On the morning of June 25, 1996, Bryan Brock and Stephen Goff were in a mall in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, searching for a Persian rug that Goff could take home once their deployment came to an end.

Goff later was upset that by the end of the day, his newly purchased rug had been stained, Brock said. Not from food or beverage, but from blood he shed as debris was hurled around his room when a truck bomb went off just outside the tower complex where he and Brock were stationed.

June 25 marked the 20th anniversary of one of the largest terrorist attacks on deployed American military personnel in history. In all, more than 300 were injured and 19 U.S. servicemen where killed.

Members of an Iranian-backed Hezbollah group loaded a water truck with nearly 5,000 pounds of explosives with the intent of detonating it in the Khobar Tower Complex in Dhahran where U.S., British and French servicemen and women were housed. Unable to gain entry, the Hezbollah members detonated the explosives on the north side of the facilities near tower 131, Brock said. “I ran right along this fence line where the bomb went off probably 10 minutes before it went off.”

Brock, who lives in Durango with his family, missed the 10-year anniversary memorial, but last week he attended the 20th in Washington, D.C.

“Things like this sometimes get lost, and I felt a personal responsibility to bring the memory of those fellow airman that I knew and lived with for those months overseas back into the limelight for a little while,” he said.

Brock had just returned to his barracks when the explosion occurred, shattering the windows and sending shards flying about the room, said Brock, who was a medic with the Air Force’s 4404th Medical Group.

“I didn’t have time or even think about trying to get my whole uniform on; I just threw on some hiking boots and some shorts and a T-shirt and met down in the entryway to our building,” he said. The hospital commander, Col. Douglas Robb, directed him to the site of the explosion.

“He pretty much just grabbed me and said ‘let’s go,’ and we took off running in the dark towards where all the chaos was occurring,” Brock said. “The rest of the staff started to get the clinic and the hospital ready for the wounded, but we were just about standing in the hole within five minutes of the blast going off, just physically searching through rubble looking for survivors, with people funneling through with really grave injuries.”

Goff, who had served in the Marines and was a flight surgeon with the 4404th, was there as well.

“He was one of the heroes of the day, he actually ended up with a hole in his chest immediately after the blast, and he made it to the scene and started treating and suturing patients,” Brock said. It was several hours later that Goff’s injuries were treated.

The men and women stationed at Khobar spent the following days conducting triage and transporting the wounded to nearby Saudi hospitals, he said. “No matter your job at the time, everybody is a medic in something like that.”

The toll was large, but the numbers do not do justice to the widespread impact, Brock said. “The victims that day were not the only victims of that bombing.”

In the days following, lists were posted identifying who had returned to duty, who was missing and who had died, he said. “People had to come in individually to find out where their friends were, and when they were on the wrong list, it was pretty emotional.”

Brock remembers making frequent trips to the hospital to check on the wounded, he said. “Not everybody died right away. There were folks who were severely wounded, and we spent time with them. We tried to keep them as comfortable as we could. I don’t know their names or their stories, but I’ll never forget them.”

Brock received a Commendation Medal with Valor from the Air Force for the role he played coordinating triage and transport of the wounded to long-term care facilities.

Goff received a higher distinction.

“He ended up being awarded the Airman’s Medal, which is the highest medal the Air Force gives out, for his actions that night,” Brock said.

After leaving the military, Brock moved to Durango and in 1998 married Valarie Gonzales. They have a son, Evan, and two daughters, Kaitlyn and Samantha. He works as a gas controller for Red Cedar Gathering Co.

“I’ve been in Durango pretty much ever since it happened,” he said.

But on Friday, Brock found himself outside of his small mountain community and in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Khobar Towers attack – and memorializing a man dear to him.

“I’ll be there to honor Doctor Goff and I’ll bring a picture of him and some flowers, and if I get the chance to say something, I’ll try to. I don’t know if that’s going to be in the cards, but he was a hero, and he was somebody I admired and looked up to,” he said before leaving for the memorial.

Goff took his own life in September 2006, joining the ranks of veterans who have died by suicide, Brock said. “He, like many combat veterans, suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the Marines in North Africa as well as the event at Khobar Towers.”

The event changed the way that Brock looks at the world, he said. “I definitely try not to take anything for granted at this point. When you’re that close to something that traumatic and life-changing, you do some soul searching I think, and you realize just how precious life is and how short a time we have on this planet,”

Memories of the incident come to the forefront whenever there is a terrorist attack or event that results in mass casualties, he said. “You got terrorism worldwide, and it almost seems like every week there’s something going on.”

But it is not something he lets dominate his life, Brock said. “You got to live your life, you know. You can’t live in fear, and I think once you do, you know it sounds cliché, but then that’s when they win. If the intent of terror is to cause fear and make people live the way they want you to live or be uncomfortable, then they’ve won.”

Luke Perkins is a student at Fort Lewis College and an intern at The Durango Herald. Contact him at lperkins@durangoherald.com.

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Valarie Gonzales’ name.