At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck World Trade Center Tower One. Across the street at Tower Two, more than 2,700 employees of Morgan Stanley were told by building officials to stay calm and remain in the building. Rick Rescorla, the head of security at Morgan Stanley, ignored that directive as he began the evacuation of all Morgan Stanley employees in Tower Two and an additional one thousand employees in Tower Five.
Panic began spreading quickly as workers noted the smoke that was pouring out of Tower One. Rescorla urged them to remain calm and began singing “God Bless America” and Cornish military songs over his bullhorn:
Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;
Can’t you see their spear points 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!
Rick told them to “be proud to be an American…everyone will be talking about you tomorrow.”
At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck Tower Two. At this point, Rescorla had rescued almost all of Morgan Stanley’s employees, but there were still others unaccounted for and presumed to still be in the building. Despite being warned that he needed to evacuate the building now, Rick calmly retorted, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out.” He was last seen on the tenth floor of Tower Two heading up the stairs to rescue more employees.
Due to Rescorla’s efforts, all but six of Morgan Stanley’s twenty-seven hundred World Trade Center employees survived the September 11 attack. Four of those employees were Rescorla and three deputies who followed him back into the building – Wesley Mercer, Jorge Velazquez, and Godwin Forde.
To those who knew Cyril Richard Rescorla, it was as if his entire life had prepared him for these few precious minutes. “He lived by a code. He had his own philosophy and he used to say to me, “’You declare what you’re about when you’re young and you try to stay on that road so that at the end of your life you knew you did the very best you could,’” said his widow, Susan.
Born in Hayle, Cornwall, Britain, in 1939, Rescorla grew up in the headquarters of the 175th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division. As a child, Rick admired the U.S. soldiers and wanted to be one himself. “They are a special breed of people down in Cornwall,” explained Susan. “They weren’t little kids playing in the house, they were out running around from the time they were two or three years old with no raincoats or boots. He was strong; he was rugged. His childhood friends said to me that you could tell he was a leader from the beginning; this was something that was innate.”
In 1957, Rescorla enlisted in the British Army and served with distinction in Cypress and Rhodesia. Susan recalled, “When I met a couple of his men whom he was in Rhodesia with, they said if you were to meet twenty men…ten or fifteen years later who would you remember? You would remember Rick Rescorla.”
After his service in Britain, Rescorla moved to the United States. As a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion of the United States Army in Vietnam, Rescorla again distinguished himself as a fearless leader. He often sang military hymns to calm his soldiers, just as he did decades later on September 11th. He returned from Vietnam with a Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, a Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
In 1972, Rescorla married his first wife, Betsy. They had two children and moved around from South Carolina to Chicago to New Jersey while Rescorla worked various security jobs. In 1992, Rescorla warned the Port Authority of New York City, the owners of the World Trade Center, about the possibility of someone using a truck bomb to attack the pillars of the Towers in the basement parking garage. They ignored him, and in 1993 terrorist used that exact method. During the aftermath of that attack, Rescorla played a vital role in the evacuation of the building and was the last man out.
After the 1993 attack failed, Rescorla believed there would be another attack and this time it could be a plane used as a gigantic missile crashing into the towers. Rescorla even recommended to Morgan Stanley that the company leave Manhattan and relocate to New Jersey. He was ignored again. But at his insistence, Rescorla had all employees, including senior executives, practice emergency evacuations every three months.
In 1997, Rescorla became director of security for Morgan Stanley with its headquarters in the World Trade Center. After a battle with prostate cancer and his divorce from Betsy, Rescorla met Susan and they were married in 1999.
On that now infamous September morning, Rescorla called Susan to tell her what was happening. “I was hysterical,” recalled Susan. “Stop crying,” he replied. “I have to get my people out.” Susan described how very methodically, calmly, and lovingly he explained the situation to her. “If something should happen to me I want you to know that you made my life,” he told Susan. She said the same thing in reply and then the phone went dead.
“He had to finish his mission. He had to do what they called in the military – doing the last sweep – making sure that everyone was out,” explained Susan.
Rick Rescorla’s remains were never found after the collapse of the towers. Susan’s marriage was cut off after only two years, but it was an unforgettable two years. “He was a man for all seasons…he was giving and thoughtful and our relationship was as if we had known each other forever and ever. We were inseparable and wanted to spend every moment together when we were not working. I don’t want America to forget Rick Rescorla, but even more than that I don’t want America to forget what happened on 9/11,” said Susan.
In his bestselling book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom wrote, “Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.” Rick Rescorla sacrificed his most precious possession, his life, on September 11, 2001, but in return for that sacrifice, life was passed on to 2,700 others. Rick’s last sweep was a gigantic one.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacque’