THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 27, 1995 TAG: 9504270330
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Members of the Hampton Roads FEMA search-and-rescue team, heralded as heroes in Oklahoma City and praised as pioneers here for a successful first mission, returned home Wednesday.
``First of all, I feel enormous pride and a great deal of gratefulness that these folks were willing to devote themselves to the years of training required to perform with the level of excellence they did,'' said Mayor Meyra Oberndorf.
The 56-member crew of Hampton Roads firefighters and rescue workers arrived by military transport plane at Norfolk Naval Station at 3:30 p.m., a week after they were first put on alert.
They gathered arm in arm on the tarmac in a massive huddle, dropped to their knees and prayed.
Then they traveled in two luxury buses with police escort to a welcome-back party at the Fire Training Center in Virginia Beach.
Children carrying welcome-home banners and wives clutching bouquets of flowers erupted in cheers as the sounds of sirens grew from a faint wail to a powerful cacophony, signaling the team's arrival.
A week ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency squad had a reception of quite a different kind.
At 10 p.m. April 20, the team quietly climbed inside the shell of the blasted federal building in downtown Oklahoma City to search for victims - living and dead - a day after the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history was unleashed in the nation's heartland.
In the crumbled rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, firefighters cleared debris and located body after body.
The 12-hour shifts were equally grim and grueling. Although the team packed powerful concrete-cutting equipment, most work was done with only their gloved hands, tossing aside twisted steel beams and pulverized rubble.
They marked the locations of bodies with spray-painted orange arrows. Federal officials said the death toll could top 200 by the time all the missing are accounted for.
Scattered around the task force members inside the building were reminders of the youngest victims who never escaped the second-floor day-care center.
A child's shoe. A sing-along record. A coloring book. A red wagon. And the mangled bodies of the children who played there.
Counseling will be available to the firefighters and rescue workers, local officials said. Experts said most of those working inside the building will carry the horrific images with them for a lifetime.
``I wept all last week, and again looking at the front page of the paper this morning,'' Oberndorf said. ``But it is good we can do more than just grieve and weep; it is good we can make a significant contribution to the suffering there. And I want to express my gratitude to the citizens of Oklahoma City who made sure our people were well received.''
Although they had been put on alert for three previous disasters, this was the team's first national deployment.
``This is something we needed,'' said Fire Chief Jim Kellam in Oklahoma City. ``This has been good for us.''
The team, based in Virginia Beach, began in 1993 spending more than $200,000 for equipment and the initial training of local firefighters and rescue workers. The members represent fire departments of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Newport News and at least two Navy bases.
The Hampton Roads team was sent home after another FEMA team was activated to take its place.
Oberndorf said each member of the task force will be given a box of salt water taffy.
``Just a little sweetness on their return, considering horrors they have seen,'' she said.
The deployment added $300,000 of federal money to the team's coffers to buy additional rescue equipment. Fire spokesman Mike Wade said the shopping has already started. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by PAUL AIKEN/
Members of the Hampton Roads search-and-rescue team kneel in prayer
near the jet that brought them back from Oklahoma City. The
56-member crew arrived by military transport plane at the Norfolk
Naval Station Wednesday.
Master Firefighter Leon Dextradeur of Virginia Beach, joined by his
wife, Leanne, greets his son, Dillon, 2, at the Beach Fire Training
Center.
KEYWORDS: OKLAHOMA CITY EXPLOSION BOMB HAMPTON ROADS RESCUE TEAM by CNB