He worked for the General Services Administration at the time of the bombing and still does, as a property management advocate. He lost two co-workers and nearly all his softball team in the blast. Now he is one of 50 bombing survivors who serve as docents at the new Oklahoma City National Memorial Center Museum. Every Sunday afternoon, Mr. Williams puts on his royal blue polo shirt with National Park Service patches and drives from the outskirts of town to the same block where he once worked. His hours are flexible, and his tasks are simple.
Docents take tickets, hand out brochures and point to restrooms.
They are encouraged to talk to visitors but are not required to reveal their survivor status. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor also have survivor volunteers. Still, Kari Watkins, the executive director of the Oklahoma City museum, struggled with the decision to recruit survivors and victims' relatives. To her, it seemed a grim notion, asking them to return to the site of their trauma and relive the experience on a weekly basis for strangers. They would be peppered with questions.