In Photos: Remembering the Oklahoma City bombing, 15 years on

They say time heals all wounds. But for many of the families of people who died when a bomb destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City, 15 years isn’t yet long enough.
“Time heals nothing,” Debi Burkett Moore, whose brother, David Burkett, was killed, told The Associated Press. “It makes it a little more bearable, but it heals nothing.”

On Monday, according to the AP, about 2,000 people attended a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the terrorist bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which took the lives of 168 people and left more than 600 injured. Antigovernment extremist Timothy McVeigh was put to death in 2001 for the attack. A co-conspirator is serving multiple life sentences.

The remembrance took place at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, on the site of the former federal building. A bagpipe player marched past the memorial’s reflecting pool to open the ceremony. Some people placed flowers, wreaths, and American flags on empty chairs placed at the site to represent each person killed.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke to those gathered, calling for resilience in the face of tragedy. “What defines us as a nation, as a people and as communities is not what we have suffered,” she said, according to the AP, “but how we have risen above it, how we've overcome.”


Pipe Sergeant Kevin M. Donnelly, of the DEA Black and Gold Pipes and Drums, walks past the Field of Chairs and the Reflecting Pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, April 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) | More photos


From right: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano,  Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, and his wife, Kim Henry, bow their heads during the memorial ceremony, April 19, 2010, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/John Clanton, Pool) | More photos


Family and friends of Lakesha Levy, one of the 168 victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, gather for a prayer in the "Field of Chairs" at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, April 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) | More photos


Charlene Green, left, hugs Constance Favorite, right, while remembering Favorite's daughter, Lakesha Levy, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, April 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) | More photos


Michelle Terry adjusts a wreath on the chair representing her mother, Claudette Meek, prior to the start of the ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) | More photos
 

Flowers rest on the chair representing Christi Yolanda Jenkins, who was killed in the Murrah Building bombing, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial before the 15th-anniversary observance of the tragedy, April 19, 2010, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) | More photos
 

Members of the Perrin Field Honor Guard Corp, made up of Boy Scouts from Pottsboro, Texas, line up facing the east gate of the memorial before the 15th-anniversary observance ceremony of the Murrah Building bombing, April 19, 2010. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) | More photos