He was working the bombing scene. He still needed to know whether his wife was safe.
Retired FBI bomb technician Barry Black joins Keith and Jon to revisit Oklahoma City and Waco, explain how he entered explosives work, and share the perspective he carries after 31 years in the Bureau.
Barry T. Black is a retired FBI Master Bomb Technician and former SWAT sniper whose career spanned more than three decades. His assignments included Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympic bombing and Ground Zero after 9/11. He teaches at the University of Central Oklahoma Forensic Science Institute and is the author of Hazardous Devices: Memoir of an FBI Bomb Technician, Accountant and Sniper.
Barry Black was working a fugitive investigation when the Oklahoma City bomb exploded in 1995. At the scene, his role was to make an initial assessment while a personal question remained: was his wife, Kelly, safe? In this Center Stage conversation, he tells Keith and Jon how the answer eventually reached him, recalls his service at Waco, and explains why a career spent dealing with dangerous people has not convinced him that most people are bad.
While working at the Oklahoma City bombing scene, Barry asked a court security officer whether he had seen Kelly. The officer told him she was safe at the relocation site. Barry later learned that the officer had not actually seen her. Confirmation came at about 10:30, when Kelly paged him and left a voicemail saying they were okay. This moment preserves both parts of the story: the reassurance that helped him briefly, and the message from his wife that followed.
The first reassuring answer was not verified. Kelly's own voicemail was the confirmation.
Keith asks what those historical events changed in Barry. After naming some of the cases from his 31-year career, Barry answers with a belief about people: most are good. He describes the work of law enforcement partners and the military as public service, and pushes back on the picture of the world a person can get from too much television. It is his perspective after the job, expressed in his own words.
His experience with dangerous people did not become his view of everyone.
“You, you have to learn from each one of these things.”
Barry Black · Source 00:59:32.450–00:59:34.598
A little more context
Who is Barry Black?
Barry is a retired FBI Master Bomb Technician and former SWAT sniper, a forensic science educator and the author of Hazardous Devices.
What does Barry describe about his wife that morning?
He says an officer first reassured him that Kelly was safe, but later admitted he had not seen her. At about 10:30, Kelly paged Barry and left a voicemail saying they were okay.
How did he become a bomb technician?
Barry says he met FBI bomb technicians while standing post after the fire at Waco. He asked about their work and became a bomb technician the following year.
What book does he discuss?
Hazardous Devices: Memoir of an FBI Bomb Technician, Accountant and Sniper. He says it is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers.
Complete optional guest posts
Drafts for Barry to edit and optionally use. Copying does not publish or send a post.
Optional first-person draft · Barry may edit
The message from Kelly
At the Oklahoma City bombing scene, I had a job to do. I also needed to know whether my wife was safe.
Kelly worked in the Murrah Building. As I was walking out after an initial assessment, I asked a court security officer whether he had seen her. He told me she was okay at the relocation site.
I learned later that he hadn't actually seen her. He thought I needed to hear that she was safe.
At about 10:30, Kelly paged me and left a voicemail. They were okay. That was her own message, in her own voice.
I talked with Keith and Jon about those moments on Mornings in the Lab. The conversation also took us back to Waco and the beginning of my work as a bomb technician.
This clip is the part about waiting for word from Kelly. The full conversation is on my Center Stage page.
Optional first-person draft · Barry may edit
Most people are good
After 31 years in the FBI, I still think most people are good.
Keith asked me what changed me as a man after working cases that included Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympics and 9/11.
You deal with some very bad actors in that work. But they aren't everybody. If you watch too much television, you can start to think the whole world is crazy or criminal. That hasn't been my experience of people as a whole.
I was fortunate to do a job built around public service, alongside people in law enforcement, our state and local partners, and the military. That's part of the picture too.
This moment from my conversation with Keith and Jon gets to the perspective I carry after that career. We also talked about the cases, my family and how I became a bomb technician.
Watch the clip, or find the full conversation on my Center Stage page.
Optional first-person draft · Barry may edit
The job I didn't know existed
I didn't know the FBI had bomb technicians until I met a couple of them at Waco.
I was standing post after the fire when two men approached. I stopped them and asked who they were. They told me they were FBI bomb technicians, there in case there were explosive-device components in the debris.
I asked what they did. They described working with state and local partners, the military, and assignments around the world.
My next question was how I could get that job.
A year later, I became a bomb technician. In my conversation with Keith and Jon, I traced that unexpected turn in a career that began with an accounting background and eventually took me into teaching as well.
There's much more of that story in my memoir, Hazardous Devices: Memoir of an FBI Bomb Technician, Accountant and Sniper.
The full Center Stage conversation is available on my guest page.
