loma Tragedy Spawns Many Heroes 9om page 1 destruction he has ever seen was iA Vietnam until Wednesday, April 19, 1995. Boykin, who was riding near downtown with his daughter Brenda Palmer and grandson Richard C. Palmer IV, reached t He site of the federal building jitit 15 minutes after the blast. Boykin, said he knew instinc tively from the smell and from the looks of the crumbling build ing that hundreds of pounds of explosives had been used. Boykin said the building smelled of a bomb that had to be made with plastic explosives and toxic fumes. He guessed that 1200 1500 pounds of explosives had been used to cause such destruc tion. "But the building was well constructed. We could see the pillars firmly standing, although nothing else was, and that helped us find many in those initial moments," Boykin said. As Boykin 's daughter drove, by, they saw the huge black smoke billowing up from down town and rushed to the scene where they immediately saw a dazed man walking not far from the federal building located at 200 NW 5th Street. Boykin told Brenda to stop so they could ren der assistance. The dazed man told them of the blast and by then they could see the building. Boykin told his daughter to help the man, kissed his grandson goodbye and headed off to help anyway he could. Brenda said she started cry ing when her father said he was going in the crumbling building. However a friend of Boykin, also on the scene, comforted Brenda by saying her father was a brave man and would be okay. In addition to his distin guished 23 plus years military career, Boykin served an addi tional 20 years in the Justice Depaitmerrtrpfimariiy at the fed eral prison in El Refto^ar-a Physicians' Assistant. While Brenda called the dazed man's wife to let her know he was okay, Boykin had arrived on the scene and identified himself to officials as a Physicians' Assis tant and immediately went to work trying to find survivors, a job for this 65-year-old man that would last from shortly after 9 a.m. until after 5 p.m., that day. - When he walked in, Boykin said he could see that the first floor of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building had totally col lapsed and he knew that bodies were trapped underneath. "Peo ple were walking around in a daze. Just a shell of the building was left," said Boykin, describ ing the scene he viewed as he took those first steps inside." "It was like the side was cut out (like a claw reached in and pulled a huge chunk out) and the part of the structure left was slid ing-dowi! into a heap of rubble." Boykin who entered the building on the south side clesfcribCeHiaw in those initial moments he could already see parts of bodies scat tered and some of the workers crushed at their desks, dead." It was shortly after that he saw one of his friends, Susie (Boykin couldn't remember her last name), who worked in the credit union. Susie told Boykin that at least eight people were in the credit union at the time, she and another person were stand ing off to the side when the roof caved in killing the other six. She was one of the lucky ones, who with the assistance of Boykin, made it to a stretcher and was taken to a nearby hospi tal. Boykin said he worked all day, stopping only when the res cue workers were evacuated from fear of additional explo sives detonating and drinking only a little bit of water on the breaks. "People were walking ? wounded," said Boykin, who personally aided at least six of the victims. Yes, he felt angry. "But peo ple who do stuff like this don't have any feeling," he said. Boykin said late Wednesday night that he was sure the parts of a vehicle (a wheel and part of a running board) found by a law enforcement officials would surely lead to the arrests of the criminals who caused the blast. What impressed Boykin the most and kept him going that day were people, parents waiting and praying, looking for any sign of their children. Within 30 minutes of the blast, parents had made it to the scene and lined the street along with others silently awaiting any news. Oth ers joined the volunteers, who also started immediately gathei ing, rendering aide to pec >le escaping from the federal build ing and surrounding structures nearby that were severely dam aged. Why did he do it? "It is no more than right to do it since the government gave me my training and education. I'm too old to go into combat, but I'm still willing to help," Boykin said . Lizzie E. Boykin, James Boy kin's wife of 30 years, said the entire family thinks of him as a hero. "We ail think he's a hero because he just ran into the building and started rescuing those who were able to get out of the building," said Mrs. Boykin. Boykin just brushed off all the talk of being a hero by say ing he did what he had to do and there were many others pitching in every way they could to help. Watt Discusses By VERONICA CLEMONS Chronicle Suff Writer Congressman Mel Watt said he las not voted in the majority lately, ind he wanted to tell his constituents why. , "I. don't like being against the :ide, but I cant support what's been transpiring in the first 100 days of Congress," he told about 30 people who attended a town meeting at Win ston Salem State University last week. Watt said out of 33 bills that have conie before him, he has voted yes for 6nly five. The reason for him sup porting so few of the proposed bills by tpe majority Republican House of Representatives is they that hurt the poor and help the wealthy. Many of the bills will bring cer tain doom to many programs and drastj^ajly cut others, but Watt said sincftranj$f tteSM&toy?