Currently at the Memorial & Museum
Preserving History...
Museum Artifacts Tell a Story
May 30, 2011
The Museum’s Gallery of Honor highlights the individuals who were killed in the bombing. Family members were asked to provide a photograph and an item from their loved one’s life to be placed in a shadow box. Each photograph and object offers a small glimpse of that person’s life, but these artifacts are vital to telling the story of the bombing.
On February 11, 2000, Glory Davis brought items for the box belonging to her husband, Sergeant Benjamin L. Davis. The items depict the most treasured parts of Ben’s life: his family and his career in the U.S. Marines. On the right is a photograph of his daughter Vandrea and on the left a photograph of Glory and Ben together at a Marine function. The medal is his U.S. Marine Corp insignia, a central part of his identity, and the miniature flag a symbol of serving the country he loved.
As the result of Ben’s unselfish devotion to his duties and exceptional leadership potential, he was nominated by his commanding officer as one of only twenty applicants out of a pool of 166,487 enlisted Marines for the prestigious Meritorious Commissioning Program to become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. The local selection officer, Captain Michael Norfleet came to Ben’s office on the morning of April 19, 1995, to make telephone calls from Sergeant Davis’s office regarding the status of the nomination. The telephone numbers called were busy and Captain Norfleet told Sergeant Davis he would call back in a few minutes and went into the next office. Less than a minute later the bomb exploded, killing Sergeant Davis and 166 others. Later, Marine officers from the selection board of the Meritorious Commissioning Program in Washington, D. C., would travel to Oklahoma City, meet with members of Davis family and convey to them the remarkable impression Sergeant Davis’s record had made upon the board members.
Next to the Gallery of Honor are kiosks in which visitors can read stories, submitted by family and friends, about those who were killed.
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