Trials and tribulations: First responder reflects on memory of Oklahoma City bombing

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jelani Gibson
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  "I still don't sleep well. I probably won't sleep well for the rest of my life."

For installation emergency manager, Norman Yeingst, the morning of April 19, 1995, still haunts him 19 years later.

In the morning of that historical day, ex-Army soldier and security guard, Timothy McVeigh, parked a rented truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. He then triggered a bomb that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

As a local part-time emergency medical technician driver and civil service firefighter for Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., Yeingst found himself overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of death.

"God, it's been 19 years," Yeingst said, exhaling a deep breath. "You could smell the death, you could smell the blood."

He wants people to never forget what happened that fateful day.

It's an experience he has rarely shared in his professional and personal life. As the anniversary approached, he felt the need to tell his story so others can remember the amount of sacrifice and courage involved for those who were there.

Yeingst said he felt the jarring shockwave from Tinker and immediately knew something was wrong as plumes of yellow smoke billowed its way into the sky. Upon initially arriving on the scene as an EMT driver, he was met with a scene of anarchy. The building lie in ruins and a swath of destruction had been cut through the scene.

Usually an image reserved for war zones; body parts, torsos and assorted limbs littered the scene throughout.

"This was us," he said. "This was not supposed to happen here."

Having been a firefighter for 31 years at Tinker, Yeingst also noted how much support the base provided. Multiple federal agencies converged on the scene through the base, while they provided personnel and equipment.

"A lot of people don't realize how much Tinker Air Force Base was there for them," he said.

Yeingst was at the scene for the next two weeks and spent most of his time coordinating patient care and sifting through rubble for survivors. After two weeks had passed, the decision was made to implode the building due to a low probability of finding anyone left alive in the bomb-strewn rubble.

"There are police officers and firemen that quit doing it (the profession)," he said. "It just affected them that bad. It happened on our turf in a town nobody would even imagine...who would ever think anything like this would ever happen?"

Yeingst praises the response of the city and the counseling options that were given in the wake of the attack. First responders from all over the city were given food, mental counseling and moral support from all over the country. Even members of the media noted that when the building first went down there were many that ran toward it, rather than away from it. That sense of caring was dubbed the "Oklahoma standard."

"Anybody who came to that response or responded over those two weeks would want for nothing," he commented. "We had teams that came in with a dollar in their pocket and they left with that dollar."

At 59-years-old, Yeingst has retired twice. He continues to work due in no small part to how the daily grind of a job takes his mind off of what happened years ago.

"We're all survivors," he said. "It's just getting through and finding a way."

A piece of rubble from the building still lies on his desk to this day as a daily reminder of the selflessness and bravery that was exhibited.