKC. My father regularly worked at the Murrah building... meeting was cancelled that day. Keep remembering.

[coolhouse]

Hey Botch, I was at the memorial this summer,didn't go through the Murrah exhibit though. I had my family with me and of course we were on vacation. From what you described,I'm glad we passed. The occasion was somber enough as it was. It's incredible to think that something even more horrifying has happened since then. later, Mike

[deanmass]

Holy Shit!!! Tedster, are you Ramp Check Man?????? AHHHHH!