30 years later: North Carolina man recounts being at scene of Oklahoma City bombing
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — This Saturday, April 19th, marks 30 years since an American-born terrorist set off a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City in what remains the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history.
More than 600 people were injured in the attack while 168, including 19 children, died in the explosion.
Oklahoma City to mark 30 years since the bombing that killed 168 people and shook America
Jon Wallace was working in the Salvation Army office in Tulsa when he received a call from a supervisor telling him to pack up a canteen, round up staff, and get to Oklahoma City as soon as possible.
'It was very quick because I didn't know about the bombing,' said Wallace, who now lives in Concord where he works as a minister. 'I ran out to the front desk where we had a TV and they had the picture of the Murrah Building with the front blown off of it.'
He was on the scene within just a few hours.
Wallace had visited the Murrah building a few months earlier and knew what it should look like.
'Looking at the front side, it was…it used to be covered in glass. The glass was completely gone. Carpet was sticking out. You could look into people's offices. I remember coats still being hung up on a coat rack and cabinets and different things that were observable.'
He went on to describe the scene on the ground surrounding the building.
'I think one of the things that was the most shocking to me was you could see where people had been laying down, being given first aid. There were plastic gloves and there was blood on the street. There were also bits of the truck that had blown up.'
While still processing what he saw, Wallace, who worked in Social Services for the Salvation Army, leaned on his faith to focus on the daunting work which was ahead of him.
'God help me to do my best here. It was a it was a sad, spiritual moment for me because I knew that I would need resilience and all the strength that I could get from my creator.'
Wallace set up a Salvation Army canteen to provide things like food and water to the first responders who rushed to the scene, working to get to those trapped in the rubble of what used to be a nine-story building.
He would spend a total of ten days at the site offering nourishment to people, both physically and spiritually.
Today, to accompany his memories, Wallace has bins full of photographs and newspapers from the day of the bombing and those which followed.
He describes one photo in particular which is so meaningful to him.
'I took this one photograph of the Murrah Building and the sun was just coming up, and that is forever frozen in my mind is the sun coming up and shining through the Murrah building.'
He sent that photo to Queen Elizabeth, along with a letter detailing the work he saw by the Salvation Army and Red Cross. He received a kind response which he now has framed.
Wallace also has a football-sized piece of the Murrah building with a small gold plaque attached. It was gifted to him from the Social Security Administration as a thank you for his work. Sixteen workers in the Social Security office in the building died that day.
Wallace suffered a personal loss that day, too.
Ted Allen worked for the Office of Housing and Urban Development, an agency which Wallace would work with in his capacity with the Salvation Amry. Wallace attended a meeting with Allen inside the Murrah building only a few months earlier.
Allen, along with 34 of his coworkers, died in the bombing.
The former site of the Murrah building is now the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
The section of street where the bomb detonated is now a reflecting pool, while 168 glass and copper chairs now sit in the footprint of the Murrah building, one for each person who died.
The Oklahoma City bombing was 30 years ago. Some survivors worry America didn't learn the lesson
Wallace visits the site several times a year, and is in Oklahoma City for this year's ceremony to honor the victims.
'Well, you don't serve at the at the Oklahoma City bombing without being changed forever,' he said.
Two men were ultimately convicted of carrying out the attack because of their anti-government beliefs. One was executed while the other was sentenced to life in prison.
The Murrah building was chosen as a target because of its imposing presence, ability to park a vehicle directly next to the rear of the building, and because the open space behind it would provide a good opportunity for photos which would promote the perpetrator's anti-government agenda.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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