Memorial Day Comments
Today is a very sad and special day for me. I usually don't think about this day through out the year. And for the last couple years it has vaguely crossed my mind. However at 2 am today I woke up and realized that today was the day I almost lost my husband. The day of the Khobar Towers bombing, June 25, 1996- 12 years ago, today. Why today of all days that I should remember was beyond me. However if it was enough to wake me out of a sound sleep 9which I get rarely these days) I realized then that I needed to make mention of it.
12 years ago today-
I had just flew back in to Eglin from a visit to my family in Ohio. I knew Torrey was due back in a couple days and had coincided my trip plans to give me a couple days to get the house in order. I went to my job as a Histologist in the lab of the Eglin AFB Hospital. I was still a USAF Airman and was almost 7 months pregnant w/ our son Marcel. The day was hot and long. My friend Janella had just given birth to a baby boy a couple days prior. So when I got off I went upstairs to see Tyren K. Johnson for the first time. I spent about 20-25 mins w/ them still be quite tired from my flight back in. I made a quick stop at the BX on my way out, then headed home. Never knowing that the world was falling apart for my husband and that too many of his closet friends were dead.It was 10:30 p.m. (2130 GMT, 1730 EDT) in late June, time for many in the military housing facility at Saudi Arabia's King Abdul Aziz Air Base to turn in for the night, when a suspicious fuel tanker pulled up near the perimeter.
Some immediately sensed danger, but there was little time to respond. A thunderous explosion followed seconds later, as some 5,000 pounds of explosives packed into the truck went off, drilling a crater 35 feet deep and ripping the front off an apartment building.
That act of terrorism cost 19 American lives and injured scores of others, including Saudis and Bangladeshis.
It was the deadliest bombing involving U.S. citizens in the Middle East since the 1983 Beirut attack that killed 241 Americans, and the second time in less than a year in Saudi Arabia that Americans had been targeted.
~excerpt take from CNN Terror In Daharan web page
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/1996/saudi.special/index.html
I arrived home to a dark house and saw that the answering machine was flashing. I put my bags and purse by the door and tackled the messages. The message that rocked my world was from command post on Eglin AFB for Mrs. Torrey Hardy. I immediately called them back and they begin to explain the situation to me. As they spoke, they danced around the issue of what exactly happened. Finally tired of listening to "military dependent crap" I said-"Please, you are talking to A1C Candace Y. Hardy, 96 Medical Support Sq, Eglin AFB, Fl- tell me what is really going on!" the Sgt's answer "Airman Hardy we don't know if Senior Airman Hardy is even alive". The blast was a week to the day of our 1yr anniversary, we hadn't even been married a year. Just as I was beginning to go into a full blown panic attack , my phone beeped. There was a call waiting. I asked the Sgt to hold and clicked over. The next thing I heard was the most blessed sound I have ever heard in my life. The sound of my husband's voice.
The next few moments were flashes really. Torrey told me he was okay and that there was a line to call loved ones but he loved me and he was safe. I clicked back over and told command post that the call was from Senior Airman Hardy and that he was alive and safe. The next moment I heard him call a report to his fellow Airman stating that- Airman first Class C. Hardy confirms that Senior Airman T. Hardy is alive and safe. Those were probably not his exact words, but you get the gist. He thanked me for my time and I hung up the phone, slowly sliding to the carpet as I did so. I put my hands in face and cried.
The next few hours, were a chaos. Calls from family, friends, my commander, the lab, everyone. The wanted to see if Torrey survived the blast because the names of the deceased had not been released. I spent the whole evening on the floor of our tiny apartment retelling the story. You know, I don't even think I ate that night. Climbing into bed and setting the clock I fell wearily into to dreamless sleep. I A1C Hardy, still had to report for duty the next day.
The next week was very strange spent in a haze waiting for news from Torrey and the base. Commiserating w/ other hospital wives whose husband's thankfully had also survived the blast. There were 2 of us in the lab itself. The whole base worked in a haze of confusion, sadness, and awe. And those of us who were also military were just struck dumb that our husbands had been spared. On Friday I stood on the tarmac at Eglin AFB with my friend Janella's husband Derrick waiting for Torrey to disembark. I was cold even though it was late June and scared even though I knew he was fine. He walked slowly to me after he got off the plane. We looked at each other for a long tense moment then he folded me in his arms around me, resting his head on my shoulder. I could feel his pain, everyone's. It was like the air had been compressed around us and leadened w/ the pain of the whole 58th fighter squadron.
My husband's story was even more remarkable than mine. Maybe one day he will tell it to the world and not just a privileged few. I will say that he missed death by maybe 10 minutes, literally. those of you who have been blessed w/ the story know I speak truly. God was definitely listening to many prayers from my family and his, for Torrey's safety. Blessings know no bounds.
My husband received a purple heart for wounds received in the blast. But I believe his greatest Air Force achievement to date was his ability to continue working admits his anguish. To be tapped for a TDY not a month and half later. In which he went, did his job and came home, sane. To live every day since with the knowledge that hew was spared and his friends were not. That is my husband's legacy from this event. It changed him more than ANY event in our lives since. He went from the loving caring husband I knew to a man that I have almost nothing in common with anymore.
I know all the changes in him stem from this tragic event. Our lives were turned upside down before the birth of our first child. Our 1st anniversary was a joke. I tried to cheer him up, it was useless. We sat on the beach, while I watched him relive those moments in his mind. We lost 19 airman that horrible day and my marriage became all about survival. I know change is unavoidable in a marriage but change blasted into ours before it even had a chance to change on it's own. The man I married was NOT the man that came home from Khobar Towers. And yet I stay knowing that the man I knew and loved never really came back from Daharan.
For more information concerning the Khobars towers bombing in Daharan, Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996, go to these links.
link to CNN Terror In Daharan web page-
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/1996/saudi.special/index.html
link the Khobar Towers Memorials- curtesy of http://joshuawoody.com/ http://joshuawoody.com/download/9.PDF
link to the Khobar Towers Memorial Page- http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/united0/Khobar.html
link to the Air Force News 10th anniversary video- http://video.aol.com/video-detail/khobar-towers-rememberance/1476306495
