The Heartland Heritage Museum & Gallery had a wonderful turnout for their 40th Commemoration of the Bombing at Checotah on Aug. 7. Several locals told their recollection of what happened that day and how it impacted them personally. Local newspapers lined the room giving insight to that impactful day when town folk called relatives to say “I got bombed” after a military truck laden with 10,000-pound bombs collided with another vehicle on an entrance ramp.
In the early morning hours on August 4, 1985, Checotah residents were literally shaken from their beds when several bombs exploded, shattering their windows, damaging property and rocking foundations. This accidental collision between a tractor-trailer loaded with bombs from the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant and a passenger vehicle resulted in two small explosions. Then the biggest explosion would carve out a crater 27-feet deep and 35feet across the highway. Because of this destructive blast the National Guard would come in to evacuate and secure the site, and unforgettable memories would forever be engraved on the minds of each civilian that lived in Checotah.
Shanna (Wood) Utley recalls being 15 years old and listening to her parents discussing what was going on when they were all awakened by the initial crash and first small explosion. She remembers the huge explosion that happened next that blew everything off one side of her room and slammed it to the opposite side of her room. She stated she literally thought the roof was going to cave in on top of them before they could get out safely.
Wayne Williams lived closest to where the bombs went off. He stated that the blast blew out one of his home’s walls and he could reach out and touch the grass. He worked for the City of Checotah back in the day and told the community how he was asked to stay in town and secure the area as the rest of the town was evacuated. He also told about how some people during all the excitement left home without their medication so he and another gentleman had to break back into those residents’ homes to retrieve their medications.
Former councilman Ernie Moore was a volunteer firefighter who had responded to the first explosion and was in the process of extinguishing the flames when the biggest explosion occurred, knocking him several feet away from the truck. One fire truck was literally disabled by the blast.
Don Campbell, who worked for the local newspaper in town, the McIntosh County Democrat, said that he lived just outside of town but came running in to see what happened. However he was told that everyone had to be evacuated and no one was being let back inside the city’s limits. Only the late Gene Housley, whose father was part of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, was able to obtain up-close and personal pictures due to being on site on the crash. In fact, one of Housley’s best pictures was taken when he was actually knocked off his feet by the biggest blast while taking pictures of the damage of the first explosion.
Carol Spindle, who was co-owner of the newspaper with her husband Davie Spindle at the time, told how they weren’t at their home when the blast occurred but they were trying to make it home and they were rerouted. “As we were looking around wondering where everyone was and why windows were broken out and glass was everywhere, Davie, my husband rolled down the vehicle window and asked what happened. That’s when Jerry Davidson who was directing traffic said, “They bombed us, Dave!”
Jamie Hilbert, daughter of Carol and the late Davie Spindle, was able to obtain the official incident report from the government that took months before they released it, but told the community “Because of this accident/incident National laws were established on how bombs are transported across the United States, which is really an interesting little piece of Checotah’s history today.”
Imogene Duvall recalled her husband telling her to get her clothes on and Teri Fields remembers having nothing but her pajamas on and curlers in her hair when her family was forced to evacuate. Iris Park, Dir. of the Heartland, read from another newspaper and gave a totally different perspective of the accident from the ladies who were actually hit by the truck and then pulled out of their vehicles to safety.
The late Lloyd Beaird was the mayor at the time of the incident and on a 20/20 clip that the crowd watched during the commemoration, he stated how everyone blamed the other person but nobody took responsibility for all the damage that was in the millions. Besides residents’ homes and businesses being damaged, the school was also damaged. One teacher, Cindy Updyke, was interviewed right after the bombing in her classroom. At the commemorative event Updyke that she stated, “If the bomb had went off during school hours, several of my children would’ve been most liking killed. So it was really a miracle that it went off when it did – in the early morning hours when most were in bed asleep.”
Jason McPeak talked about how all the downtown windows exploded and how glass literally lined the streets like it had been swept to the curbs. Robert Jennings with Peoples National Bank confirmed their windows exploded and Karen Martin stated her business also received damage.
One thing all the residents agreed upon was they were grateful no lives were lost the day Checotah got bombed. However the stories that would come from this memorable event would forever mark the memory of many and would definitely go down as part of Checotah’s most talked about history.
