The Cokeville Miracle

by Hartt

  Many of us have been scarred for life by this event and many of us are still recovering. Many still weep inside, have nightmares, and shake. Some still have scars on the inside as well as burns on the outside. Many of us are grateful for the prayers said in our behalf and for the prayers of our parents who were helpless waiting at home, at work, at the high school, or in the streets outside of the school, each fearful for the lives of their children and anticipating the worst yet praying for a miracle. Many prayers came from around the world. In response to those prayers, I believe God sent his angels to protect us.

  As I have had chance to talk with fellow survivors, I hear more and more of continuing miracles that happened after May 16, 1986, in their lives. From miraculous healing of burns, to voices or feelings of the Spirit at the time of the hostage crisis that warned us to move, to do something, to go or to stay. Parents felt moved to say a prayer or perform other acts of faith to protect their children. Because we were so close to the bomb, I am convinced that 154 miracles took place that day. There were unseen and seen angels there that day—some in the form of parents, firefighters, teachers, police officers, nurses, EMT personnel, and doctors; others as angels of light some of us recognized as our ancestors.

  I remember walking into Room 4, seeing guns lined up against the left wall by a table. We thought we had been brought there for an assembly. Even at a young age, I realized this was odd since we had never had guns in the school before. I walked passed David, who had a bomb in a little cart in the front of the room. I was brought over to the window with my class. Mrs. Kasper was my teacher for afternoon kindergarten. I remember there were a lot of us cramped in tight against the wall of windows closer to the front of the classroom where I was. We were told to sit quietly. I could see my brother, Byron, in another class just a few people away to my left, but I couldn’t talk to him. I remember being on my knees and after a bit a teacher said we would be here a while so we should try and be comfortable and sit cross-legged. I remember seeing kids crying. I remember a girl crying almost uncontrollably and the smell of gas. I remember thinking something was wrong with all of this.

  Later, David had a box outline taped on the floor around him to keep us from getting to close to the bomb. “A magic square.” We were told to stay out of the inside of that square. After some time had passed, I saw my sister for the first time. She was coming toward me, and she told Byron and I to come with her. I felt so relieved to see her; she was my angel. She put her arm around me, guarding me from David, like a mom, and told me, “Don’t look at the scary man.” I looked toward the floor. She walked me to the other side of the room near the orange cabinets.

  We sat next to the Jamisons and the McNamaras. It seems like we had said a prayer as siblings and friends. I don’t remember who said it. I started to understand better that this man was bad and we were hostages, which meant that we couldn’t leave. Although I started to understand from my sister that we were in a bad place, I actually felt at peace. We were together as a family and close friends. We were very close to the bomb even though we were outside of the “magic square.” It seemed we were on the line, next to the orange cabinets. The teachers started bringing games for us kids. We got a “Lite Brite” game. Julia Jamison and I started making a smiley face out of the glow pegs. We had just finished the smile face, and I felt very happy and actually remember smiling. I looked up and “Boooom”—the bomb had gone off.

  I was close to the door. I jumped up and then ran to the left toward the door. I tripped over a chair. I tried to get up but began to be trampled by kids. I could feel people pushing me down. I tried to get up but couldn’t. I remember it was very hot and pitch black. All I could see was flames at my feet. I tried to kick at the flames but they wouldn’t go out. I remember feeling helpless and thinking, “I am never going to see my mom again!” I don’t remember how I got out. The next thing I remember, I was in the hall and there was light coming from the door at the end of the hallway. I remember hitting those doors and then feeling fresh air.

  I ran to my bike, which was on the opposite side of schoolyard from the street. My only thought was that I wanted to get out of there fast. To my horror, men dressed in SWAT gear and firefighters began to jump over the fence and yell at me, I didn’t know they were there to help protect me, so this frightened me even more. They had guns. They were yelling at me saying, “Don’t get your bike,” “Just run. Get out of here.” I ignored them, grabbed my bike, and took off. I began to pass kids fleeing the school. I rode my bike to the street where there were ambulances, parents in the streets, and kids with black soot all over them. Some were bleeding. Some were being hosed down, with their shirts off, to cool their burned skin. I was met in the street by my mother, (she was six and a half months pregnant) and by my sister, Steph. Shortly afterward, Byron came running over. We were emotionally scarred for life, but we were safe. We had survived “The Bomb.”

  I later heard that our neighbor came to tell my mother about the situation. My mother, who had three children being held hostage, and Carlene, who had two children being held hostage, knelt in prayer. These two great women pleaded with God in behalf of their children and all the children and hostages in the Cokeville Elementary, right before the bomb went off. They said their prayer, felt peace, and then walked outside onto the front porch, and “Boooom” the bomb had gone off. My mother, pregnant, ran toward the school.

  Earlier that day, my father was prompted and heeded that prompting as an act of faith. Because of that faith, his children were given a miracle that protected them from harm in 1986.

  I’m grateful for those who took the time to investigate the facts after the hostage crisis situation. They could see that this was a miracle, and they have declared it to be true. To my knowledge, in the history of school hostage situations, this is the only one that didn’t end in a fatality other than the perpetrators. My witness is that we were saved by God. We are only here because of Him and His angels.

  Appendix IV

  JoAnna Wiscombe’s Account

  May 16, 1986, started out the same as most days, with morning chores, breakfast, and prayer. It’s interesting to note that the night before we were planning a trip out of town with grandparents who were visiting, and at the last minute plans changed, otherwise my children would not have been in school that day.

  After lunch, the children—Stephanie, ten; Byron, eight; and Joshua, six—left for the afternoon school. Joshua left later because of chores that had to be finished.

  After waking from a rest with our youngest son, I heard the doorbell ring and a knock at the door. My neighbor, Charlene, stood there asking if I knew what was happening at the school. I said “no” and invited her in to tell me. She said, ”Our children are being held hostage.” My heart raced and I thought of their safety. How could such a thing happen? I ran to the phone to confirm the information, and sure enough, it was true. I suggested we pray. After our prayer, we thought we should walk over to the school where many were gathered. At the door, we heard the explosion and the sound of very loud noises going off.

  It was frightening. We both took off at a run. I ran to the corner with the thought that I may have seen my children for the last time. It was a feeling of fear, difficult to express. I was out of breath and six and a half months pregnant.

  I could see many people gathered, including some friends, and as I approached the entrance of the school, my daughter came running up to me and said, “We are okay!” She was covered in black with spots on her clothing and with singed hair. I felt relieved and full of gratitude. Byron found me next. His hair and eyelashes were also singed. His first question was, “Mom, can we move?” Finally, six-year-old Josh came riding up on his bike, and we were all together. With gratitude, we gave thanks.

  In the days and weeks that followed, we talked of the events and how they felt. We all felt a bond with each other and the people and the community, even after moving away. In reflection of this day and our children’s brush with death, we
are thankful that we have three children and three in-laws who have given us fourteen grandchildren who would not be here if a miracle, through the power of prayer, had not taken place. Each of our six children is a miracle, but our family would have been totally different if the events of that day had been different. This miracle was truly an answer to prayer and a building block of faith.

  Appendix V

  Zero Equals Infinity

  The following statement is a copy of David Young’s philosophy distributed to Cokeville students and teachers the afternoon of May 16, 1986. Similar copies were mailed to the press and to then-President Ronald Reagan. (His paper allowed only a half-inch left margin and ran off the page on the right side. His infinity symbols were hand-drawn.)

  Zero Equals Infinity

  Seemingly, some thousands of years ago, several individuals combined, or perceived their combination and therein created Man.

  This creation was, and is, a concept; a thought or idea, neither right or wrong (left) but a way among ways.

  For the better part of the interim then, men played with Man making love, fire, food, mores, children, Gods, language, tools, wastes, etc: combinations of divers sorts, in almost as many directions (purposes). Now people come and people go, but always as people, no longer as individuals from which people had risen (or succumb). Almost as frequently as people come and go, additional, more distant concepts (from whatever reality is the individual/that precedes them); families, clans, tribes, villages, towns, cities, states, and civilizations make their brief passages and then leave the scene.

  These various combinations of Man with their various concepts of themselves invented war in order that any singular combination might achieve dominance over other combinations. This came to pass as Man attempts to preempt those rights of the individual. The individual remembers reality only in learned (rather than the original and innate, therefore false) responses to right (his combinations values) and wrong (other combinations values differing from his own.)

  History is the study of these combinations.

  As a matter of record, therefore, some 2400+ years ago, Socrates, an individual, addressed himself to an evolving concept called knowledge. Knowledge is again a way to conceive, but conception is enlarged through rules less combination specific. Philosophy, remote as ever, is slowly displaced by science (mathematics, medicine, astronomy, etc.), a disciplines observing the singular rule that a fact becomes knowledge when it can be proved.

  Proof is a concept, it suggests something that “is” on account of itself—it “is” proven. At best a probability, at worse nonsense, proof in any event is very distant from reality. Nevertheless it has been the predominant concept these 2000+ years and any combination that has competed with other combinations using it has eventually either adopted it or ceased to exist.

  Be this as it may, knowledge and its attendant proofs remain but a way among ways. Socrates, reputed to be the wisest man of his time, investigated the basis of knowledge in a manner still available (Plato wrote it down and it survives), still as viable, and still as conclusive as it was 2400+ years ago. Socrates concluded, just as we must, “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”

  Nothing? This knowledge of ‘nothing’ then is all we have for all the lessons of history, these 2400+ years, Christ, revolutions, insurance, relativity, moon and space probes, crusades and inquisitions, Shakespeare, Newton, medical science, hydrogen, fusion, metallurgy, Hitler, electricity, government and law, etc.?

  The answer to this concern regarding the nothingness of knowledge is rather yes and no. The Knowledge of Nothing is all there is (to know), but 99.9% of us don’t even know that. Mostly, as in all these several thousands of years, we believe (another concept!) we know that 2 plus 2 equals 4 or that a line perpendicular from the ground is up, or that Christ is good (bad or indifferent), or that our names or ages are such and such.

  All these beliefs we accustom to call knowledge (and knowledge ordained to have been proven, yet!) we wont to impress on all combinations (peoples) for their (and our) collective salvation (moral integrity).

  That our belief that the moon is something we can put men on, or that a certain creed offers a unique conclusion, or that E=MC2 is not one whit more true than a New Guinean tribes concepts and rationales that have preserved its stone age culture into our world, leave the majority of us feeling wronged. Therefore, rather than learn the reality and limitations of knowledge, we refute truth with some age old axiom (bullets conquer stone axes), note the bobbing heads of surrounding bigots (99.9% of eve-ryone) and retunr without doubt or question to selfish, self-centered, egotistical sub systems and social specific cultures from which we otherwise might free ourselves.

  Were we to continue, however, the investigation of knowledge, we’d need to internalize Socrates’: All I know is that I know nothing. 0 = ∞, Zero (or Nothing) Equals the Infinite. TRUTH!

  How is this to be? Believing 2pplus 2 equals 4 hardly invalidates Knowing 0 = ∞. The diabolical trick we’ve otherwise learned (internalized) is realativity; when in Rome do as the Romans, when doing math do as the mathematicians, when fighting a thermonuclear war, discard spears and arrows for the thermonuclear devises, etc.

  While 2 plus 2 equals 4 (and there would have been no men put on the moon if it hadn’t) it might just as well equal 22 or many (‘primitive’ tribes frequently respond thus to any mathematical concept above 3) or various other concepts that are easier to ignore than to realize, know, and internalize. But would we internalize these various concepts, we realize the relativeness of these various formulas, that knowledge is indeed relative, therefore untrue, therefore unknowledge, certainly nothing unless falsehood.

  That 0 = ∞ is TRUE, REALITY, and a symbolic manner of rephrasing Socrates’ conclusion regarding the limits of knowledge is another matter. Here we confront what we thought we pursued all these years, what we should have remembered from 2400 years ago. The imortal Greek told us, showed us, and taught us the limitations of knowledge and we killed him for it, not merely one individual once, but in all this nonsense we’ve engaged in since. Still, 2400 years, 24,000 years, or 240,000 eons, there is truth-relativity and TRUTH. Let’s cease to be beasts and begin to be Gods!

  As was suggested at the beginning of this writting, Man is an invention, he is lots of individuals. Rather or not individuals ultimately exist (and what we mean by asking that question) is matter for another writting, it will presently suffice to remember that we still singularly (individually) conceive and perceive in the ever-present. Aware of the relativity of the games we play in our various existances, we will allow our individual trajectories (precepts and concepts) their original and innate freedom to achieve their own accords (determine their own natures) without the hindrances of Man, families, clans, villages, towns, cities, states, or civilizations.

  Responsible, as ever (we die our own death, remember?) for our own actions (no Man, family, clan, village, town, city, state, government, or religion condoning withholding the above noted original and innate freedoms) we will collectively evolve into the next step of wherever it is we’re going (Nowhere in the REALITY of 0 = ∞ but still a long was from achieving it.).

  “We are all ONE and ‘we’ came apart to do ‘this’ for something ‘to do’ in Nothing and Infinity.”

  David G. Young

  4/th Oct. 1978

  Tucson, Arizona

  Appendix VI

  List of Fourteen Factors

  The following is a list of fourteen factors, compiled by bomb expert Richard Haskell and his co-investigators, which mitigated the fatal effects of the deadman’s bomb designed by David Young.

  The connecting wires to the lower set of blasting caps had been cut through cleanly, preventing battery current from reaching the caps and detonating them. This reduced the amount of gunpowder sprayed into the room on detonation by 40 percent.

  The two blasting caps that did not detonate were placed on a lower shelf than the three that did, thus preventing t
hem from being triggered by the bomb’s heat.

  The soft ceiling tile absorbed much of the overhead heat.

  The two small windows were open, which helped vent at least part of the bomb’s initial concussive force.

  The two hallway doors were also open, which had a further dampening effect.

  The tables and chairs had been moved from the center of the room, which allowed the children to more quickly escape the initial impact of the fireball.

  No one was sitting or standing directly against the walls, where the main combustive force of the blast traveled after spreading across the ceiling.

  None of the children were standing or sitting in the 10' × 10' taped-off “magic square,” surrounding the bomb, and were thus slightly distant from the effects of the initial explosion.

  David Young selected, for some reason, a plastic jug that leaked; he then did not notice the leak when he filled the jug with gasoline. Further, he did not see or smell the leaking gas all afternoon, even when he was sitting or standing next to the jug. Most important, the leaking gas turned some of the explosive particles into paste, preventing their becoming airborne or igniting when the bomb went off, further minimizing intended damage.

  Doris’s body apparently absorbed much of the explosion’s fury since she was standing between the bomb and the hostages.

  The children had had a school-wide drill just the week before in the school cafeteria “on how to escape a fire quickly from a single room.”

  Princess gave an early warning to authorities, including critical details about the guns and the bomb her father had brought into the school. Civil Defense workers who had the necessary contact network to begin proper response to the emergency “just happened” to be on hand to coordinate it.