I'd like to tell yall about someone who died that day. Some of you may already know this story, and if you do I apologize.
Col Hal Moore wrote a book about a battle in the Ia Drang during Vietnam called "We were soldiers once...and young.". If you haven't heard of the book, you've probably heard of the movie based on it, starring Mel Gibson called "We were soldiers".
Here is the cover of the book:
So why am I talking about this book in a thread about September 11th? Because the man on the cover survived the Vietnam war, but died on September 11th, 2001.
Here's the picture that became the cover:
His name is Rick Rescorla. He's an Englishman by birth....Cornwall, 1939. Grew up around the Allied troops prepping for Normandy, and was impressed with them. So when the time came to choose a career, he joined the British Army and trained as a paratrooper. After leaving the British Army, he served as a police officer in the Northern Rhodesian Police for a few years...an experience that made him loathe communism. He briefly worked as Metropolitan police officer, before immigrating to America to join the United States Army, going through basic, officer candidate school, and airborne school, before being assigned to 7th Cav...which is how he ended up on the cover of Moore's book and fighting in Vietnam.
After Vietnam, he returned to the US. Got a bachelors from Oklahoma in creative writing, a masters in English and a law degree, before moving to South Carolina to teach criminal justice...before being recruited into the world of Corporate security. He began working for Dean Witter Reynolds in the World Trade Center in 1985.
After the Pan-Am bombing in 1988, he asked an old counter terrorism friend from Rhodesia to come by the WTC and do a security evaluation with him, worried that terrorists might view it as a potential target. The two concluded that a truck full of explosives parked next to a load bearing column in the parking garage would be the easiest way to attack the WTC, and wrote a letter to the Port Authority urging tighter security at the site. But their proposals would have cost money, and were ignored.
After the '93 bombing, he urged his employer Morgan Stanley to leave the WTC and relocate to New Jersey, where the costs would be lower and security easier to manage. But, Morgan Stanley's lease in the WTC ran through 2006, and they had no interest in moving. Since they were not going to move and his earlier warnings had been ignored, Rick concluded that in the event of an emergency, the employees were on their own, and insisted on emergency fire drills every 3 months, where the employees would form up and orderly file down the stairs. The executives grouched about the drills, but he fought to keep them in place, fearing that the WTC would again be the target of a terrorist attack and knowing that training could save lives.
On September 11th, 2001 at 8:46 am Rick was sitting in his office on the 44th floor of the South Tower when the first airliner hit the North Tower. A Port Authority announcement came over the intercom shortly afterwards, urging people to stay at their desks. Rick ignored it, grabbed a bullhorn and started ordering Morgan Stanley employees (around 2700 of them) to evacuate. They were in those stairwells and moving when the second airline hit the South tower at 9:03 am, 38 floors above them.
As he was helping people evacuate, he sang to keep spirits up. If you've ever seen the movie Zulu, one of the songs he belted out as people evacuated can be seen in the build up to the final battle, with a slight variation. Instead of "Men of Harlech", he sang "Men of Cornwall", lyrics as follows:
"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!"
Between songs, he called his wife and told her the following: "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." After successfully evacuating most of Morgan Stanley's 2,687 employees, he went back into the building. 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"
He was last seen on the 10th floor, heading upward, shortly before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 A.M. His remains were never found.
We lost a lot of good Americans that day, and I'm sure many of them had stories like Ricks. Just thought his was worth sharing with the OB on September 11th. May he rest in peace, the world could use as many men like him as we can get.
Col Hal Moore wrote a book about a battle in the Ia Drang during Vietnam called "We were soldiers once...and young.". If you haven't heard of the book, you've probably heard of the movie based on it, starring Mel Gibson called "We were soldiers".
Here is the cover of the book:
So why am I talking about this book in a thread about September 11th? Because the man on the cover survived the Vietnam war, but died on September 11th, 2001.
Here's the picture that became the cover:
His name is Rick Rescorla. He's an Englishman by birth....Cornwall, 1939. Grew up around the Allied troops prepping for Normandy, and was impressed with them. So when the time came to choose a career, he joined the British Army and trained as a paratrooper. After leaving the British Army, he served as a police officer in the Northern Rhodesian Police for a few years...an experience that made him loathe communism. He briefly worked as Metropolitan police officer, before immigrating to America to join the United States Army, going through basic, officer candidate school, and airborne school, before being assigned to 7th Cav...which is how he ended up on the cover of Moore's book and fighting in Vietnam.
After Vietnam, he returned to the US. Got a bachelors from Oklahoma in creative writing, a masters in English and a law degree, before moving to South Carolina to teach criminal justice...before being recruited into the world of Corporate security. He began working for Dean Witter Reynolds in the World Trade Center in 1985.
After the Pan-Am bombing in 1988, he asked an old counter terrorism friend from Rhodesia to come by the WTC and do a security evaluation with him, worried that terrorists might view it as a potential target. The two concluded that a truck full of explosives parked next to a load bearing column in the parking garage would be the easiest way to attack the WTC, and wrote a letter to the Port Authority urging tighter security at the site. But their proposals would have cost money, and were ignored.
After the '93 bombing, he urged his employer Morgan Stanley to leave the WTC and relocate to New Jersey, where the costs would be lower and security easier to manage. But, Morgan Stanley's lease in the WTC ran through 2006, and they had no interest in moving. Since they were not going to move and his earlier warnings had been ignored, Rick concluded that in the event of an emergency, the employees were on their own, and insisted on emergency fire drills every 3 months, where the employees would form up and orderly file down the stairs. The executives grouched about the drills, but he fought to keep them in place, fearing that the WTC would again be the target of a terrorist attack and knowing that training could save lives.
On September 11th, 2001 at 8:46 am Rick was sitting in his office on the 44th floor of the South Tower when the first airliner hit the North Tower. A Port Authority announcement came over the intercom shortly afterwards, urging people to stay at their desks. Rick ignored it, grabbed a bullhorn and started ordering Morgan Stanley employees (around 2700 of them) to evacuate. They were in those stairwells and moving when the second airline hit the South tower at 9:03 am, 38 floors above them.
As he was helping people evacuate, he sang to keep spirits up. If you've ever seen the movie Zulu, one of the songs he belted out as people evacuated can be seen in the build up to the final battle, with a slight variation. Instead of "Men of Harlech", he sang "Men of Cornwall", lyrics as follows:
"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!"
Between songs, he called his wife and told her the following: "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." After successfully evacuating most of Morgan Stanley's 2,687 employees, he went back into the building. 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"
He was last seen on the 10th floor, heading upward, shortly before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 A.M. His remains were never found.
We lost a lot of good Americans that day, and I'm sure many of them had stories like Ricks. Just thought his was worth sharing with the OB on September 11th. May he rest in peace, the world could use as many men like him as we can get.
