Rick Rescorla

The story:

On September 11, 2001, Rick Rescorla was the head of security for the Morgan Stanley financial offices based out of Tower 2 at the World Trade Center. He started his life as a member of the British Army in 1956 and was deployed during the Cypriot insurgency. Later he worked as a Police officer with the Northern Rhodesia Police and the London Metropolitan Police. In 1963 he was living in the United States where he enlisted in the U.S. Army. In 1965 he was involved in the famous Ia Drang Valley battle led by General Hal Moore. His picture can be found on the front cover of the book “We were soldiers once….and young”. During the battles Rescorla would sing “Men of Harlech” and other Cornish songs to keep his soldiers calm. During his service in Vietnam Rescorla was awarded a Silver star, a bronze star with oak leaf clusters and a purple heart.

Later in his life he began working security with the Dean Witter financial offices in Tower 2 of the WTC. In 1992 Rescorla approached the Port Authority which owned the WTC. He warned them that a terrorist could easily drive a truck bomb into the underground parking facility and that an explosion at a load bearing column could bring down the building. The Port Authority waved away his concerns and told him to worry about his own employees. On February 26th 1993 terrorists did indeed attack the facility by detonating a truck bomb in the underground parkade of the facility. Rescorla was instrumental in the evacuation and he was one of the last people to leave the WTC.

After the 1993 attack Rescorla felt that the terrorists would attack again to finish the job. He took the lessons he learnt from the attack and had generators and extractor fans installed in the stairwells. This was because the stairs had filled with smoke after the bombing and made it difficult for people to escape. He also had florescent tape placed on the stairs to assist people finding their way during an evacuation.

In 1997 Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley and Rescorla was made director of security. Rescorla advised the executives that the facility was still a target and that he felt that terrorists would likely steal a cargo plane in Africa, load it with explosives and fly it in to one of the towers. The executives told Rescorla that the lease was not up until 2005 and that they would look at moving location at that time. In response to this one of the policies that he instituted was mandatory evacuation drills for every one of the 2700 employees on all 20 floors that the company occupied in WTC 2 and all 1000 employees from WTC 5. These drills were performed every 3 months.

To see an interview with Rescorla taped in 1998 click here: The Voice of the Prophet | Rick Rescorla Memorial

On September 11th, 2001 at 8:46am Tower 1 was hit by AA flight 11. Rescorla (in Tower 2) began an evacuation of all Morgan Stanley employees despite advice from the building managers that they remain inside. Rescorla kept people calm by singing “God bless America”, “Men of Harlech” and other Cornish songs. The majority of the 2700 employees were out of tower 2 when UA flight 175 hit it. Rescorla remained in the building to assist other employees during the evacuation. A senior manager told Rescorla to evacuate to which he replied “As soon as I make sure everyone is out.”

Eyewitnesses claim that Rescorla was everywhere on 9/11. He was seen as high as the 72nd floor of tower 2. At one point he was outside and after realizing that 6 employees were unaccounted for he reentered the tower with one of his deputies. He was last seen on the 10th floor of Tower 2 heading up. At 09:59 Tower 2 collapsed and Rescorla was killed.

Personal comments from me:

Rick Rescorla led the warriors life and he died for a noble cause. He had to deal with a management group that didn’t give him all the resources he wanted to ensure their safety. Many of us work for agencies where we deal with the same things. We feel we aren’t given what we need and that security is secondary. As a result some of us with get into victim thinking. We get angry that the higher ups don’t appreciate what we do and aren’t listening. Rick Rescorla didn’t get into that victim thinking. If he had than things would have been much worse on 9/11. Instead he continued to do whatever he could to ensure the safety of the employees. Rather than sit back and complain he used whatever resources he had. He understood that he could still make a difference and he could still save lives. Of the 3700 Morgan Stanley employees located in Tower 2 and 5 only 8 died on 9/11. Rescorla and his deputy were among those 8. Morgan Stanley executives and employees credit Rescorla with saving their lives on that day.

Stay safe and never forget,

Chris