Rick Rescorla
"Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely. If something should happen to me, I want you to know I've never been happier. You made my life." - Rick Rescorla said to his wife over the phone on the morning of September 11, 2001
Rick, who had been born in Hayle, Cornwall, United Kingdom, was a former British army paratrooper and U.S. Vietnam War veteran. On September 11, 2001, he was working as Director of Security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in New York City, whose offices were in the World Trade Center.
After the first plane hit the North Tower that morning, Rick ignored the warning for people in the South Tower to stay at their desks. Instead, he took a bullhorn and ran up and down the more than twenty floors of company office space directing employees out of the building. And just as he did with his men in Vietnam, he sang songs to keep everyone calm. One song went,
Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;
Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming?
See their warriors' pennants streaming
To this battlefield.
Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;
It cannot be ever said ye
for the battle were not ready;
Stand and never yield!
Once most of Morgan Stanley's employees were evacuated, one of his colleagues told Rick to evacuate as well. "As soon as I make sure everyone else is out," Rick responded.
Rick went back into the building, but he never made it out. He was last seen on the 10th floor, heading upward, shortly before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 A.M.
Sources:
“File:Rick Rescorla in war.jpg." Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rick_Rescorla_in_war.jpg>.
“Rick Rescorla.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla
Ripley, Amanda. The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—And Why. Crown Books, New York, 2008, p. 210. / “NBC's 9/11 Coverage Includes Interview with Pulitzer Prize-Winner James B. Stewart '73.” Depauw University, https://web.archive.org/web/20140110141038/https://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/12236/
Stewart, James B. (February 11, 2002). "The Real Heroes Are Dead". The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/september-11th-attacks-world-trade-center-rick-rescorla-the-real-heroes-are-dead)
