Oklahoma City National Memorial Blog

Five years ago I felt I was ready to tour the museum for the first time. I barely made it through Chapter 2 before I had to abort. The emotions even 10 years past were still overwhelming. Over the next four years I realized a strong need to teach my children (6th graders) about the bombing and how it changed our lives forever. Children of today were not even born yet. But I struggled with how to do this. How could I teach a child who wasn’t even born yet about a travesty so horrendous and in our very own backyard? I didn’t want to traumatize them but yet I wanted them to understand the magnitude of what happened and the effects still felt today.

When the opportunity arose for me to attend the Education Summit at the Memorial, I pounced on it! I didn’t know if it would answer my questions, address my concerns, or offer suggestions that would be actually useful, but, I had to try. The tugging inside my heart and soul to teach this to my students was becoming enormous. I was even beginning to feel a sense of urgency.

The Summit was more than I could have ever hoped for! We cried for and with the survivors/victims as they told their stories, felt and shared the frustrations of law enforcement in following the trail of evidence, and gained a healthier respect for the local media and reporters. The history of the Memorial, the symbolization behind its design, (such tiny details!) the behind the scenes look at what it takes to run and keep up the Memorial… I think allowed me to heal in some aspects. Thus, allowing me to feel a bit more confident in teaching my students.

Then came my answer as to “How” I was going to even approach, must less teach about the Memorial! The Trunk! The Called2Change lessons! Absolutely phenomenal! The Trunk and Called2Change provide almost everything I need to teach this tragedy in an informative, loving, respectful, and honorable manner. This curriculum will make it real for my students, connect it to their world today, and they will gain an understanding of how violence, no matter how small or big, solves nothing.

The staff at the Memorial were so very friendly, informative, and helpful. Lots of smiles! The presenters were outstanding. Each presentation was perfect in timing…left you wanting just a bit more. The facilities were comfortable and the food/snacks, delicious! Everyone at the Memorial from the Archives in the basement, to the offices on the top floor… Thank You. You have, and are doing, a wonderful job of protecting and honoring the victims, survivors, and the futures of Oklahoma.

To the Kerr Foundation and other supporters… Thank you! Without your support, I would still be struggling intellectually and emotionally on how to teach our future leaders and citizens about this subject. My students will gain a new outlook on violence, respect, and tolerance for others. Who knows what future events will have been deterred just by this program alone. It’s bound to change attitudes, lives….amazing isn’t it? The violence incurred in 1995, still affecting lives of those not even born…forever.

Tracy Wapaha
6th Grade
John Adams Elementary

You always know these things can happen. In fact, you write disaster plans to guide you when disaster hits. But, you never really expect it to happen.

My husband and I were driving from Spartanburg, SC, to Charlotte, NC, when I got a call from Kari Watkins, Executive Director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial that it was raining on the third floor of the Museum. I had been a part of the team that created the Museum and I had devoted eleven years of my life to gathering the artifacts, documents and images that belong to and are used in the Memorial exhibits. There was no question in my mind about leaving immediately for Oklahoma City. We pulled into the airport in Charlotte and I caught a flight to Oklahoma.

I could not even imagine what I would find. I called the Memorial from a layover in Dallas and learned that the water had been stopped and that the Critical Incident Management Plan had been initiated. I was heartbroken, apprehensive and so saddened. This Memorial Museum is so important to so many people. When a site is built in memory of a tragedy, there is an innate vulnerability to any additional tragedies happening on the site or to the Memorial commemorating that site. I worried for all the family members and survivors about how this might impact them.

The Memorial has outstanding leadership and an outstanding staff. By the time I arrived later that night, they had the challenge in hand, had a plan of action, and were well on the road to putting the Museum back. I was honored to be a part of the recovery process for the next two weeks. I needed to be there, for my own sake. Just seeing them at work and knowing how good they were was reassuring to me, as it should be to all those who are directly invested in this Memorial site.

Nothing like this is easy. Returning to the Memorial’s high standards takes time and extreme effort. There are endless challenges involved. My thanks to the Memorial staff for taking me back into their fold and letting me be a part of their efforts.

Jane Thomas
Retired Collections Manager

Last Saturday morning, January 3rd, I did something I have never done before…I ran with a running group. I received an e-mail from one of my friends about a group training for the Memorial Marathon and the first run was 6 miles, Saturday morning at 7 a.m. I run with 3 other girls and we recently ran the 1/2 marathon at White Rock in Dallas. We hadn’t even really started thinking about training for the Memorial Marathon because, honestly, that seems like a ways, but when we got the e-mail we decided (Friday night at around 8:00 p.m.) that we might as well try it and see what it was like.

When I arrived at Stars & Stripes park, I couldn’t believe all of the cars. It looked like a parking lot for a race. I didn’t have much time to spare or stretch but I quickly found my friends and off everyone went. It was amazing…there were probably 125 people that started together… We ran a course that I had never run before that took us into Nichols Hills and back to Stars and Stripes. At the 2 mile point there was a water & gatorade station. There were four gentlemen that were manning the station who welcomed us, cheered us on and encouraged us to keep up the good pace. These gentleman were obviously veteran runners and I was in awe that they were taking time from their running schedule to ensure that the group had supplies and encouragement. It was probably the best run I have had in a long time. At the finish, there was more water, gatorade, snacks, encouragement from everyone…just a great experience.

I started running in April 2007. I ran in the OKC Memorial Marathon with the St. Anthony relay team.  I ran the 3 mile leg and it almost killed me….but I had a ball. The Memorial Marathon was such an amazing experience…I couldn’t believe the emotion at the start line, the supportive people of Oklahoma City on the course and the amazing finish line. I only ran 3 miles but I couldn’t wait to do it again….so I started running. Since April 2007, I have run in two 1/2 marathons, the Memorial Marathon relay in 2008, several 15K, 10K and 5K races…I’m hooked.

As of January 2009, I am officially in the year of my 40th birthday…I would really like to run a marathon this year. With the experience I had on Saturday with the OKC Running Club and feeling that I owe my love of running to the OKC Memorial Marathon…I am going to attempt to run the Full at the OKC Memorial Marathon this year. My other 3 running girls are also considering it and I think if we continue with the Landrunners Group Marathon Training we may have a chance!

Stacy Coleman

Click here for more information about the Memorial Marathon.

What usually keeps you going to a job?  Good pay and benefits – right?  When you volunteer at the Memorial you have to adjust your definitions a little:

• Good pay – Great shirts, so you never have to worry about what to wear, and awesome food on those occasions when you are willing to stay a little longer or work a different day.
• Benefits – You are changed forever by the stories of compassion, strength, faith and hope of families, survivors, first responders, friends and fellow Americans who were drawn into the vortex of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing on April 19, 1995.

I have been touched by the stories, mementos and artifacts that will forever tell the story of this tragedy because I’ve had the opportunity to work in the Memorial Archives.  I’ve seen the care and devotion to detail that insures the entire story about April 19, 1995, will forever be protected, preserved and accessible by those who come here in the future.

About 3 weeks after I became a volunteer, 9/11 happened. I had the good fortune to meet and be involved with members of the New York City fire, EMS and police who will forever be a part of our tragedy because NY Task Force One, “Who stood with us in our darkest hour,” lost 10 of those men on 9/11.  On my last trip to be with my “New York Family,” (EMS Station 57 and FDNY friends) we were talking around the fire one evening.  We always say at some point, “I am so glad I know you, but I would give it all up, if April 19,1995, and September 11, 2001, had just been a day like any other.” My life has been enriched by all of these people. We don’t even consider saying, “Never Forget,” because that can never happen.

Jo Wolfe
Volunteer

We tested the first 16 chairs that were relamped today and they are gorgeous! The LED lighting is magnificent and the clarity of being able to read the names is the best it has ever been. You can read the chairs on the last row from standing on the pathway around the Reflecting Pool. We had one small hiccup with the first eight, but the team figured out the problem, solved it amid raindrops falling on their head and got them working as designed.

The team of Mark, Patrick, Lance combined with Peter of OESCO and Randy Roberts have really hit a homerun. Hans and Torrey seem very pleased as well. We are installing another 32 lighting systems today. As you know, we are going to move through this over the next three weeks at a very rapid pace (weather permitting) so that we have the chair project complete and the visitors experience the consistency of the new lighting mechanism.

If you are downtown in the evening, drive by and check it out. The first 16 chairs on the west end of the Field of Empty Chairs have been replaced and we will work east from there. I think you will like what you see!

Kari Watkins
Executive Director

	Memorial Video Director Tony Stizza records in high definition retired Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper and current Noble County Sheriff Charlie Hanger and retired Noble County Sheriff Jerry Cook outside the Courthouse in Perry, Oklahoma.

This week, at the invitation of Noble County Sheriff Charlie Hanger, I joined several of the Memorial staff as we spent the day in Perry, Oklahoma, where an important part of story of the Oklahoma City bombing took place.

We had the opportunity to interview Sheriff Hanger, who was the Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who arrested Timothy McVeigh on I-35 on a routine traffic stop just an hour or so after the bombing. We also heard the stories of Sheriff Jerry Cook, District Judge Dan Allen, Court Reporter Tara Dale, Jailer Marsha Moritz and Perry Daily Journal editor Gloria Brown.

This is really a story about ordinary people doing their everyday work, very well. That day as Hanger booked McVeigh in the Noble County Jail, Jailer Moritz did the job she did every day…she took his finger prints, his mug shot and bagged his clothes for testing, all the things jailers do every day. Moritz recalls as McVeigh watched the television in the booking room, he didn’t even pretend to be bothered by the breaking news images of the Oklahoma City bombing. At the time, law enforcement officials hadn’t made the connection of McVeigh being the OKC bomber.

In the next two days, McVeigh would remain in the Noble County Jail, go before District Judge Allen, his every word a part of the record, and this small town of Perry, Oklahoma, became the focal point of the investigation because of one routine traffic stop. It would be a call that Sheriff Cook received from federal law enforcement officials that asked if Timothy J. McVeigh was being held in his jail. Sheriff Cook checked the log, and replied, “Yes.” On the other end of the phone, the agent yelled to his fellow investigators, “They have him in Perry…” and cheers erupted in the background.

	Memorial Archives Collections Manager Helen Stiefmiller looks at pictures with Jailer Marsha Moritz as she recalls booking Timothy J. McVeigh in the jail on April 19, 1995.

In the hours that followed, the nation watched Perry, Oklahoma, and top notch law enforcement helped put the pieces of the story together.

We are grateful that we have been able to put these remarkable stories on tape so that we can preserve this story and prepare it to be included as part of the story told in the Museum.

In two different towns, ordinary people went about their daily work. Those ordinary jobs resulted in something extraordinary happening. This is the often unappreciated story of the bombing. In Oklahoma, City, citizens doing their everyday jobs in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building lived or died at the hands of Timothy McVeigh. Just 63 miles north, people in Perry were going about their work and it just happened that on this day, their usual routine would result in something that would astonish the nation.

We found the story in Perry only to exemplify what we have seen unfold around this site the past 13 years.

Come hear Sheriff Hanger on Friday, August 29th at 1:30 as he tells his story First Person.

Kari Watkins
Executive Director

A lot of people do not know that the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum is a collecting institution. What does that mean? It means that the Museum interprets, documents, and collects materials related to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Specifically, we are the national repository of everything related to that incident and collect items related to the history of the site, the rescue and recovery, reaction to the incident, the implications and ramifications of the incident, the trials and investigation and the memorial process. The images, documents and artifacts are displayed in the Museum, used by researchers in our archive or utilized in the Memorial’s education and outreach programs. How do we acquire these materials? We acquire them through the generous donations of people like you. Items are given by individuals whose lives have been affected by the Murrah Building bombing and the Memorial.

I want to share the wonderful story about Brendan Brustad who recently donated a running singlet, a race bib with number 941 and his 2008 OKC Marathon medal. Senior Airman Brustad, who is stationed at Altus Air Force Base, ran 141.8 miles in the four days and then continued to run 26.2 miles at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon for a total of 168 miles.

Each of the items he donated has a different meaning to Brustad. He wrote, “The singlet which I wore everyday was a constant reminder to me and to others of why I was running this great distance in the first place. The bib was a representation that not only 1, but 17,000 other runners were going to have their own personal “run for a reason.” Finally, the medal…It shows completion of the journey, a complete success. I ran these 168 miles for those 168 lives, not for me. It is only right that they have the medal. I will keep running in the marathon, year after year, ensuring those 168 lives are never forgotten. It took 22 years, but I found my calling to be a runner. Not one who necessarily competes, but who runs for something, always. Winning or losing does not matter. To me, a runner is defined not by how fast or how long they run but why they run. I may not be an elite runner, I may never even win a race, the only thing I want to do in life, is change the world, one mile at a time. Hope to see you soon. God bless.”

If you are interested in donating an item(s) that fulfills the mission of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum please contact Helen Stiefmiller, Collections Manager at 405.235.3313 or hs@oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org.

Helen Stiefmiller
Collections Manager

A memorial seems to bring out the best in people. It is a dwelling of reverence and remembrance where people from all over the world gather to pay their respects.

I was especially touched by two couples who stopped in about a week ago. The four were traveling across the country together one last time. The average age of the group was about 65 but by no means were they approaching their final days.

One couple had planned the trip for the quartet. The two men were in the war together and had since remained friends. Of their wives, one was a nurse and the other, just a passenger along for the ride. One of the men was diagnosed with a specific illness and would soon be blind. This was the reason for the final jaunt across the United States; so he could take in all he could of this great country. The man required dialysis every other day and constant care. Coming from Arizona, they were going to the East coast, back to California and then returning home. One could only imagine how much planning this entailed. The wife who was the nurse said it did take a lot of organization, but they wanted to do it for their best friends. They had to set up hospitals for the dialysis, make sure the hotels were clean enough for the ill man, pack correct food for his diet, not to mention planning the route and the strict schedule it was imperative they adhere to, making sure he made it to the next town for daily medical attention.

After talking with this woman, I could not help but see the inherent good of man. Their taxing journey, although made with life-long friends, would be exhausting. Nevertheless, this couple spent months arranging everything from hospitals to hotels and timing exactly how much time they could spend at each destination to be able to make it to their next stop for their friend’s medical needs. Three friends were taking him for his last ride across the U.S.A. No matter how difficult it would prove to be, they wanted to do it for him.

Ashton Edwards
Visitor Services

Neither rain, nor wind, nor raging storms will deter our visitors to the Oklahoma City National Memorial!

I recently gave an early morning tour to a group of professionals (teachers, nurses) from Kansas that gather for meaningful trips around the United States on their motorcycles. This group drove into to Oklahoma City during an evening of extreme weather that we sometimes experience during late spring and summer. These visitors braved 50-60mph winds, driving rain and large hail, but never considered turning back from their Memorial destination! We discussed the eighth annual Education Summit, educational programs and school tours. After visiting the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial, they toured the Museum and told about the excellent content and moving experience.

After a final look around, they once again boarded their bikes for the long trip back home.

Come here and experience the reason that we continue to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

Leon Gillum
Director of Security

The gym was stifling and we were losing. As I walked out to the concession table, wondering if my son’s basketball team should have made this expensive tournament trip, I noticed something familiar. The slightly diminutive gentleman selling the drinks was wearing a Memorial Marathon commemorative shirt from this year’s race.

Of course I stopped to visit, forgetting about the carnage next door and wondering how that shirt got to Lindsborg, Kansas — Norman Rockwell with wheat fields and high sky. As it turned out, this fellow has run many marathons and this year both he and his son made it a priority to make the Memorial Marathon. He’s from Lindsborg but his son is working on his PhD at the University of Oklahoma. They met and raced, running headlong into what for him was a wonderfully crafted event. His favorite memory: the Carl’s Jr. cheeseburger he got after crossing the finish line (he ran the half marathon). He smiled as he told me that in all the marathons he’s run, nobody ever gave him food like that when it was over. He said it was the best thing he had ever eaten.

The point of all this is simply that every year more and more people experience the Memorial Marathon. They leave with memories that are healthy and happy. And whether they know it or not, honor has been served — together with a cheeseburger that can be tasted to this day.

Tony Stizza
Director of Video