The 9/11 Memorial and Museum is located at the World Trade Center, which was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people lost their lives as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a planned attack on the U.S. Capitol by terrorists on United Airlines Flight 93, which was foiled by passengers and crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There were five recorded victims who were Louisiana natives. 

  • Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Joseph Hymel, 55, from New Orleans, was a Management Analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the Pentagon. He served in the Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars. 
  • U.S. Navy Lieutenant Michael Scott Lamana, 31, from Baton Rouge, was a flight officer who managed the Navy’s global fleet from the Pentagon. He was reported missing and presumed dead after the attack. Lamana was set to graduate from the University of Maryland with his MBA in December 2001.  
  • Louis Calvin Williams III, 53, from Mandeville, was vice president and an investment management consultant for Vestek, according to the 9/11 Living Memorial. He was at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan and is listed on the National September 11 Memorial Monument. 
  • Kevin Wayne Yokum, 27, from Lake Charles, was an information systems technician for the U.S. Navy. He was stationed at the Pentagon where he lost his life during the attacks. 
  • Elizabeth Ann “Betty” Farmer, 62, from New Orleans, was an executive assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center. A former jazz singer, Farmer once toured with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. 

Former President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida at the time of the terrorist attacks. He was taken to Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, five hours northwest of New Orleans, where he sat in a conference room and prepared to address the nation.

In a brief video distributed to news outlets nationwide with the help of Shreveport’s local TV stations, Bush assured the nation that there would be swift action and thanked those on the frontlines who helped rescue those in the attacks.

“Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended,” he said.

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Shannon Stecker is a creative writer, a marketing director, and a lover of stories. She has spent the past 15 years of her career in a creative space – as a print and broadcast journalist, a freelance...