It was 29 years ago, the morning of April 19, 1995.  It was a normal day at the federal government agency where I worked at the time.  My duties kept me at my desk, but around 9:30am I noticed a lot of activity around me, with managers wheeling television sets into their offices.

It was later that my manager let me know that the federal building in Oklahoma City had just been bombed and half the building was gone.  It was a wake-up call for us.  We understood that federal buildings in large cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago were targets, but Oklahoma City?

It was then that we knew everyone had become a target.  Then the rumors began to fly that an informant had provided federal investigators with a list of federal buildings to be attacked and the Minton-Capehart building in downtown Indianapolis, my work place, was on that list.

The management instituted what we call in federal employee parlance a “liberal leave policy.”  That meant you did not need approval, if you felt uncomfortable or just plain scared to be at your job, you can take you time off and leave.

I chose not to leave.  I had worked in radio broadcasting as a talk show host and my life had been threatened by radical elements of society at that time.  I realized then you cannot live your life in fear.  I took reasonable precautions, but lived without fear over those threats.  There was no way I would live in fear over the federal threats of 1995.

If you subscribe to HBO, and/or its streaming platform Max, there is a documentary film I would recommend you watch.  The Executive Producer is former Today Show host Katie Couric.  It is called “An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th.”

Directors Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson start with those that died in the bombing and their families and we should never forget them.  They are woven into several parts of the story as told by the film makers.

But the important focus of this documentary is how Americans became so radicalized and grew bitter hatred of their federal government.  The film goes back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.  Then President Jimmy Carter imposed sanctions  on the Soviets that badly hurt American farmers.  When Ronald Reagan succeeded Carter, Congress sent him legislation essentially bailing-out those farmers.  Reagan vetoed the bill quite publicly.  The farmers were beyond angry and turned to radical parts of society.

Then there was the issue of American jobs being shipped overseas.  Timothy McVeigh, executed for the bombing, saw a local plant that provided a good job to his father and grandfather, close in Buffalo, New York.  McVeigh was clearly not well after serving in the first Gulf War in the military.

McVeigh became part of an angry group of Americans arming themselves to do battle with the federal government.  The documentary tells the story of how McVeigh’s radicalization over time led to his bombing the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building.

On the day of the bombing, a local TV news crew came to our office and asked to speak with federal employees and get their reaction to the bombing.  My manager asked me to speak with the reporter and I did.  I knew there was a day care in that Oklahoma building and could only think of my 1-year-old twin daughters in a day care at that moment (not at a federal building).  The brutality of this happening to small children the age of my daughters was a difficult part of this, but I toughed out the interview and I was on the local evening news that day.

Once retired, I decided to drive out west.  I spent the night in Oklahoma City and visited the memorial.  The outside memorial is free with a reflecting pool.  You pay for the museum and decided to shell out the admission price.  It was well worth it.

The Oklahoma City bombing remains the worst terrorist attack on America by an American.  168 people died, 19 of them children, with 680 injured.

Some memories have faded in the 29 years since April 19, 1995.  I have not forgotten.  I hope you do not as well.