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TC is one of my heroes. And that's exactly what took place in Cokeville. May 16, 1986, will never be forgotten by the residents of Cokeville, Wyo. You see the bag ladies pullin' them around behind them when they go to the store and they can put their groceries in or whatever else. The Power of Faith: 25 Years After School Bombing, Town Remembers Story of Survival., Mitchell, Ruth Ann. As well as I can. Rich Haskell: Yep. Mark Junge: And your great-grandkids? Mark Junge: They weren't big enough, in a way. [5] The leaking gasoline's fumes prompted teachers to open the classroom windows, unknowingly creating vents for the impending explosion. Mark Junge: And that's the lesson we learn. By Deseret News. And afteryou look in there and you could see little pockmarks all through on the walls, and after we finished with our investigationit took us three days to totally do the whole entire sceneyou could tell where those pockmarks were bullets from the heat had gone off. The jug of gasoline had a pinhole-sized leak on its bottom. http://www.cokevillemiracle.com/movie.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cokeville_Elementary_School_hostage_crisis. And he had to defuse bombs. You can ask me anything about this today between 1-2pm. Mark Junge: EOD. I called back to my dispatcher and they did inform me that the school in Cokeville was being held hostage by two individuals and there was bombs involved. The bomb was an improvised explosive device constructed in a small two-wheeled shopping cart with two baskets, one on top of the other. There was nobody killed but the perpetrators. She fled the building and drove the Youngs vanwith Deppe and Mendenhall still insideto the town hall, where she reported her fathers plan. When I arrived I could see out on the lawn, there was a black object laying out on the grass. As long as that piece of wood was in there to keep those separated, it would not detonate. They attempted to crowd 154 people into one of the two first grade classrooms, a room with a total capacity of 30 students and a teacher. Mark Junge: Yeah, my brother-in-law worked in the Navy as a chief petty officer and he worked with what they called EOD. So we decided to take some masking tape, and we tapedI think it was an eight-foot square in the middle of the room, right here, and he pushed the cart, the homemade bomb into this, and we told the children this was the magic square. Rich Haskell: I was cookin' right along, yes I was! Mark Junge: Okay. #TodayInHistory: Today in 1986, The Cokeville Elementary School crises happened. The miraculous events that followed transformed the lives of hundreds of people, including many who witnessed angels or received heavenly help from deceased ancestors. The Youngs both died that day. On May 16, 1986, David and Doris Young entered Cokeville Elementary School with a gasoline bomb, a variety of rifles and handguns, David's philosophical writings and demands for $300 million in ransom. Did this shake the faith of some people, or would you say it strengthened it in most? She acknowledges these students for assisting her in researching her contributions to the WyoHistory.org web site. I have given that some thought. Rich Haskell: It's a combustible. Survivors began to tell their stories through a spiritual lens. If I deleted an entire phrase, I have inserted ellipses . "The sadness that comes with the death of an 8-year-old, you can . ", All told, 79 of the hostages suffered injuries, mostly second-degree burns, smoke inhalation, and other injuries from the exploding bomb. Nobody come inside this circle." You can see what's happening in the world today. You start messing with the kids, now you're going to have yourself a war. Maybe writing that up 2 years ago when this came along was more healing for me than for him, but I gave it all to him! Chalkboards andwhat do they call those?whiteboards, I think they are, along the walls. Rich Haskell: No, I don't think it exited. They had written the manuscript, ready for publication, when the Walkers contacted them as family friends and said you may want to come ask our daughters some questions. There was no give in the school bus. We're in a conference room here on the main floor. Rich Haskell: Pretty sophisticated guy is what he was. Parentheses ( ) are used for incidental non-verbal sounds, like laughter. And my children. They're the ones that died from the whole thing. You can't think, well, maybe something could happen, because yes it could. Because of the tiles and the window? First grade teacher Janel Dayton on the 1986 bombing of Cokeville Elementary School Published: November 8, 2014 Janel Dayton, Wyoming State Archives photo. He knew what the community was all about. Rich Haskell: I don't think that they were planningor David was planning on the ceiling tiles in the school. I believe a presence was entering the room at about that time. They learned to trust in their God, the kids were healed for the most part, and they value life more now. Well, when I arrived and saw that body layin' on the front lawn, I was told that was Doris. Used with thanks. Personally I gave him 17 pages of journal notes! Mark Junge: Well, and it burned some of the kids. And if I had been a little less of a jokester I may have seen something in that strange light. The detonation didn't do it, it was cut. Rich Haskell: That's my oldest boy, Steven. Kameron Wixom, son of Hartt and Judene Wixom, writes a childlike faith saved us. In his contribution to the Witness to Miracles book, Kameron writes: I didnt have to see angels, hear them, or even think that their presence might be required that day. I absolutely have. I was up there as part of his protection team. She was a total torch! David was a diabetic. When they asked pointed questions like "what did the angels look like?" For instance, The Cokeville Miracle Foundations 2005 book Witness to Miracles: Remembering the Cokeville Elementary School Bombing and the Wyoming State Archives oral history project called Survivor is My Name both focused on the reconstructing of this narrative as a miracle instead of a tragedy. Rich Haskell: There was also ayou look through the ceiling and there was a bigger hole up there. On May 16, 1986, David and Doris Young took 154 people hostage at the Cokeville Elementary School in tiny Cokeville www.wyohistory.org 25 years after school bombing, Wyoming town remembers the . When Deppe and Mendenhall finally got wind of his plans moments before the hostage crisis unfolded, they refused to participate. Mark Junge: Do you know the names and birthdates of all your grandchildren? I actually created a website knowing that people would wonder what was real and what wasn't. I contacted the dispatch up in Kemmerer to get firsthand information as to having second- and third-hand information and they informed me that the school indeed had been taken hostage. Seven people in the Chicago area died after ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. Princess, Deppe, and Mendenhall were never charged in relation to this crime because of their refusal to participate.[6]. Too many of 'em to try to remember their birthdays. Although many were burned, some severely, only the perpetrators of this horrible incident died. Others miracles were reported and some of those are recorded in this compilation.." One hostage observed a birthday on that day and songs were sung in his honor. Casper Chapter, Wyoming Archaeological Society, June Frison chapter, Wyoming Archeological Society. The children and adults escaped after the bomb exploded. On May 16, 1986, David Young, Cokeville's former town marshal, and his wife, Doris, carried five rifles, five handguns and a "dead man's bomb" into the elementary school. Rich Haskell: Well, I got a lot of it while I was in the Marine Corps and in the Army National Guard. [7] The mechanism was triggered by a dead man's switch, consisting of a wooden piece separating two metal connectors within the jaws of a clothespin, forming an incomplete circuit. On that Friday afternoon in their quiet, rural town, a deranged couple entered the communitys elementary school, took those inside hostage and detonated a bomb in a first grade classroom. Can you describe this? It's just something that you just have to stay on top of. Thus, when David and Doris Young entered the towns only elementary school with an arsenal of weapons and a gasoline bomb in a grocery cart, no one saw it coming. It was suggested we say a group prayer and I thought it was a great idea, so I helped gather a group of us together. [7] Geography [ edit] How has that experience shaped your life? There are a select number of people that would do this, so thank you. Rich Haskell: Approximately an hour and ten, hour and fifteen minutes. I don't know. That dead-man switch is a piece of string that goes around your wrist and it's hooked into a clothespin, the other end of it. I got a chance to talk to Jennie Sorensen Johnson, who was seven when David Young rolled a bomb into her first grade classroom. I certainly enjoy my grandkids a lot more. It was not a teacher, but her ancestor. I later learned he'd been shot in the back. Trent Toone, Mormon Times. In the movie, it shows the tension building towards the prayer and then shortly after the bomb went off. Have you seen the Unsolved Mysteries episode that had a segment on this? There are several great resources out there. Family is the most important thing in a Mormon family. Debbie Sparks and Steven Moore, both EMTs, discuss on May 9 the elementary school bombing. Amy Bagaso Williams with her husband and four children. He used to work in Cokeville. over there. And they had practiced how to get out of that building. Mark Junge: But all of these holes were above the level of the children. Witnesses later testified that just before the explosion David Young had connected the explosive to his wife. Of course, most children were elated by the prospects of an assembly. Rich Haskell: Yeah. Healing will come Slowly From Within a Wounded Cokeville. It would have killed them. Do you think this is a historical event? I was frightened and felt that we needed to do something to try to calm down or to be careful, because he was so agitated. My name is Mark Junge and I'm here at the Hiltonis it the Hilton Hotel? Rich Haskell: No. Audio/Video Recording. Thank you for doing this! Transcriber's notes: I have added some reference footnotes to this transcript where I thought appropriate. The windows had been knocked outhad been blown out. And knew what they could do? He had just big rings of perspiration. Rich Haskell: Well, by none of the kids bein' hurt that was supposed to be hurt. One teacher was shot when he tried to flee,.