The Longest Day…

Wikipedia entry of the Washington Navy Yard shooting:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Navy_Yard_shooting

This is the third post in a 3-part series describing my experiences with the Washington Navy Yard shooting that occurred in 2013.

If you missed the first post, you can find it here:  http://50shadesofdave.com/2018/07/02/is-this-some-sort-of-drill/

If you missed the second post, you can find it here:  http://50shadesofdave.com/2018/07/08/this-is-not-a-drill/

So there we were..about 100 of us crammed inside a conference room that was supposed to accommodate about 50, so a lot of us took turns sitting in chairs or on the floor or walking out into the hallway and just standing around.

We were told that we were safe and that other people were shuffled off in to other safe buildings nearby. Every now and then I’d turn my phone back on the send off a quick text to Chantel and check notifications from Facebook and then I’d turn it back off. I couldn’t get caught up in the cycle of updating everyone how I was doing or what the latest news was..mainly because we didn’t know any more news than what was being shown on the tv.

We all watched as the body count grew and grew..and then the rumors of another gunman started filling the airwaves. Every now and then new people would filter in to where we were, visibly shaken..one man had a big bloody gash on his forehead, and though I was tempted to ask them what they knew or if they saw anything, I left them alone to process their own feelings.

And that’s how the next 9 hours passed for us. At one point some people came in with snacks that they had foraged in other people’s desks in the building where we were in lockdown. It wasn’t much but we were all just happy to be safe and our appetites weren’t at the top of our thoughts at the time.

A couple hours after starting our lockdown we saw the news that the gunman was found dead and that the authorities were clearing the rest of the building. Having classified areas meant that the cops had to break down a lot of doors that normally were locked with some major gear (huge deadbolts, electronic scanners, etc).

That was what took the majority of the time..waiting for the “all clear” to be announced so we could go home. Then at around 6 pm we were told we could go but they wanted us to walk through some clearing area first. I guess investigators were ready to get any witness accounts of what happened.  I didn’t have anything to provide besides that I heard the first few shots and then evacuated, so I went on my way.

I didn’t have any keys since they were on my desk in the building. My wife had arranged for a second set of car keys to be left where I parked in a commuter lot about an hour away from DC. I just had to get there.

Luckily we were told that the mass transit folks in DC would give anyone a free ride if we we associated with the Navy Yard. So I was able to get on to a metro train and a coworker offered to give me a ride to the commuter lot.

My car was the lone car in the normally packed lot by the time I got there. I found the spare keys in the wheel-well where Chantel said she taped them and sat in the drivers seat and took a deep breath.

I called my wife on the way home and got home about 30 minutes later. I dropped everything in the foyer and just sat and hugged my family and had some leftovers.

They gave us the next few days off and I checked my email to see what was expected. I basically worked from home for the next month until they found us a temporary office situation to work out of.

I finally got my personal belongings and laptop about a month later and we eventually got back into the building about a year and a half later after they renovated from all the bullet holes and broken doors.

Grievance counseling was offered but at the time I didn’t feel the need to partake since I didn’t know anyone personally that had been killed. It was about a year later that I was told that I show signs of PTSD and that I should seek help…