This Sunday, many will be occupied with the uniquely American annual ritual of the cheering on their team as the opening weekend of the NFL season kicks off. Here in Louisiana, that same celebratory mood will be dampened but not eradicated by the still ongoing task of recovering from the massive floods that inundated their lives just a month ago Sunday. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer of our citizens will take sufficient time to truly reflect this Sunday about it being the fifteenth anniversary of an event that changed our country’s psyche forever and whose residual effect continues to impact world events to this day.
My memory remains as vivid today as it was that Tuesday. I remember being in my office when one of my managers came in about 10:00 a.m. to tell me that he had just heard a report that a plane had just crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Then came reports that a second plane hit the other tower leaving no doubt that this wasn’t just a tragic accident. Then reports that a third plane had flown into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. Then still another report of a plane crashing into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attacked the hijackers who had taken over the airliner. By that afternoon we would learn of the toll – more than 3,000 people were murdered in the combined attacks, including more than 400 firefighters and police officers who rushed into harm’s way in a heroic effort to save lives.
Amid all of this tragedy and horror it may seem hard to find inspiration, but like the recent stories of the efforts of our Cajun Navy in our flooding, there were scores of people who rushed into the maelstrom to offer aid to those in need with no thought of their own comfort or safety. Many paid the ultimate price for that selfless act. That is inspirational and that is what we should remember this Sunday. Here are just two examples that exemplify the “better angels of our nature” that was so commonly on display on September 11, 2001:
Officer Moira Smith was a 13 year veteran of the New York Police Department. She was married to another NYPD officer, Jimmy Smith, and had a two year old daughter named Patricia. Officer Smith had shown heroism in the line of duty prior to September 11th. She had previously earned the Department’s Distinguished Duty Medal for her actions during the August 27, 1991 subway crash in Union Square in which five people died and more than 130 were injured. Officer Smith had saved dozens of lives on that day. On September 11th, she selflessly risked her life again to get other victims safely out of the World Trade Center and in doing so, she made the ultimate sacrifice. On a number of occasions that day she came out of the World Trade Center carrying people to safety only to return again. She had many opportunities to escape. She chose not to.
Her remains were recovered in March of 2002. Of the 23 NYPD officers killed that day, Moira was the only female. She was finally laid to rest on what would have been her 39th birthday.
It was not Welles Crowther’s job to save anyone’s life on September 11th. He worked for Sandler O’Neill and Partners on the 104th floor of the South Tower as an equities trader. At about 9:00 a.m. that morning, he was on the phone in his office when one of the planes crashed into his building. Workers all around the office sat bloody and petrified – the lights out, smoke engulfing the entire floor – many were incapacitated, racked with the pain searing through their bodies. There appeared to be no escape from the burning and destroyed rubble that was once their thriving office. Chaos was pervasive.
What triggered Welles’s ensuing actions nobody knows for sure. Perhaps it was the fact that he had worked as a volunteer firefighter as a teenager. Whatever the reason, Welles Crowther sprang into action and took control. In a strong, authoritative voice, he directed scores of his fellow workers toward a stairway which was veiled by the darkness, wreckage and haze. He encouraged the healthy to assist the injured and led them to the stairway. One of his coworkers recalled, “I saw this incredible hero, running back and forth and saving the day. In his mind, he had a duty to do – to save people. He was definitely my guardian angel – no ifs, ands, or buts – because without him, we would have stayed in the office waiting until the building came down.”
Welles Crowther has been credited with saving at least 18 people that day. One of those, Ling Young, still keeps a framed photo of him amid the pictures of her family in her home. Welles exited and entered the tower at least three times that day, helping to evacuate trapped victims. He ultimately perished when he entered the building one last time before it collapsed. His body was not recovered until March 19, 2002. He was found in the lobby surrounded by a number of firefighters. Just before the building collapsed, Welles was seen with that group of firefighters entering the South Tower with the “Jaws of Life” to try to free more people.
Crowther was an investment banker, not a firefighter or a police officer. He could easily just exited the building and gotten himself to safety with no expectation whatsoever from anyone for him to continually put himself in danger. Instead, he summoned up superhero courage to go well above and beyond what was required of him with his single thought being to help others and to save lives.
Speaking at a memorial service in New York, Irene Smith, whose son was a member of the Fire Department of New York Ladder Co. 118 who perished in the attack poignantly summed up the feelings of all Americans after this tragic event of fifteen years past, “My son, firefighter Leon Smith Jr., who was the sunshine of my life. He gave his life so that others could live. I love you, I miss you and we’ll meet again soon.”
In their honor and for all the other heroes, we must never forget.
“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew.” – President George W. Bush
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacqué