REMEMBERING RICK RESCORLA: DECORATED WAR VET, 9/11 HERO AND PATRON SAINT TO SECURITY TEAMS EVERYWHERE

 

On September 11^th, 2001, I still had no idea where my life was going to lead me. It was my first year of college and it is safe to say my vision for the future was hazy at best. I had my aspirations and I began college with a declared major, but the realities of life were already making themselves known. The world held no promises.

If my life plan was in chaos my country was about to be shaken into a darkness without a clear path forward. And yet, when the mist cleared or nation found its way, in the process rising as a new land of stronger people. In the year following the attacks I began to learn the name of some of the people who rose to heroism when a whole city was torn apart. It was not until more than twenty years later, however, that I first heard the name of Rick Rescorla, an Englishman who seemed destined to become a legend long before he even came to America. In the year since I’ve been learning about the Brit who became an American hero, Rescorla has become an inspiration in my daily and professional life.

Cyril Richard Rescorla’s early life was humble enough. Born in the town of Hayle in west Cornwall to a housekeeper in 1939, Rescorla developed a deep admiration for the American soldier when his hometown became the headquarters for the 175th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in the months leading up to the D-Day Invasion.

Here was where Rescorla’s love for the United States began and, likely, his destiny written. But his first step began at the age of sixteen when he joined the British Army where he trained as a paratrooper. By 1957 he was fighting off the insurgency in Cyprus. When that conflict ended in 1960, Rescorla joined the Northern Rhodesian Police as an inspector. There he met American Daniel Hill who had aided in the fight against insurgencies in Hungary, Lebanon and Cuba before his mercenary travels took him to Northern Rhodesia. The two men began what would evolve into a lifelong friendship; one that would ultimately bare witness to Rescorla’s courage.

At the end of Rescorla’s contract with the Rhodesian Police, he was encouraged by Hill to come to America.

Rescorla would return to England first, but his stint with the Metropolitan Police brought little excitement and so, in 1963, he left his homeland once more and enlisted with the United States Army with training beginning at Fort Dix. Two years later he would be shipped to Vietnam. In the Battle of Ia Drang, the hero that had always been inside Rescorla came out like a lion. Leading his unit safely through sieges, his calm demeanor helped his men forget the instant death that surrounded them.

“We were all sitting in our holes with our knees knocking, we have dead guys all around us, and here comes Rick singing Cornish songs. Pretty soon you are saying to yourself, 'If this guy can walk from hole to hole checking to see if you have your grenades in the right place, checking to see if you have your magazines, and standing up like he is going on a Sunday afternoon's walk, what do you have to worry about?’” said Rescorla’s radio operator Sam Fantino.

For his heroism and bravery in Vietnam, Rescorla was awarded the Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After returning to the United States, by now his new home, Rescorla entered civilian life. Completing a law degree, he found work in corporate security, a career that ultimately led to his position as director of security for Dean Witter Reynolds at the South Tower of the World Trade Center, a company which would merge with Morgan Stanley in 1997.

From early on Rescorla noticed many security blind spots in the complex. Five years into the job he hired his old Army buddy, Dan Hill, as security consultant who also noticed many deficiencies in the company’s emergency preparedness. Little attention was paid to these warnings until the 1993 bombing, a tragedy that unfolded much like Rescorla and Hil had predicted.

Consequently, in the years between the bombing and the attacks of 9/11, the executives at Morgan Stanley became a lot more accepting of Rescorla’s emergency drills, evacuation route blueprints and warnings. Rescorla warned that as the tallest building in the city and a symbol of America’s economic might, the World Trade Center was a particularly vulnerable target for terrorists. Drills were practiced twice a year, ensuring a familiarity with the escape route should an emergency occur.

And occur it would, in a day that still shakes my generation upon each reflection. Few will forget where they were when they first heard the news of the first plane hitting the North Tower. Rick Rescorla was where he needed and always wanted to be, in the South Tower guarding the people there. The first person he called would be Hill, now living in Florida. With his usual foresight, Rescorla knew there was no time to lose in evacuation the South Tower.

“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,” he told his friend Hill over the phone.

Armed with a loudspeaker and the assistance of two other members of Morgan Stanley’s security team, Wesley Mercer and Jorge Velasquez, Rescorla began directing the office workers out to safety, maintaining a calm but firm composure. As a result, at the end of the horrible day, out of nearly 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees working that day (over twenty-two floors) all but six made it out alive. For comparison, Aon Corporation, also located in the South Tower, lost 176. Rescorla, Mercer and Velasquez, however, would never make it out to learn how many people owed their lives to them.

Rick Rescorla could have made it out and was warned to do so once the Morgan Stanley offices were emptied. His reply, “You hear those screams? There's more people up there. I have to help get them out.”

He was last seen on the 10^th floor before the tower he had done so much to protect came crumbling down with him inside.

                                               Rick Rescorla (on loudspeaker) with Morgan Stanley security Jorge                                                     Velasquez and Wesley Mercer guiding workers out of the South Tower on 9/11

A question I find myself asking more often as the years go by is who I want to be remembered as. This often leads to the concept of legacy and what heroism means. This, in turn, often leads to me reading more about Cyril Richard Rescorla. We, as people, like to draw commonalities with our heroes but besides our shared love for the writings of Rudyard Kipling and Rescorla’s interest in learning Italian, my second language, Rescorla’s life was very different from my own. Nonetheless, had we ever met, I believe the point on which Rick Rescorla and I would have found the strongest bound was in finding fulfillment keeping people safe.

Although, Vietnam and 9/11 were the moments that defined it, Rescorla’s heroism is more about a way of life, one that is made evident each day. In this vein the legacy of Rick Rescorla has influenced my life at work and around the people close to me and helped me answer some of my own reflections on heroism and courage. It’s about being the sort of person who can rise to the urgency of the occasion, that others will turn to in the darker moments. When your own fear is overcoming you remember there are those who are looking up to you. When the worst of moments come, be remembered as the person who made everyone feel better just knowing you were there. There is no greater honor, no greater legacy.