May 19, 1995
Bombing not forgotten
Waveland man won't forget what happened in Oklahoma Citysix years ago today
By Zach Taylor
Tribune-Star
The memorable day of April 19, 1995, led to a call for duty in Oklahoma City for victims' advocate Kenneth Coleman.
The rural Waveland man served on the board of directors for the National Organization for Victims Assistance on the day the bomb exploded inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Oklahoma City police needed helpers with his type of expertise, and Coleman arrived there four days after the blast that killed 168 and injured hundreds of others.
"I've done crime victims work for about 14 years now and I thought I had seen a lot of things, but I'd never seen anything like that," he said. "It's made a real strong impression on me. It's something I'll never forget."
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the bombing that led to the arrest of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. McVeigh is scheduled to be executed May 16 in the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute.
For Coleman, director of Protect the Innocent Victims Advocate Foundation in Parke County, the anniversary causes him to reflect.
He worked on a team of four, counseling police trying to cope with the experience of searching in the rubble of the building.
"It was difficult because, in debriefing, they shared with us their feelings about what they found and what they saw," said Coleman, 74. "I was living the whole thing through them.
"They felt the urgency of trying to get in and find living people who could still be saved," he said. "They came out of working with some pretty horrible stories of what they did find.
"They sometimes found only parts of bodies. And these were people that they felt they knew, their neighbors and such."
Coleman carries with him a memory from April 26 in Oklahoma City he wishes he could shun.
"All of the bodies had not been found yet. There was beginning to be the odor of decaying flesh around," Coleman said. "That is something that I will never forget."
Kari Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, said the anniversary can serve as a day of healing. The memorial is located where the Murrah building formerly stood.
Each year on the anniversary of the bombing, the memorial is the site of a ceremony in memory of those killed, Watkins said. This year's ceremony will be low key, she said.
"I think people will want to put their focus on the families that lost loved ones," Watkins said. "We're not focusing on Timothy McVeigh; we're focusing on the 168 people that he killed."
Ceremonies like the memorials are important for people trying to move past the horror of the bombing, Watkins said.
"I think they're focused on trying to get themselves put back together," she said. "It's important that we remember. I don't think it's easy, but it's important that we take time to remember those people."
Coleman said his work in Oklahoma City left him impressed that the people there didn't take advantage of the misfortune of others.
"One thing that really stuck out in my mind was the fact that all the time we were there, we did not hear a single siren where there was a burglary or anything going on in the city," he said. "The friendliness and sincerity of the people in that area really impressed me."
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