EDMOND, Okla. – A policeman at two of the nation’s most-publicized mass murders said Monday police officers who responded to the Orlando nightclub  massacre, as well as survivors, “need someone to talk to” well into the future to overcome their trauma.

“Orlando brought back a lot of bad memories,” said Paul Timmons. “When you have seen something like that you need to talk to someone” for a prolonged time to get back to normal.

Timmons was a first responder on the Edmond, Oklahoma, Police Department  Aug. 20, 1986, when postal worker Patrick Henry Sherrill killed 14 fellow employees and wounded six others with two .45 caliber pistols at the Edmond Post Office. The killing spree inspired the term, “going postal.”

Nine years later, as a police officer on the Oklahoma City force, Timmons was again a first responder when a truck-bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, leaving 168 people dead and hundreds more injured.

“Counseling was not available to police officers at the post office killings,” said Timmons, currently a captain with the Oklahoma State Police. “Someone finally figure out it is a stressful deal, and now there are things in place to go for counseling.”

Nevertheless, he added, the nightmarish experiences of seeing bodies and blood everywhere, and trying to help bring order out of chaos, can create lasting mental health issues that need to be tended to by health experts.

“These are not things public safety sees every day,” he said.

Herb Rettke, 84, is a postal employee who arrived at the Edmond Post Office just when the slaughter of his co-workers, including his brother-in-law, ended three decades ago. He said the memories and pain of the violence remain.

“It is unbelievable that some people take out their hatred on ordinary citizens,”  said Rettke. “It happened 30 years ago and it has happened again in Orlando. I can’t understand it. It is not in my heart, but it is in somebody’s else’s heart that they could do this.”

Rettke said despite the grief and mayhem, he and other postal workers the next day “got the mail together, took it out and continued” to deliver it to the homes and businesses of Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

A bronze statue honored the postal workers who lost their lives was erected in front of the Edmond Post Office. A memorial service is planned there at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20, in remembrance of the victims. Edmond residents have been asked to place yellow ribbons on their mailboxes that day.

Patty Miller is a reporter for the Edmond, Oklahoma, Sun.