24 years ago today.....

[GH85Carrera]

Oklahoma City and the country changed forever.

One low life scum bag killed 168 people with a giant bomb. There was a glass front to the building. It was easy to look in and see the kids at the day care center. Regular people going about the day's business. He killed them.

The good news is after spending millions of dollars, we killed him back. Unfortunately we could not do it 168 times, and he had an easy death.

I was at my office 4 miles away "as the crow flies" and the concrete walls of our building shook. We all ran to the east side of the building expecting to see a Simi or large truck smashed into the building. Then we looked outside expecting to see a large airplane crash. The we saw the smoke.

It is hard to believe it has been so long. It seems like yesterday.

[DonDavis]

Certainly a tough day. I've visited the memorial twice. Very well done tribute, and a must see site.

[tabs]

There is a lot of anger towards the Federal government (big government) in the hinterlands.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

It is hard to believe it has been so long. It seems like yesterday.

Yes it is. Yes it does.

9/11, The space shuttle (x2) and Oklahoma City are four days that I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news.

Thanks for the post, Glen.

[tabs]

JFK... sitting in class when a another student who had just come from the office opened the class room door and said Kennedy was shot..

MLK...was sitting in my Middle School cafeteria having our 10 AM (PDT) break..where I was talking to a friend and said, "That guy (MLK) in Memphis is going to get shot." Later that day he was..

RFK..watching the CA primary returns and RFK's victory speech broadcasted live and a few moments later he was shot...so it was in the moment real time coverage.

The 92 LA riots....watched that 24/7 in real time...

Detroit 67 riot...was on a city bus at 8 PM from the Book Cadillac hotel downtown out to Grandma's house out on Van Dyke and 5 mile rd...you could feel the tension in the air...a black guy was heckling the black bus driver, complaining that he couldn't get the back door open at his stop. The black driver came back and kicked the door open. At about 2 AM the riot started.

On Sunday while visiting family the news said a riot had started the night before, going back to Grandmas house late that night we crossed Woodward Blvd which was ablaze, passing a burning gas station. That week I saw the army come in and leave, they were stationed right behind GM's house at what was then Detroit City airport. Going back to Willow Run airport to go home we passed a lot of burned out buildings on that same bus route that we took to get to GM;s house. Detroit was never the same.

The LA riots in 65...couldn't see the smoke plumes from where we lived in the burbs as you could see them from GM's house in Detroit. Watched that on TV.

The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile crisis when JFK came on TV...Sputnik, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Gus Grissom loosing his capsule, Neil Armstrong, Nixon Resigning. John Lennon's assassination. Winston Churchill's funeral.. GW coming on TV and say we is in a melt down crisis.

WTC 1 in 93, talking to a Paki financial adviser while watching the breaking news about the attack..who cryptically said, "They don't know what they are doing." He knew full well who was behind the attack.

The 2000 election fiasco...

The original Berkeley student protests over a park that was to be developed...64, 65.

Patty Hearst, and the SLA shootout and burning of the house that they were in, in S Central LA...74. Was at a Muntz Stereo store in Covina, CA..buying records..

[Baz]

Thanks, Glen.....we need to remember......

[stevej37]

JFK...waiting for the school bus to go home, a parent pulled up and said what happened. Total disbelief. At home..watched all night on the b&w tv.

[GH85Carrera]

The aerial photography company I worked for for a long time flew the downtown area for the FBI. They had tried to use the Air National guard but they wanted it flown at low altitude, and super high resolution. The entire area was a no fly area. They did not want tourists overhead. They gave us special permission to fly the area. Using photogrammetry and careful mapping a full 3D model of the area, and all the debris still on roof tops was built. It would be interesting to see what has happened to that data. It was all done in the "old school" method of 9x9 film and lots of precision equipment.

[herr_oberst]

I'm glad you were able to get those pictures. We should never be allowed to forget the horror of what happened. Look how the windows in that grey building have been blown out, and the rosette of that Cathedral to the left of the Murrah has been damaged and the debris is on the sidewalk.

Bags of fertilizer.

[tcar]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

...and the rosette of that Temple to the left of the Murrow has been damaged and the debris is on the sidewalk.

Murrow is Murrah Office Building

Temple is St. Joseph Cathedral..

For the record... was there.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by tcar

Murrow is Murrah Office Building

Temple is St. Joseph Cathedral..

For the record... was there.

I knew that. A brain fade on my part. Edited my post...

I thought the Cathedral was a Greek Orthodox Temple.... my bad....

[KFC911]

Thank you Glen....

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I'm glad you were able to get those pictures. We should never be allowed to forget the horror of what happened. Look how the windows in that grey building have been blown out, and the rosette of that Cathedral to the left of the Murrah has been damaged and the debris is on the sidewalk.

Bags of fertilizer.

The grey building is the Federal building. It is where the federal judges are. I was on jury duty in the building a few years back.

[LWJ]

Thank you.

How it is possible that we do this sort of **** to our own is beyond me. I expect if any of us had met the bombers we could have had a somewhat reasonable conversation with them. Evil, crazy wing nuts? Yes they were. It is the ability for people to dehumanize others that results in such awful tragedy.

"Why can't we all just get along?" (without irony)

[Sooner or later]

It was a sad day for the Sooner state.

Like a Phoenix, OKC rose from the ashes. In 1993 OKC voters had approved a MAPS program to develop and renovate downtown OKC. I think they are into the 3rd MAPS progam.

Over the next 20 years the Civic Center was renovated, a minor league ballpark was built. Cox Center renovated with 13,0000 seating. Across the street from the Cox they built the Chesapeake Energy arena with 18,000 seats (home of the Thunder) Bricktown (the old buildings) were updated and filled with bars and restaurants. They cleaned up the river and made a mini River Walk.plus a bunch of other updates.

Quite a transformation.

[Bill Douglas]

Yes, I remember that day. Chap was called Timothy McVey or something like that.

[GH85Carrera]

The low life murderer does not deserve a mention by name in a thread about his 168 murders.

[HardDrive]

Dead was too good for him. Vermin.

[Clint Lando]

Criminals attacked waco still walk free.
two wrongs not right

[Clint Lando]

Originally Posted by tabs

There is a lot of anger towards the Federal government (big government) in the hinterlands.

deserved