A real hero - Rick Rescorla

Joseph Galloway, the senior Knight-Ridder Military Correspondent, writes a brief story of a real hero. Here (from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) is a part of his story:

The statue of the young Rescorla was born out of what he did as an older, heavier civilian vice president for security for Morgan Stanley in New York City. The brokerage firm occupied 22 floors of the South Tower in the World Trade Center.

Ever since the failed terrorist truck bombing in 1993 in the basement of that building, Rescorla had been convinced that the terrorists would come back to finish the job. He urged Morgan Stanley to build its own low-rise high-security headquarters across the river in New Jersey, where most of its employees lived. Not possible, he was told, because the firm had a long-term lease on those 22 floors.

Rescorla fought for the time and money needed for half a dozen surprise full evacuation drills each year. And, yes, he knew how much it cost to pull a couple of thousand stockbrokers off their telephones. He knew and didn't care.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Rescorla stood at the window of his office on the 66th floor and watched the tower across the way burn. The Port Authority Police squawk box on the wall urged everyone in the other buildings of the Trade Center to remain at their desks and not panic. You are safe, the reassuring voice said.

Rescorla responded with a curt word: "Bull----!" He grabbed his bullhorn and moved floor by floor ordering Morgan Stanley's 2,700 workers to evacuate immediately. They knew where to go and how to do that, thanks to Rick. Two by two -- the old buddy system -- they began the long walk down the stairs to the street.

Halfway down, the second hijacked airliner plowed into their building. The building swayed. Smoke began filling the stairwells. People were frightened.

Rick Rescorla used his bullhorn again. This time, he sang to the evacuees, just as he sang to his soldiers on a long night in Vietnam. He sang God Bless America. He sang the songs of the British army in the Zulu Wars.

He got them all out and headed for safety down the streets away from the World Trade Center. Four of his own security people were still up clearing the Morgan Stanley floors, so Rescorla turned and headed back up the stairs with New York City firemen. None of them made it out alive, and neither did Rick Rescorla.

This is a man who as an infantry 2nd Lt. Platoon Leader earned the Silver Star during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley (from which the book and movie "We were soldiers, and young" was made) in Viet Nam.

Rescorla is an American who performed truly heroic actions. He was not promoted to the status of "hero" just because he died somewhere. We are all better because he lived, and we have all lost because he was killed.