Many Saint Anselm students and professors were participants in the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15 that was cut short after two explosions at the finish line. These explosions took 3 innocent lives and wounded 180 others. Fortunately, all Anselmians returned to campus safely with no severe injuries.
Jared McAdam ‘16 learned the horrifying details of Monday’s explosion from his father, Scott McAdam, a Phillips Medical biomedical technician that was working at the medical tent that day. At large events such as this one, Phillips Medical transports medical equipment that may be needed in the case of an emergency. Technicians, such as Jared’s father, are sent to supervise the use of the equipment.
Jared tells The Crier, “What happened that day was not expected at all by [my father] and his coworkers.”
Although Scott has been working in this field for years, the injuries people sustained on Monday were among the worst he has seen.
“My dad, who used to work in a hospital fixing medical devices, has seen some gruesome injuries in the ER, but I know that he has never seen something like this. My dad saw all types of injuries that were brought into the medical tent from missing limbs as well as adults and little kids that sustained shrapnel wounds.”
Scott remained on site for several hours, preparing all of the patients for transportation to the hospital.  After his efforts that day, Scott received numerous e-mails from Phillips Medical employees across the world that recognized him for his bravery.
When recounting this story to Jared, Scott tells him, “They think I am a hero, but I’m really not – I just did what a normal human being would do and went to help innocent people. It was my immediate reaction to help.”
Although Scott views his actions as ordinary, Jared is certain that first responders, like his father, made an enormous difference that day.
“Even though my Dad doesn’t think he is a hero, I am pretty sure what he did that day was very heroic and, in my eyes, he is a true hero. Personally I think if it wasn’t for people like my dad and the first responders, the aftermath of the situation would have been a lot worse than it was,”  says Jared.
There were many Anselmians present at the race including Allyn Doyle ’13, who was among the group of students with Coach Paul Finn. While not directly participating in the race, Doyle was one of the lifeguards brought on the trip to cheer on and encourage the Anselmian runners.
“As the Saint Anselm people started coming by, a few of us would jump in and start running to keep the marathoners company. I jumped in with a group of Saint Anselm runners and went along with one of them as his pace started to pull away from the others,” explains Doyle.
While the bombs had gone off when Doyle and the other Anselmians were at mile 23, they were unaware of the situation and were able to continue running the marathon.
“We got to mile 25 and we were told to stop, that bombs had gone off, and that this was the end of the marathon. We weren’t given any direction as to where we needed to go and cell service was down. Another runner and I jumped up on a barrier to flag down as many Saint Anselm runners as we could and we gathered about 8 of us. I guided the group in the direction of the Westin Hotel because that was our initial meeting spot,” says Doyle.
As a result of the bombings, the Westin Hotel was closed off to the public. Thankfully, Doyle was able to find another group of Anselmians, and they took shelter at Northeastern University. Here, Doyle contacted Coach Finn and planned the trip home.
Looking back on this day, Doyle is pleased with the teamwork between the runners and lifeguards under these difficult conditions.
“It was a frustrating and confusing time for sure, but the marathoners should absolutely be commended for how well they handled the situation and for putting their trust in the lifeguards to guide them home. The lifeguards set out on Monday morning with the intention of bringing the marathoners home safe and that’s what they did. The circumstances under which they had to do it may have changed, but they did exactly what they were there to do,” comments Doyle.
Doyle says that throughout this time, the entire Anselmian community has provided much support to all marathon participants.
“We are all so blessed to have gotten the unwavering and unbelievable support of everyone at Saint Anselm. The student body has responded incredibly well and only serves to remind us of how much of a family we are. From the second we got on the bus Monday morning to the moment we were embraced by the crowd that met us when we got back, we never felt alone and that is what makes Saint Anselm so special,” expresses Doyle.
Later that week, on Thursday, the FBI identified the two suspects as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The Russian natives, who have been living in the United States for more than 10 years, were reported to have recently shifted to a radical form of Islam that is anti-Western and anti-American.
Hours after being identified by the FBI, the two brothers murdered MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, 26. Immediately afterwards they stole an SUV from a man, although he was able to escape without being harmed.
Local police pursued the brothers in a wild car chase that lead into Watertown, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot in the crossfire and pronounced dead.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was able to flee the scene, only to be caught by police Friday evening. Tsarnaev was brought to Beth Israel Hospital after sustaining serious gunshot wounds from the chase with police into Watertown. He later underwent a sixteen hour interrogation with police before being given his Miranda Rights.
The evening Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured, national songs could be heard and American flags were seen draped from windows across campus.