Rick Rescorla- A true American hero most people have never heard of

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Rick Rescorla- A true American hero most people have never heard of

Posted: 9/11/2010 3:05:20 PM EDT

Wikipedia entry

In 1992 Rescorla warned the Port Authority (owner of the World Trade Center) about the possibility of a truck bomb attack on the pillars in the basement parking garage, but was ignored. When terrorists used this method in the 1993 attack, Rescorla was instrumental in evacuating the building, and was the last man out.[5]

Rescorla recommended to his superiors at Morgan Stanley that the company leave Manhattan. Office space and labor costs were lower in New Jersey, and the firm's employees and equipment would be safer in a proposed four-story building. However, this recommendation was not followed as the company's lease at the World Trade Center did not terminate until 2006. At Rescorla's insistence, all employees, including senior executives, then practiced emergency evacuations every three months.[6]

Actions on 9/11

Rescorla was supposed to be on vacation on September 11, 2001, in preparation for his stepdaughter's upcoming wedding in Tuscany. But as well as covering a shift so one of his deputies could go on vacation, he was also scheduled to attend a lunchtime meeting to discuss the lawsuit Morgan Stanley was filing against the Port Authority about the security lapses that led to the 1993 attack.

At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck World Trade Center Tower 1 (see September 11, 2001 attacks). Rescorla, following his evacuation plans, ignored building officials' advice to stay put and began the orderly evacuation of Morgan Stanley's 2,700 employees on twenty floors of World Trade Center Tower 2, and 1,000 employees in WTC 5. Rescorla reminded everyone to "...be proud to be an American ...everyone will be talking about you tomorrow", and sang God Bless America and other military and Cornish songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as they left the building, including an adaptation of the song Men of Harlech:

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!

Rescorla had most of Morgan Stanley’s 2700 employees as well as people working on other floors of WTC 2 safely out of the buildings by the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit WTC 2 at 9:03 a.m. After having led many of his fellow employees to safety, Rescorla returned to the building to rescue others still inside. When one of his colleagues told him he too had to evacuate the World Trade Center, Rescorla replied,

"As soon as I make sure everyone else is out". In Amanda Ripley's words:

Moments later, Rescorla had successfully evacuated the vast majority of Morgan Stanley employees out of the burning tower. Then he turned around. He was last seen on the tenth floor, moving upward, shortly before the tower collapsed. His remains have never been found.[7]

According to Stephan Newhouse, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Rescorla was seen as high as the 72nd floor evacuating people, clearing the floors and working his way down. He was last seen heading up the stairs of the tenth floor of the collapsing WTC 2. His remains were not recovered. As a result of Rescorla's actions, all but 6 of Morgan Stanley's 2700 WTC employees survived. Four of those six were Rescorla and three deputies who followed him back into the building - Wesley Mercer, Jorge Velazquez, and Godwin Forde

And that is only part of his story.

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000307.html

911 Remembered: Rick Rescorla was a soldier
Greyhawk

Note: This post is originally from September, 2003.

Have you seen the movie We were Soldiers?

A good one, in my opinion. Given just a couple hours to tell a tale I think all in all the folks involved did a commendable job.

Perhaps it's hard to go wrong, given the source material. We Were Soldiers Once, And Young is an account of the battle at Ia Drang Valley, fought in the still early phases of the war in Viet Nam. The book was written by Hal Moore, who was then a Lt Col and commander of the American troops in the valley, and Joe Galloway, a reporter who was at the battle. Their collaboration is a truly human account of men at war- including the enemy viewpoint, as Galloway and Moore's efforts at capturing the battle on paper were thorough enough to include interviews with survivors from the other side.

Take a look at the cover. The prominent figure is Rick Rescorla, described thusly on the LZ Xray web page:

No sleep for 48 hours.
Grimy, unshaven, filthy uniform.
Canteens loose, dogtags hanging out, pocket unbuttoned, helmet strap hanging.
No insignia of rank, sleeves up.
Dirty fingernails.
His bayonet is fixed; trigger finger alert and ready for action.
Lt. Rick Rescorla, Platoon Leader, B Co 2/7 Cav in Bayonet Attack on the morning of 16 Nov 1965(1)

This is not a posed shot; this is a man moving forward into combat. Eyes forward. Ready.

On that day,

The PAVN Commander knows that he had severely weakened and damaged the defenders in the Charlie Co sector the previous morning. What he does not know is that a fresh company - B Co 2nd Bn 7th Cav, had taken over the position after that engagement. That company, unmolested the previous afternoon, had cut fields of fire, dug new foxholes, fired in artillery concentrations, carefully emplaced it's machine guns and piled up ammunition(1).

Rescorla directed his men to dig foxholes and establish a defense perimeter. Exploring the hilly terrain beyond the perimeter, he came under enemy fire. After nightfall, he and his men endured waves of assault. To keep morale up, Rescorla led the men in military cheers and Cornish songs throughout the night(2).

Rescorla knew war. His men did not, yet. To steady them, to break their concentration away from the fear that may grip a man when he realizes there are hundreds of men very close by who want to kill him, Rescorla sang. Mostly he sang dirty songs that would make a sailor blush. Interspersed with the lyrics was the voice of command: "Fix bayonets - on liiiiine?reaaaa-dy - forward." It was a voice straight from Waterloo, from the Somme, implacable, impeccable, impossible to disobey. His men forgot their fear, concentrated on his orders and marched forward as he led them straight into the pages of history.(3)

The PAVN assaults four separate times beginning at 4:22 AM. The last is at 6:27 AM. They are stopped cold, losing over 200 dead. B Co has 6 wounded. At 9:55 AM, a sweep outward is made which results in more enemy dead and the position secured(1).

The next morning, Rescorla took a patrol through the battlefield, searching for American dead and wounded. As he looked over a giant anthill, he encountered an enemy machine-gun nest. The startled North Vietnamese fired on him, and Rescorla hurled a grenade into the nest. There were no survivors(2).

Rescorla and Bravo company were evacuated by helicopter. The rest of the battalion marched to a nearby landing zone. On the way, they were ambushed, and Bravo company was again called in for relief. Only two helicopters made it through enemy fire. As the one carrying Rescorla descended, the pilot was wounded, and he started to lift up. Rescorla and his men jumped the remaining ten feet, bullets flying at them, and made it into the beleaguered camp. As Lieutenant Larry Gwin later recalled the scene, "I saw Rick Rescorla come swaggering into our lines with a smile on his face, an M-79 on his shoulder, his M-16 in one hand, saying, 'Good, good, good! I hope they hit us with everything they got tonight - we'll wipe them up.' His spirit was catching. The enemy must have thought an entire battalion was coming to help us, because of all our screaming and yelling."(2)

"My God, it was like Little Big Horn," recalls Pat Payne, a reconnaissance platoon leader. "We were all cowering in the bottom of our foxholes, expecting to get overrun. Rescorla gave us courage to face the coming dawn. He looked me in the eye and said, 'When the sun comes up, we're gonna kick some ass.' "

Sure enough, the battalion fought its way out of Albany. Rescorla left the field
with a morale-boosting souvenir: a battered French Army bugle that the North
Vietnamese had once claimed as a trophy of war. It became a talisman for his
entire division.(4)

Lt Rescorla survived that engagement and many others.

He had grown up in a village on England's southwest coast and left at age sixteen to join the British military. He'd fought against Communists in Cyprus and Rhodesia. He then came to America, he said, so that he could enlist in the Army and go to Vietnam. He welcomed the opportunity to join the American cause in Southeast Asia. He worked his way up through the ranks to Sergeant before being commissioned.

The epitome of the young warrior, he was the sort that England seems to have bred in abundance for centuries: the type of young man who in times past went forth from Britain and created an empire upon which the sun never set. England happened to be fresh out of wars in the 1960s, so Rescorla became an American and fought in ours.(3)

More stories from Viet Nam:

The survivors of the 7th Cavalry still tell awestruck stories about Rescorla. Like the time he stumbled into a hooch full of enemy soldiers on a reconnaissance patrol in Bon Song. "Oh, pardon me," he said, before firing a few rounds and racing away. "Oh, comma, pardon me," repeats Dennis Deal, who followed Rescorla that day in April 1966. "Like he had walked into a ladies' tea party!"

Or the time a deranged private pulled a .45-caliber pistol on an officer while Rescorla was nearby, sharpening his bowie knife. "Rick just walked right between them and said: Put. Down. The. Gun." recalls Bill Lund, who served with Rescorla in Vietnam. "And the guy did. Then Rick went back to his knife. He was flat out the bravest man any of us ever knew."(4)

After fighting in Vietnam, he returned to the United States and used his military benefits to study creative writing at the University of Oklahoma. Literary minded, even before college he had read all fifty-one volumes of the Harvard Classics and could recite Shakespeare and quote Churchill. He had started writing a novel about a mobile-air-cavalry unit, and had several stories published in Western-themed magazines. He eventually earned a bachelor's, a master's in literature, and a law degree.

Rescorla then moved to South Carolina for a brief teaching career. He left for greener pastures; jobs in corporate security eventually led him to Dean Witter in 1985. He moved to New Jersey, commuted to Manhattan, and rose to become vice-president in charge of security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

And, oh by the way, was still in the Army, as a Reservist, having advanced to colonel before retiring in 1990.

Rescorla's office was on the forty-fourth floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. The firm occupied twenty-two floors in the south tower, and several floors in a building nearby. In 1990 Rescorla and Dan Hill, an old Army friend, evaluated the security, identifying load bearing columns in the parking garage as a weak point. A security official for the Port Authority dismissed their concerns. On February 26, 1993, a truck bomb exploded in the basement.

Rescorla ensured that every one of his firm's employees was safely evacuated, and was the last man out of the building.

Rescorla met his wife while running barefoot. Still determined to be a writer he had been scripting a play set in Rhodesia, based on his experiences there. Few of the native Rhodesians had worn shoes, which was why, he explained to her, he had to feel what it was like to run barefoot.

Some insight into the man's character:

Rescorla may have told Susan that he was running barefoot as research for a play, but he had already been running barefoot in Africa, and then at Fort Dix, toughening his soles to the point where he could extinguish a fire with his bare feet. He told Hill that if he lost his boots in combat it wouldn't matter. This was something he'd absorbed from his years in Africa. "You should be able to strip a man naked and throw him out with nothing on him," he told Hill. By the end of the day, the man should be clothed and fed. By the end of the week, he should own a horse. And by the end of a year he should own a business and have money in the bank.(2)

Small wonder that the final chapter of the story goes like this:

In St. Augustine, Dan Hill was laying tile in his upstairs bathroom when his wife called, "Dan, get down here! An airplane just flew into the World Trade Center. It's a terrible accident." Hill hurried downstairs, and then the phone rang. It was Rescorla, calling from his cell phone.

"Are you watching TV?" he asked. "What do you think?"

"Hard to tell. It could have been an accident, but I can't see a commercial airliner getting that far off."

"I'm evacuating right now," Rescorla said.

Hill could hear Rescorla issuing orders through the bullhorn. He was calm and collected, never raising his voice. Then Hill heard him break into song:

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!

Rescorla came back on the phone. "Pack a bag and get up here," he said. "You can be my consultant again."

He added that the Port Authority was telling him not to evacuate and to order people to stay at their desks.

"What'd you say?" Hill asked.

"I said, 'Piss off, you son of a bitch,' " Rescorla replied. "Everything above where that plane hit is going to collapse, and it's going to take the whole building with it. I'm getting my people the fuck out of here." Then he said, "I got to go. Get your shit in one basket and get ready to come up."

Hill turned back to the TV and, within minutes, saw the second plane execute a sharp left turn and plunge into the south tower. Susan saw it, too, and frantically phoned her husband's office. No one answered.

About fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was Rick. She burst into tears and couldn't talk.

"Stop crying," he told her. "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."

Susan cried even harder, gasping for breath. She felt a stab of fear, because the words sounded like those of someone who wasn't coming back. "No!" she cried, but then he said he had to go. Cell-phone use was being curtailed so as not to interfere with emergency communications.

From the World Trade Center, Rescorla again called Hill. He said he was taking some of his security men and making a final sweep, to make sure no one was left behind, injured, or lost. Then he would evacuate himself. "Call Susan and calm her down," he said. "She's panicking."

Hill reached Susan, who had just got off the phone with Sullivan. "Take it easy," he said, as she continued to sob. "He's been through tight spots before, a million times." Suddenly Susan screamed. Hill turned to look at his own television and saw the south tower collapse. He thought of the words Rescorla had so often used to comfort dying soldiers. "Susan, he'll be O.K.," he said gently. "Take deep breaths. Take it easy. If anyone will survive, Rick will survive."

When Hill hung up, he turned to his wife. Her face was ashen. "Shit," he said. "Rescorla is dead."(2)

The rest of Rick Rescorla's morning is shrouded in some mystery. The tower went dark. Fire raged. Windows shattered. Rescorla headed upstairs before moving down; he helped evacuate several people above the 50th Floor. Stephan Newhouse, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, said at a memorial service in Hayle that Rescorla was spotted as high as the 72nd floor, then worked his way down, clearing floors as he went. He was telling people to stay calm, pace themselves, get off their cell phones, keep moving. At one point, he was so exhausted he had to sit for a few minutes, although he continued barking orders through his bullhorn. Morgan Stanley officials said he called headquarters shortly before the tower collapsed to say he was going back up to search for stragglers.

John Olson, a Morgan Stanley regional director, saw Rescorla reassuring colleagues in the 10th-floor stairwell. "Rick, you've got to get out, too," Olson told him. "As soon as I make sure everyone else is out," Rescorla replied.

Morgan Stanley officials say Rescorla also told employees that "today is a day to be proud to be American" and that "tomorrow, the whole world will be talking about you." They say he also sang "God Bless America" and Cornish folk tunes in the stairwells. Those reports could not be confirmed, although they don't sound out of character. He liked to sing in a crisis. But the documented truth is impressive enough. Morgan Stanley managing director Bob Sloss was the only employee who didn't evacuate the 66th floor after the first plane hit, pausing to call his family and several underlings, even taking a call from a Bloomberg News reporter. Then the second plane hit, and his office walls cracked, and he felt the tower wagging like a dog's tail. He clambered down to the 10th floor, and there was Rescorla, sweating through his suit in the heat, telling people they were almost out, making no move to leave himself.

Rick did not make it out. Neither did two of his security officers who were at
his side. But only three other Morgan Stanley employees died when their building was obliterated. (4)

However, over 2600 employees of Dean Whitter walked out of the south tower and in to the rest of their lives that morning.

Click here to read the rest of the article

Rest In Peace, sir. You've earned it.

Posted: 9/11/2010 3:11:11 PM EDT

[#1]

Rescorla was a bad ass. N/M, you covered it already!

Posted: 9/11/2010 3:59:03 PM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Rescorla was a bad ass. N/M, you covered it already!

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:07:30 PM EDT

[#3]

Posted a link to that wiki article earlier in the tacked 9-11 topic.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:07:51 PM EDT

[#4]

+1 billion, one of the Heroes of the day. Men of character such as this make the world.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:10:47 PM EDT

[#5]

Hell of a life.

At the dedication of his statue at Benning.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:11:39 PM EDT

[#6]

Dude was a fuckin' stud. Wish I was half the man.

RIP.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:13:32 PM EDT

[#7]

I'm former FDNY.

I know all about that man.

However... others should too.

I give this thread +10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:21:10 PM EDT

[#8]

I read that book about him a while back.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:25:56 PM EDT

[#9]

God blessed him. Hell of a man.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:26:49 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:

I read that book about him a while back.

What book?

ETA: Heart of a soldier?

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Soldier-Story-Heroism-September/dp/0743240987

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:29:58 PM EDT

[#11]

Thanks for posting, OP. I did not know about him.

true hero.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:42:08 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

Thanks for posting, OP. I did not know about him.

true hero.

First I have ever heard of him too.

Shame that the whole nation doesn't know this man's name.

Posted: 9/11/2010 4:51:12 PM EDT

[#13]

Brave man....

Posted: 9/11/2010 7:06:55 PM EDT

[#14]

I've heard of him and, he is a hero!

Posted: 9/11/2010 7:12:59 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Thanks for posting, OP. I did not know about him.

true hero.

You're welcome.

I knew nothing of Colonel Rescorla until a year or so after the attacks. The History Channel ran its documentary "THE MAN WHO PREDICTED 9/11" and some blogs featured articles about him and what he did September 11, 2001. Needless to say, I was absolutely staggered by what I learned.

Posted: 9/11/2010 7:44:31 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Dude was a fuckin' stud. Wish I was half the man.

RIP.

Posted: 9/11/2010 8:49:58 PM EDT

[#17]

I saw a biography on him a couple of years back.

Quit or defeat were not words in his dictionary.

Posted: 9/11/2010 8:56:09 PM EDT

[#18]

thank you for posting this. too few know.

Posted: 9/11/2010 9:03:45 PM EDT

[#19]

RIP a great man.

May your beer be everflowing, and your pasties as big as houses.

Posted: 9/11/2010 9:06:33 PM EDT

[#20]

Wow, just wow ....

Posted: 9/11/2010 9:11:15 PM EDT

[#21]

I would just hope when some on this board start bashing NY'ers,–––– they should remember that Mr Rescorla was a NY'er. . . .

There are many fine people here––-as there are all over this country.

Posted: 9/12/2010 12:52:24 AM EDT

[#22]

True bad ass.

Posted: 9/12/2010 1:33:25 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
I would just hope when some on this board start bashing NY'ers,–––– they should remember that Mr Rescorla was a NY'er. . . .

There are many fine people here––-as there are all over this country.

He was born in England and lived in New Jersey.

Posted: 9/12/2010 1:47:35 AM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
I've heard of him and, he is a hero!

+1

Posted: 9/12/2010 3:36:30 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I would just hope when some on this board start bashing NY'ers,–––– they should remember that Mr Rescorla was a NY'er. . . .

There are many fine people here––-as there are all over this country.

He was born in England and lived in New Jersey.

Doesn't matter where he was born or where he lived...he was an AMERICAN!

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Posted: 9/12/2010 4:06:06 AM EDT

[#26]

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them"

Posted: 9/12/2010 9:32:03 AM EDT

[#27]

Known of him for many years. His story is an inspiring one and I've taken the time to school my grandkids about Col.Rescorla.

He was truly a man of grit and character...a fine example for all of us to follow.

He gave his life for others...and that is the finest thing that any person can do.

God Bless that warrior!

Posted: 9/12/2010 9:38:45 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I would just hope when some on this board start bashing NY'ers,–––– they should remember that Mr Rescorla was a NY'er. . . .

There are many fine people here––-as there are all over this country.

He was born in England and lived in New Jersey.

I consider anyone who works in NYC and lives in the Metro area a "NYer". . . .and anyway, those same people who bash NYers also bash NJ and Jerseyites as well. . .my point is that many here are bigots when it comes to the Northeast. I understand the reasons, but they need to be reminded that there's a difference between those in power/government and the people.

Posted: 9/12/2010 9:38:54 AM EDT

[#29]

Very few men ever find their finest hour in life, Rick Rescorla did several times over. He saved a lot of people that day.

Posted: 9/12/2010 9:44:03 AM EDT

[#30]

Posted: 9/12/2010 9:53:20 AM EDT

[#31]

Posted: 9/12/2010 9:58:25 AM EDT

[#32]

It is sad that most of the giants in human history never live to give their accounts of the events that make us humble.

Godspeed, sir, and I hope you are finally at rest.

Posted: 9/12/2010 10:03:21 AM EDT

[#33]

Now there is a real American hero. God bless him.

Posted: 9/12/2010 10:06:51 AM EDT

[#34]

Until today I'd not heard Rick Rescorla's story.

Wow, what a man. To be only a sliver of such a man is to still be great.

ETA:

Posted: 9/12/2010 10:37:20 AM EDT

[#35]

Posted: 9/12/2010 10:55:25 AM EDT

[#36]

Just skimmed most of the post so sorry if this is a dupe. Rescola was diagnosed with cancer prior to 9/11...he picked a better way to go ...a hero..

Posted: 9/12/2010 2:01:34 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
Known of him for many years. His story is an inspiring one and I've taken the time to school my grandkids about Col.Rescorla.

He was truly a man of grit and character...a fine example for all of us to follow.

He gave his life for others...and that is the finest thing that any person can do.

God Bless that warrior!

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13