By Karl Schweizer
Herald Writer
EDMONDS — Thirty-six hours after Timothy McVeigh’s bomb tore through the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people, chaplain Ken Gaydos was there, ministering to members of the media and to emergency workers assigned to retrieve the bodies.
The Edmonds chaplain flew to Oklahoma City to relieve two friends, the chaplains of the Oklahoma City Police Department and of the local FBI office.
"There are no words to describe the awfulness and the destruction of what one bomb can do, and then to think of all the souls who were in that building someplace," Gaydos said.
Gaydos was then and still is the head of Support 7, a local nonprofit agency that offers support to families of victims of accidents and other sudden disasters.
Six years after his trip to Oklahoma City, the chaplain offered his thoughts on the bomb blast, its aftermath and the pending execution of McVeigh.
The blast traumatized everyone near it, including searchers who had the unenviable duty of finding the dead in the rubble.
"I had great empathy and compassion for the firefighters and rescue workers assigned to retrieve the bodies," Gaydos said. "To witness them coming off the end of a shift of picking up slabs, never knowing what slab of concrete they’d pick up and who they would find underneath it."
In the days following the blast, Gaydos said he saw the entire community pull together to support its victims.
"I’ve worked in ministry for over 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a community coming together the way that one did," he said.
The chaplain credited that community’s ability to care for the victims to the strong faith and belief in God of many of its members.
Gaydos said his own faith helps him to confront death on a regular basis. He avoids despair by following the biblical exhortation to think of good things and not to dwell on the bad, he said.
"I try not to focus on the carnage, but on the individuals who have the need," he said.
When Gaydos comforts a family, he will ask to see a photograph of the dead family member, so that he can remember that person the way the family will.
The piece of granite on his desk, retrieved from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, reminds Gaydos of the bombing, but, he said, "I prefer to focus on those dear families that experienced such indescribable tragedy."
Timothy McVeigh’s life illustrates what can happen when a man entertains evil thoughts over a long period, Gaydos said.
"Whatsoever a man thinketh, so is he," Gaydos said, quoting the Bible, which he calls his instruction manual. "If you dwell on thoughts that are impure, that are unholy, that are bad, long enough, the end result is clear. The consequences are as fixed as the law of gravity."
The chaplain called McVeigh very bright and very intelligent, but said that "somewhere along the line he chose to be influenced by Satan himself," allowing his dark thoughts to grow into action.
McVeigh’s death will satisfy some who are in the midst of bitterness and anger, Gaydos said, but it won’t end the pain of the victims and their families. It doesn’t help that the killer has not apologized for his crime.
"He was on a military mission and he feels successful about it," Gaydos said. "That’s tough on families, because much of healing is based on forgiveness."
As with any disaster, it is up to the surviving individuals to decide how to react to it, Gaydos said. Some remain bitter. Others choose to do something good, such as helping other victims of tragedy.
Many of the volunteers for Support 7 have themselves been affected by tragedy, and have been motivated to help others facing tragedy, Gaydos said.
Gaydos would not say whether he had communicated with McVeigh or his family, or whether McVeigh deserves to die, but said he favors capital punishment in general.
"There are people that I’m sure think the execution of Timothy McVeigh is not tough enough, that he should die the way their children died and he should suffer the way they suffered," Gaydos said.
"There are others who set all of that aside within the first year."
You can call Herald Writer Karl Schweizer at 425-339-3452
or send e-mail to schweizer@heraldnet.com.
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