On September 11, 2001, extremist Islamic terrorists murdered nearly three thousand innocent people in the worst terror attack on American soil in history. It changed the lives of Americans forever and the grief of the nation seemed unbearable. But out of the ashes of destruction came stories of real American heroes: men and women who triumphed over evil even in the darkest hour. One of those men was Rick Rescorla. He treated everyone with love—his wife, his children, and the total strangers he saved on September 11. His story, as told here through the lens of his widow, Susan Rescorla, is one that the world should never forget.
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At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck World Trade Center Tower 1. Across the street at Tower 2, more than twenty-seven hundred employees of Morgan Stanley were told by building officials to stay calm and remain in the building. Rick Rescorla was in charge of security at Morgan Stanley and ignored the official warning. Rick began the evacuation of all Morgan Stanley employees in Tower 2 and one thousand employees in Tower 5.
Panic spread quickly as workers saw smoke pouring out of Tower 1. 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 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!
He 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 2. Rescorla had rescued almost all of Morgan Stanley’s employees, but there were still others in the building. As other workers warned Rescorla that he had to evacuate now, he calmly replied, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out.” Rescorla was last seen on the tenth floor of Tower 2 heading up the stairs to rescue more employees.
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Because of his response, all but six of Morgan Stanley’s twenty-seven hundred World Trade Center employees survived the September 11 attacks. Four of those six 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, Rescorla 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 and no boots. He was strong; he was rugged. His childhood friends said to me that you could tell that 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 Cyprus and Rhodesia. Susan recounted, “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 11. He returned from Vietnam with a Silver Star, the Bronze 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 terrorists used that exact method. Rescorla was vital in the evacuation of the building and was the last man out.
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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 the two married in 1999.
On that infamous September morning, Rescorla called Susan to tell her what was happening. “I was hysterical,” recalled Susan. “ ‘Stop crying,’ he said. ‘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 me. And then of course I said that to him and the phone went dead.”
“He had to finish his mission. He had to do what they call in the military—doing the last sweep—making sure that everyone was out,” explained Susan.
Rick’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,” remembered Susan.
“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.