9/11, LZ X-Ray, LZ Albany and Rick Rescorla
Via the National Infantry Museum Facebook page:
On September 11, 2001, Rick Rescorla watched the north tower burn out of his window on the 44th floor of the south tower. Despite Port Authority Police stating to stay in the building, he ordered fellow Morgan Stanley Dean Witter employees floor by floor to evacuate.
They were halfway down to the ground floor when the second airliner hit the south tower. Rick Rescorla did not panic. Using a bullhorn, he sang to his team, just as he sang to his Soldiers in Vietnam. He helped keep everyone calm by singing God Bless America and old Welsh miner songs. He kept saying, “today is a day to be proud to be American.” Of the firm’s 2,700 employees, all but six survived. He led them to safety and returned into the tower with firefighters to help clear the building. Rick Rescorla paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country that day. His body was never recovered.
Rescorla’s bravery is also remembered in the battles of LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. He earned a Silver Star for his leadership of Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) during those November 1965 battles. The battalion fought its way out of Albany, however, it weighed heavy on his heart that 305 Americans died in the la Drang Valley. After the Army, he used his GI bill and earned two degrees. He also trained officers in the Oklahoma National Guard and security guards in hand-to-hand combat. He later retired from the Army Reserve as a Colonel.
Comments
He was actually originally a citizen of the UK-born in Cornwall-the source of his songs the most important one being Men Of Harlech which was the song of the Queens Own Welsh Borders at Rourke's Drift. He sung this at LZ X Ray in addition to the Towers.
He had previously served in the Rhodesian Police. Moore considered him his best plt ldr.