NJ's Rick Rescorla, 9/11's Good Shepherd, still inspires me

On Sept. 11, 2001, Rick Rescorla was on duty on the 44th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower. As vice president for corporate security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, he watched smoke rise from the North Tower after a jet plowed into it. Someone from the Port Authority ordered him to keep his people at their desks. Rescorla's reply was characteristically blunt: 'Piss off. 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 out of here!' He ordered an immediate evacuation. He directed more than 2,700 people to safety, getting most of Morgan Stanley's employees and hundreds of visitors moving down the stairwells before the second plane struck the South Tower. Story continues after gallery. Rick Rescorla was born in Cornwall, England, in 1939. After serving in the British armed forces, he earned a commission in the U.S. Army and volunteered for Vietnam. He fought with the 7th Cavalry Regiment (Airmobile) in the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang — the gritty soldier pictured on the cover of the book "We Were Soldiers Once … and Young." Co-author Lt. General Harold Moore called him 'the best platoon leader I ever saw.' His men knew him as 'Hard Core.' The History Channel documentary "The Man Who Predicted 9/11" recounts how, in 1992, Rescorla warned the Port Authority about the vulnerability of the World Trade Center's unguarded basement to a truck bomb. He was ignored. When terrorists did strike with a truck bomb in 1993, Rescorla took charge of the evacuation and was the last man out. He then warned Morgan Stanley that the terrorists would return — this time with aircraft — and urged the firm to move its headquarters to a safer location in New Jersey. The company's lease ran until 2006, and the warning went unheeded. So Rescorla prepared. At his insistence, every employee, including senior executives, took part in full, no-notice evacuation drills every three months. High-powered brokers complained about being pulled from million-dollar deals to trudge down 40 flights. On 9/11, those drills paid off. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Rescorla sprang into action. By the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m., most of Morgan Stanley's people were already on their way out. Nearly 3,000 people died in the two towers that day. Only 13 Morgan Stanley employees, including Rescorla, were among them. In "Heart of a Soldier," biographer James B. Stewart notes that Rescorla loved his adopted country. As thousands filed down the stairs, he sang 'God Bless America' through a bullhorn and urged them to 'Stay calm. Watch your partner.' The last voice many heard was Rescorla's version of the song from the film "Zulu": Men of Cornwall stand ye steady; It cannot be ever said ye for the battle were not ready; Stand and never yield! A Morgan Stanley director told him he had to get out too. 'As soon as I make sure everyone else is out,' Rescorla replied. In his final call to his wife, Susan, at their home in Morristown, New Jersey, he said, '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.' He was last seen heading back upstairs to search for stragglers. His remains have never been recovered. Despite repeated petitions, no president formally honored Rescorla's heroism until Nov. 7, 2019, when President Donald Trump presented the Presidential Citizens Medal to Susan Rescorla at the White House. 'We can never erase the horrors of that day,' Trump said. 'We can never replace the lives that were lost. But on behalf of our entire nation, I pledge that we will forever and always remember this incredible American hero.' More: This FDNY hero survived 9/11. He'll never forget that day Twenty-five years later, let us remember Rick Rescorla in the blistering heat of that stairwell — suit jacket on, bullhorn in hand — calmly telling those he saved, 'Today is a day to be proud to be an American.' Like the Good Shepherd tending his flock, he climbed back into danger and ascended to Eternity. Mike Giorgino is a retired Navy Surface Warfare Commander and a Gulf War veteran living in Westwood, New Jersey. He may be contacted at mgiorgino@aol.com.