Asia-Pacific
Oklahoma City marks 15 years since bombing
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-20 10:03
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Napolitano also said the bombing anniversary was a reminder of "the continued need for vigilance against the violent ideologies that led to this attack, so that we can recognize their signs in our communities and stand together to defeat them."
"We cannot put a glass dome over our country. We cannot guarantee there will not be another attack. No one can," Napolitano said. "But we are a strong and resilient country. And we can resolve that even a successful attack will not defeat our way of life."
Across Oklahoma City, people observed 168 seconds of silence to honor the dead. Some dabbed away tears as the ceremony closed with family members reading a roll call of those who died.
"What defines us as a nation, as a people and as communities is not what we have suffered, but how we have risen above it, how we've overcome," Napolitano said. "We can resolve that the Oklahoma Standard becomes the national standard."
Attending the ceremony was Charlie Hangar, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who stopped bomber Timothy McVeigh on Interstate 35 the day of the blast because his 1977 Mercury Marquis did not have a license plate.
Hangar, now the Noble County sheriff, read the memorial's mission statement at the start of the service. US Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Okla., the state's lieutenant governor at the time of the bombing, read a congressional resolution commemorating the anniversary.
Prosecutors said McVeigh's plot was an attempt to avenge the deaths of nearly 80 people in the government siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.
McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges and executed in 2001. McVeigh's Army buddy, Terry Nichols, was convicted on federal and state bombing-related charges and is serving multiple life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado.
