OKC Bombing - I felt the rumble from the explosion from my apartment in Norman, about 25 miles from the blast center.
On April 18th in the afternoon, I had been at the ATF office in the Murrah building as part of a gang-violence prevention class, an elective of my Education degree. We were shown several things confiscated from various raids (guns, knives, photos, etc), and the agent running the demonstration, Don Leonard, mentioned about the next day being the two-year anniversary of Waco. "Maybe I should just stay home tomorrow," he said half-jokingly as we left.
Don Leonard should have stayed home that morning. He and six others with the Secret Service died in the explosion, along with 156 others in the Murrah building, four in neighboring buildings, and one rescuer.
All the other "big events" pale in comparison for me. I never met any of the people who died in them. I never was at the location where it happened. I never forget Don Leonard.
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