Evans survives terrorist blast
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A native of Warren County, Evans, 43, can remember the day he sat on the front porch of his home after high school graduation and told his mother he was joining the military. He never imagined he would eventually retire from the U.S. Army and work overseas for a Department of Defense contractor.
Now at home after last month’s suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Evans is almost calm about his experiences while living there and training the Saudi Arabian interior national guard in different weapons systems. He said it’s something he will never forget.
Standing on the front porch of the same house he left so long ago, he said the bombings that eventually killed nine Americans, some of them his co-workers, were unexpected.
Although security alerts were routine and threats were a reality, everyone was surprised by what happened on May 12, when housing compounds were bombed by terrorists, which some say were the work of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group al-Qaeda.
Evans was housed about one block away from where the blasts took place. He was surfing the Internet around 11:30 p.m. when he heard an explosion, but didn’t think much of it because training exercises were taking place at a nearby firing range.
“I went back to my computer and heard another explosion about five minutes later, but it was real close, so I walked out my door. It was kind of smoky and I heard small arms fire. I went back into my quarters and a minute or two later, my building just blew up. I was thrown in the air and came back down. There was a lot of dust and smoke and I could hardly breathe,” Evans said.
“I finally got oriented. I could see and I jumped out of my window and got down and waited for a few minutes. Then I ran to the bachelor’s swimming pool, which was right across from the four-story bachelor’s quarters, which were completely destroyed.
“We didn’t know if it was concussion from the blast from the truck. Some said there were suicide bombers going through each block. The whole compound was completely destroyed.”
Evans’ manager was killed along with several people he had worked closely with. He believes the blasts were caused by suicide bombers carrying bombs in vehicles that got past compound checkpoints after the bombers killed the guards. In all, 26 people died.
Today, he doesn’t know if he will go back to the area and continue working for the Vinnell Corp., which he had worked for since 1996 on a yearly contract basis in an effort to beef up his pay after retiring from the military.
While most of the Saudi people were non-violent, being touched by terrorism was a life-changing experience, he said. Evans was allowed to take vacation and is in the process of deciding if the comforts of Warren County and the aftermath of the ordeal are calling him home.
Thumbing through photographs of the damage and news clippings of a scene that seems far away, he knows he is one of the fortunate ones.
“A lot of my close friends and my co-workers died in this building. This was my manager,” Evans added of a news account noting an ex-military captain’s death. “He had just come back from vacation. He didn’t have much longer on his contract and he was on his way.
“When I’m alone, I think about it. It’s really touching. Every day you would see them and talk,” he added of his co-workers. “There were good times and there were bad times. I’m just lucky. I count my blessings that I’m alive.”