The Night of the Sparrows

Told from the perpective of a Marine serving in the Oklahoma National Guard, this account of the Oklahma City bombing in 1995 gives readers a behind-the-scenes look of events.

Herman O. Laskey Jr., who earned numerous medals and commendations serving in Operation Desert Storm and later as a member of the National Guard, recalls what he saw during the two weeks he was activited to respond to the attack.

In the Oklahoma National Guard, he started as a military police officer and then joined a military intelligence unit. He received his heavy vehicle operator license and drove numerous two-ton and five-ton vehicles, but none of his jobs prepared him for what he saw after the bombing.

In this account, he begins by recalling that fateful day before giving an account of what led him to the point when he was activated as a Guardsman to respond to the crisis. The carnage he witnessed still haunts him, and he reveals how he's coped with post-traumatic stress disorder ever since.
The bombing of the Murrah building largely goes unnoticed except in Oklahoma. Get the facts about what happened and why it still matters.