A Sheepdog of 9/11

Ever hear of Rick Rescoria? He died in the South Tower on 9/11. But not before leading 2700 people to safety and returning to the building for more.

2700 people! That's almost as many as died in the tragedy. In other words, without the action of one sheepdog, the number of deaths could easily have been double what it was.

Born in England in 1939, Rescoria's memory of "Yank" soldiers during WWII inspired him to become a British paratrooper. Later he emigrated to the U.S., joined the army and served in Vietnam. He came away with a Silver Star, Bronze Star (with oak leaf cluster), a purple heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

He also picked up a couple of nicknames from those days: Hard Core and The Cornish Hawk. According to composer Christiopher Theofandis, ". . . Rescorla also had a habit of teaching his troops to sing in battle. "One of the things I think he understood really strongly was that music and song unite people in a really strong way," he says. "He had taught his charges to sing to overcome their fear, their own sense of disorder."

As a part of Morgan Stanley's security team on 9/11, Rescoria sang as he led his flock to safety. He sang "God Bless America" and a slightly altered version of "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!

Rick Rescoria died at the age of 62 in the controlled demolition of of the south tower. We may never fully know what happened that day, a the question nags me. Was he betrayed by policymakers of the adopted land he loved and served so well.

Yet to come: Questions about 9/11

Sources for this post: NPR & Wikipedia