Rick Rescorla

Cyril Richard Rescorla
Rescorla's name is located on Panel S-46 of the National September 11 Memorial’s South Pool
Nickname(s)	Rick
Born	(1939-05-27)May 27, 1939 Hayle, Cornwall, U.K.
Died	September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 62) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Army
Years of service	1963–1990
Rank	Colonel
Unit	1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
Battles / wars	Battle of Ia Drang
Awards	Silver Star Bronze Star (OLC) Purple Heart Vietnam Gallantry Cross
Other work	World Trade Center-based Security Chief for Morgan Stanley

Cyril Richard "Rick" Rescorla (May 27, 1939 – September 11, 2001) was a retired United States Army officer of British birth who served with distinction in Northern Rhodesia as a member of the Northern Rhodesia Police (NRP) and as a soldier in the Vietnam War as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. As the World Trade Center security chief for the financial services firm Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter, Rescorla anticipated both attacks on the towers and implemented evacuation procedures that are credited with saving many lives. He died in the attacks of September 11, 2001, while leading the evacuation efforts.

Early life

Born Cyril Richard Rescorla in Hayle, Cornwall, England, UK, in 1939. In 1943, his home town of Hayle served as headquarters for the 175th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division, largely composed of American soldiers from Maryland and Virginia preparing for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Young Rescorla idolized the American soldiers, and wanted to become a soldier because of them.

Rescorla was a sports natural, setting a school record in the shot put, and was an avid boxer. When a professional boxing match was scheduled between a British boxer and an American heavyweight contender named Tami Mauriello, his friends backed the Englishman. Rescorla stated, "I'm for Tammy", and after Mauriello won the fight, everyone in Hayle knew him as "Tammy".

Rescorla hated his given name "Cyril" and began using "Rick" on joining the British Army.

Military service

Rescorla enlisted in the British Army in 1957, training as a paratrooper with The Parachute Regiment, and then serving with an intelligence unit in Cyprus during the Cypriot insurgency. He then served as a paramilitary police inspector in the Northern Rhodesia Police (now the Zambia Police Service). Here he met and forged a "life-altering friendship" with American soldier Daniel J. Hill who inspired Rick to join the U.S. Army and fight in Vietnam. On returning to London and civilian life, he joined the Metropolitan Police Service, but soon retired and moved to the United States. He lived at a YMCA in Brooklyn until he was able to enlist in the Army. "Rick", as he would thereafter be known, enlisted in the United States Army in 1963, and after basic training at Fort Dix, he attended Officer Candidate School and airborne training at Fort Benning. Upon graduating Rescorla was assigned as a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).

Sent to Vietnam, Rescorla participated in the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, described in the book and movie We Were Soldiers Once… And Young, and is the soldier pictured on the book jacket cover. Co-author Lieutenant General Hal Moore described him as "the best platoon leader I ever saw". Rescorla's men nicknamed him "Hard Core" for his bravery in battle, and revered him for his good humor and compassion towards his men. He is also mentioned in the book Baptism by Larry Gwin who also fought at Ia Drang. The fourteenth chapter of the book, Rescorla's Game, describes him as the "Cornish Hawk". Despite this tough image, according to his second wife and widow Susan Rescorla in her book, Touched by a Hero, music was "so central" to Rick's life that he sang to his troops in Vietnam to calm them – something he would later employ during 9/11.

Rescorla's Vietnam honors included the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, a Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

•   Silver Star
•   Bronze Star with one oak leaf cluster
•   Purple Heart
•   Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry

Later life

Rick Rescorla and his first wife, Betsy, met as students at the University of Oklahoma, where he studied creative writing, and obtained both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in English. They married in Dallas in 1972 and Rescorla attended the Oklahoma City University School of Law. After graduating, he took a position with the University of South Carolina, where he collaborated on a text book on criminal justice. Rick and Betsy's first child was born in South Carolina in 1976. After deciding to leave academia, Rescorla took a position with Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company in Chicago, where the Rescorlas' second child was born in 1978. When the scandal of the Savings and Loan Crisis broke, Rescorla determined it was time to move on and accepted a position with Dean Witter Reynolds in New York City. The family moved to New Jersey in 1984. When Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, Rick Rescorla was named as director of security for Morgan Stanley, headquartered in the World Trade Center.

Personal life and health

In 1994, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery to remove his prostate. Initially, the prognosis was positive, but by 1998 the cancer had spread to his bone marrow.

After his divorce, Rescorla met Susan Greer in 1998 in the townhouse complex where he lived. Greer was an assistant to a dean at Fairleigh Dickinson University. When Rescorla's cancer went back into remission, he credited Greer, who had introduced him to a specialist in herbal medicine. They married on February 20, 1999 at Castillo de San Marcos, in St. Augustine, Florida; it reminded him of his childhood home on the coast of Cornwall.

WTC risk assessment

Main article: 1993 World Trade Center bombing

In 1992 Rescorla warned the Port Authority (owner of the World Trade Center) about the possibility of a truck bomb attack on the pillars in the basement parking garage, but was ignored. When terrorists used this method in the 1993 attack, Rescorla was instrumental in evacuating the building, and was the last man out.

Rescorla, with his old American friend from Rhodesia Dan Hill, reasoned that the World Trade Center was still a target for terrorists and that the next attack could be a plane crashing into one of the towers. He recommended to his superiors at Morgan Stanley that the company leave Manhattan. Office space and labor costs were lower in New Jersey, and the firm's employees and equipment would be safer in a proposed four-story building. However, this recommendation was not followed as the company's lease at the World Trade Center did not terminate until 2006. At Rescorla's insistence, all employees, including senior executives, then practiced emergency evacuations every three months.

Actions on 9/11

File:RescrolaMemorial.jpg

Rescorla Memorial in Hayle, Cornwall

Rescorla was supposed to be on vacation on September 11, 2001, in preparation for his stepdaughter's upcoming wedding in Tuscany. But he was covering a shift so one of his deputies could go on vacation, and was also scheduled to attend a lunchtime meeting to discuss the lawsuit Morgan Stanley was filing against the Port Authority about the security lapses that led to the 1993 attack.

At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck World Trade Center Tower 1 (see September 11, 2001 attacks). Rescorla, following his evacuation plans, ignored building officials' advice to stay put and began the orderly evacuation of Morgan Stanley's 2,700 employees on twenty floors of World Trade Center Tower 2, and 1,000 employees in WTC 5. Rescorla reminded everyone to "...be proud to be an American ...everyone will be talking about you tomorrow", and sang God Bless America and other military and Cornish songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as they left the building, including an adaptation of the song "Men of Harlech":

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!

Rescorla had most of Morgan Stanley’s 2,700 employees as well as people working on other floors of WTC 2 safely out of the buildings by the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit WTC 2 at 9:03 a.m. After leading many of his fellow employees to safety, Rescorla returned to the building to rescue others still inside. When one of his colleagues told him he too had to evacuate the World Trade Center, Rescorla replied, "As soon as I make sure everyone else is out". In Amanda Ripley's words:

Moments later, Rescorla had successfully evacuated the vast majority of Morgan Stanley employees out of the burning tower. Then he turned around. He was last seen on the tenth floor, moving upward, shortly before the tower collapsed. His remains have never been found.

According to Stephan Newhouse, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Rescorla was seen as high as the 72nd floor evacuating people, clearing the floors and working his way down. He was last seen heading up the stairs of the tenth floor of the collapsing WTC 2. His remains were not recovered. As a result of Rescorla's actions, all but 13 of Morgan Stanley's 2,700 WTC employees survived: C. Richard Rescorla, Titus Davidson, Wesley Mercer, Jennifer de Jesus, Joseph DiPilato, Nolbert Salomon, Godwin Forde, Steve R. Strauss, Lindsay C. Herkness III, Thomas F. Swift, Albert Joseph, Jorge Velazquez, and Charles Laurencin.

Legacy

He was survived by his wife Susan Rescorla, two children, three stepchildren and his mother, who died in 2002.

At the National 9/11 Memorial, Rescorla is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-46.

Other tributes include the following:

• A biography of Rescorla, Heart of a Soldier by James B. Stewart (ISBN 0-7432-4459-1), was described by Time Magazine as "the best non-fiction book of 2002". The book is the subject of an opera by Christopher Theofanidis, with libretto by Donna DiNovelli; starring Thomas Hampson as Rescorla, and featuring William Burden, it was premiered by San Francisco Opera on September 10, 2011.
• Rescorla was the subject of a 2005 documentary entitled The Man Who Predicted 9/11. The film was shown on Channel 4 in the UK and the History Channel in the United States.
• Rescorla was honored with the White Cross of Cornwall/An Grows Wyn a Gernow award from his native Cornwall in 2003 by the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament.
• Amanda Ripley's 2008 book, The Unthinkable: Who survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why, profiles Rescorla in the "Conclusion" section of the book.
• In 2006, Fort Benning, Georgia, unveiled a statue of Rick Rescorla.
• On November 11, 2009, Colonel Rescorla was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame.

See also

• John P. O'Neill

External links

• The Richard Rescorla Memorial Foundation
• Rick Rescorla at IMDb
• Voice of the Prophet - a 1998 Video interview with Rick Rescorla
• "The Real Heros are Dead"
• "B.A. of the Week Tribute"
• American Legion memorial pages:
  • Post 44
  • Post 149
• Rick Rescorla at Find a Grave