Boston Marathon Bombing: How one cadet was inspired to make a change

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Rachel Hammes
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. --  April 15, 2013 seemed a perfect day for the Boston Marathon. Weather forecasts called for ideal running conditions - mid-50s to low-60s with barely any wind. The city buzzed with the excitement of thousands of runners and observers, like electrical currents of anticipation traveling up and down the long flag-lined streets. Cadet 4th Class Nicole Hahn, now of Cadet Squadron 24, wasn't old enough to run the marathon herself, so she and Angie Horvat, a friend, edged as close as they could to the finish line to watch her running coach Lori Petrie cross.

To Hahn, a Denver native who before only considered attending the Academy, the trip felt like a vacation - until the first bomb went off.

"At first I thought it was a celebratory cannon or something like that, because people were finishing the marathon," Hahn said. "But then we heard a huge group of people in front of us scream, 'Terrorist!' and they were shoving people and pushing people around. That's when we knew something was wrong."

The finish line was instantly chaotic, with smoke and shouting adding to the confusion. Hahn, Horvat and the other spectators began to run, but were cut off by another explosion.

"We almost ran into the second one," Hahn said. "And by then we knew we had to get out of that strip, so we pretty much just turned onto the closest street we could find that led away from it, and we ran down that and just tried to get away. We started panicking, because this was only a minute after my running coach crossed the finish line, and we knew the bomb was at the finish line."

Hahn and Horvat tried calling Petrie, but she didn't answer.

"Luckily, we got ahold of her husband finally, and he was able to get ahold of her," Hahn said. "She was OK, and she said she was heading back to the hotel we were staying at."
Hahn texted her mother once she knew Petrie was safe.

"I knew if she saw this on the news without me telling her she would be on a plane as soon as she could," she said with a laugh. "I didn't want to call her, because I knew if I tried to talk to her I would cry - because that's what happens when you try to talk to your mom. So I just put, 'Something big happened. There was an explosion, but I'm OK.'"

Hahn tried to be as calm as possible for her mother and Horvat, who she knew felt responsible for her.

"It was kind of scary because Angie was crying. She didn't really know what to do," Hahn said. "She was probably like, 'Oh my gosh, I have a kid with me and there are explosions going on - what do I do?' I knew I couldn't cry, because there couldn't be two of us crying at the same time."

Instead of panicking, Hahn focused her attention on finding the hotel, although several streets were blocked or crowded by medical teams rushing to the scene. When they reached it, they found the hotel was being used as a refuge for those separated from loved ones. Hahn and Horvat were relived to finally find Petrie at the crowded hotel.

"We had a big group hug, and she was crying and Angie was crying," Hahn said. "I think I still was in survival mode, where I was like, 'I can't cry yet.' It was so sad to see so many runners and so many people who were watching their loved ones run not know what to do. Everyone looked lost. But I also saw a lot of people coming together."

To Hahn, watching people come together was a silver lining.

"Everyone felt lost and helpless, but they were still so willing to help everyone else," she said. "I saw so many people offering money, food - I offered my sweatshirt to someone who looked really cold. It was just little things like that, and you could tell the little things made everyone more comfortable and more at ease. And that's what I like to remember from that experience. Just seeing how everyone came together. And that helps get me through any relapses of thinking about what happened."

Hahn, Horvat, and Petrie were able to catch one of the last flights out of Boston before the city shut down. While a full-scale man hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the bombers, was underway across the country, Hahn was reunited with her mother.

In the aftermath of the bombing, Hahn reassessed plans for her future. She had been considering liberal arts colleges and thought of entering the Peace Corps or working with Doctors Without Borders after college. But after witnessing the bombings, she wanted to help prevent anything like it from ever happening again.

"I'm glad I was there," she said. "Because without that, I don't think I'd be here. It definitely introduced me to how fragile certain balances are. How much we take our safety for granted, and our freedom for granted. Seeing that happen and how easily it happened - how easily it got past security - I was like, 'I want to do something to prevent that.'  That was my moment where I realized I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to be part of a force that could stop that from happening again. And that's why I came to the Academy."

Hahn's air officer commanding, Lt. Col. Jerry Cook, feels Hahn's experiences have made her stand out among other cadets  not only because of what happened to her, but how it changed her.

"I would say she's definitely a leader," Cook said, explaining that four degree cadets are unable to hold official positions of authority within the squadron. "But I think that within her classmates, they consider her a leader."

As a cadet, Hahn juggles academics with cross country and track athletics.

"The ability to balance all those things speaks volumes about her," he said. "Being a cadet athlete in two sports and then doing everything that's going on has got to be challenging."

While more than year has passed since the bombing, Hahn said the event still affects her daily life.

"That was the first time I ever thought, I don't know if I'm going to live through this," she said. "And that was a very unreal situation that I'd never experienced before. I just think of the boy who died that day, and the people who had to get legs amputated because of the explosion. I'm so grateful to be alive. And I realized that we need to be thankful for what we do have, and keep that in perspective. And that actually helped me through (Basic Cadet Training), too - just appreciating the little things. It helped my mindset and helped me realize why I'm here."

While Hahn felt like her emotions were frozen immediately after the bombing, her mother helped her realize she had a choice.

"I think for the most part, you need to let things like this change you," she said. "When I came back home and I still wasn't crying, my mom said, 'It's OK to cry and it's OK to be scared and admit you're feeling scared because without the self-awareness, you're not going to learn anything from it, and you're not going to change in a positive way. And nothing will ever improve.'"