Photo By Philip Steiner | Deputy Director Daniel Lecce (left) and Roy Hawkins, Central Region director, present...... read more read more
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OKLAHOMA CITY – Retired Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Special Agent Susan Murphy attended the memorial service on the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing in remembrance of the 168 lives lost and those who survived the horrific terror attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building on April 19, 1995.
The ceremony was her 30th memorial service and the first since she retired from federal service in March 2025.
Murphy joined families, friends and co-workers of the fallen in addition to current and previous local, state and federal officials, including former President Bill Clinton, who spoke words of comfort to the affected families and community in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
The crowd filled the chapel of the First Church in Oklahoma City with many standing along the side aisles and the atmosphere was one of respect, reverence, and perseverance. Afterword, the Honor Guard of Oklahoma City Police and Fire let the participants out to the memorial grounds.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, former Gov. Frank Keating, U.S. Sen. James Lankford and Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt also addressed more than 1,600 people attending the memorial service to commemorate the anniversary and honor those who were killed and injured in the attack.
“It's an opportunity for people to come together to remember,” said Murphy. “We support each other and all the families that are still living.”
Family members and survivors read off the victims' names during the remembrance ceremony and at one point, 168 seconds of silence were observed in remembrance of the lives lost.
In his remarks, President Bill Clinton noted how the spirit of Oklahoma City refused to quit and how the people now stood by what he called the “Oklahoma Standard.”
“I came here in part to show the rest of America, this is what you get when you choose service, honor, and integrity,” he said, “We will be with you for as many tomorrows as needed.”
Murphy reflected on the heartbreaking events of that day – how she heard and watched the tragedy unfold in the news while engaged in a training course in Baltimore; her distress and sorrow while traveling back to Oklahoma City, followed by the grieving process and support from the community upon her return.
“Our agency’s employees were assigned to assist families waiting for news about their loved ones,” said Murphy, who was based at the Murrah Building as an employee of the Defense Investigative Service, DCSA’s precursor organization, when the bombing occurred. “Whether it was in the form of just being present for support or providing food, everyone pitched in.”
She described the strength of the community, the first responders, and how people continued to support each other and remain closely knit.
“The police department had a great relationship with my lost colleague, Larry Turner, and they made a heartfelt move when they heard there might be a shortage of American flags,” she recounted. “They took the flag down from their police department and brought it to us to use in the event we couldn't get enough casket flags. That's the kind of relationship that we had with the community, and I think that just speaks so highly of how he represented us.”
Murphy and Turner were among 12 employees assigned to the Oklahoma City Field Office. Due to the nature of their work, seven of the employees were not in the office — they were out running leads, conducting interviews, and one person was at the courthouse doing records checks.
The DIS employees killed in the explosion just happened to be in the office on that fateful morning. Murphy described what she remembers most about each of her five colleagues: Harley Cottingham, Peter DeMaster, Norma “Jean” Johnson, Larry Turner and Robert Westberry.
HARLEY COTTINGHAM
Harley was a great guy. He was so, so sweet and gentle. He had a tree farm up in Nebraska on his family property, and he was relocating trees down to Oklahoma to his backyard. He was dating a really sweet lady from Shawnee, Oklahoma, and they were learning to ballroom dance of all things.
PETER DEMASTER
Peter was prior Air Force. He used to work with the AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System] at Tinker Air Force Base and a lot of people from Tinker Air Force Base remember him. He had two children. He was very involved in scouting and his son was a dancer and ended up performing in Cats. He was so excited about that.
NORMA JEAN JOHNSON
Jean was the heart of her family. She had her grandson living with her and she was just so focused on helping to raise him. He was devastated when the bombing happened.
The office employees were assigned to different families to help support them. I was over at Jean's house for several days to help bring food and make sure they had any support they needed and to get them information as quickly as possible.
LARRY TURNER
Larry was another one of the special agents. He was this big, huge guy that just looked scary, but he was the biggest teddy bear. He was so excited about all his grandkids.
ROBERT WESTBERRY
Bob had not been our SAC, our special agent in charge, for very long but he was very supportive of our office. One of the things that we were doing as an office was bringing us into the 21st century, getting away from the way that we would process investigations entirely by paper. And he was supportive of our efforts to try and get to the point where the investigators could type their own cases and that we would have a system in place where we could electronically process the investigations. I know that seems wild right now because we can't imagine doing our jobs without computers. And we've got this massive case processing system that we now have, but at that time the only computer systems were mainframes, and they were out in Baltimore. They didn't have that at the field offices, so he was supporting our efforts to do that, and he was just a great person to work with.
“The bombing memorial in Oklahoma City is a wonderful museum,” said Murphy encouraging DCSA employees who may have an opportunity to visit they city to see the museum.
“The whole ground and landscaping. The memorial tree. All of it is beautifully done, and I think it represents well what happened,” she said. “They focused on teaching people how hatred and anger can really affect people's lives and that kind of ties in with the work that we do. While conducting background investigations, we’re always looking at honesty, reliability, trustworthiness and any kind of susceptibility to blackmail, pressure and coercion. Those things were all related to what happened with the bombing. The memorial is a constant reminder to me of the importance of the work I do and protecting not just the people who work for the federal government and our national security – but protecting all people.”
An inscription above the front entrance of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum enunciates the takeaway for all who participated in this year’s memorial:
We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.
May all who leave here know the impact of violence.
May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2025 23:36 |
| Story ID: | 496043 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Oklahoma City Bombing 30th Anniversary – A DCSA Special Agent’s reflection, by John Joyce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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