September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
Terrorist attacks paralyzed the nation on September 11, 2001, when airplanes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City as well as the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. In St. Charles Parish, security measures increased dramatically at refineries and in particular at the nuclear power plant.
9/11 Pentagon Casualty is Norco Native
Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert (Bobby) Hymel, son of Sidney and Elsie Gourgues Hymel, was born in Hahnville, grew up in Norco, and was a graduate of St. Charles Borromeo Elementary and High School (1964) and the University of Southwestern Louisiana at Lafayette. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was killed in the terrorist attack at the Pentagon.
Hymel was working as an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Thirty years prior, in 1972, Hymel was the lone survivor of the crash of his B52 aircraft attempting to land at a base in Thailand after it was hit by two surface-to-air missiles near Hanoi. Lieutenant Colonel Hymel is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
This text is copyright © material by Marilyn Richoux, Joan Becnel and Suzanne Friloux, from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana: A Pictorial History, 2010.
