OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum sits on sacred soil.
The Survivor Tree stands as a sentry, a witness to the terrorist attack that unfolded on the grounds that cradle a city’s sorrow, as well as its courage.
Who better to tell the stories of what happened on what began as a beautiful spring morning of April 19, 1995, than those who lived it.
Over the past 25 years, the Memorial & Museum has archived an extraordinary collection of oral histories.
They tell compelling stories of strength, resilience, and hope.
Yes, hope.
The moment that beautiful morning changed was at 9:02 a.m.
It was filled with bewilderment and confusion.
The sun was eclipsed.
A skeleton of a building was left once some of the debris, smoke, and dirt cleared.
That building was the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building.
At first, many thought there had been a natural gas explosion in downtown Oklahoma City.
That was not the case.
Slowly, as the scene was still chaotic, people rushing to help those injured, first-reponsders trying to reach victims, evidence began to show this was something more than a gas explosion.
This was a terrorist attack and the weapon was a truck loaded with a homemade bomb made of fertilizer and diesel fuel.
This is the story of tragedy, triumph, loss, hope, and the search for justice.