Winston-Salem man recalls tragedy of Oklahoma City bombing 30 years later

Yahoo

19-04-2025

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — 30 years have passed, but the memory of the Oklahoma City bombing remains fresh.
This was the deadliest domestic act of terrorism in American history.
Bob Campbell was a radio broadcaster in Oklahoma City when the chaos unfolded.
Three decades later, he says the memory still haunts him.
The shock from April 19, 1995, is something he will carry on for the rest of his life.
It's an event so horrific that even after 30 years have passed, Campbell finds himself at a loss for words with goosebumps reliving the memory.
'From the time we first felt the tremor in the building through the next day is obviously something I will never forget,' Campbell said.
Campbell was working as a radio DJ at a station when the bomb went off. He got a phone call from his producer that he would never forget.
'He goes, 'The Murrah building just blew up,' and I said, 'Walk towards it. We're going on air,' and he starts walking towards the building and describes the scene, and he's live on air with us … As you can imagine, it was terrible. The building was in ruins. Wounded people are staggering around. There are bodies and parts laying around,' Campbell said.
The live reports continued in that studio until they couldn't anymore.
'Two FBI agents … walking into the room, the studio, with weapons drawn, FBI hats on, body armor, saying, 'We believe the building might be a target. We have to evacuate,'' he said.
168 souls were lost, with 19 of them being children.
'One of the kindergarten teachers at my daughter's school was killed … It affected everybody,' Campbell said.
Today, in another radio studio, he's sharing his reflections 30 years later.
He talks about it because we have to remember.
'The further we get away from any event, the less weight it has on the people who weren't there … You can be 30 years old, and you could have just been born, and we ignore our history,' he said.
On April 18 every year, Campbell is reminded of one thing.
'No matter our race, creed, color, religion, belief, non-belief … we're all in the same boat when it comes down to it,' Campbell said.
He hopes that we can move forward together.
Time has not erased the fear or the loss from the Oklahoma City bombing, but it has brought him a perspective: to learn from the history, spread those lessons and use the anniversaries as a milestone for progress.
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