Richard Cyril Rescorla

Long before Richard "Rick" Rescorla became one of the defining heroes of September 11, 2001, he had already been tested under fire, wounded in combat, and decorated for extraordinary courage in the Vietnam War. Decades later, the same instinct to protect others that had carried him through the Ia Drang Valley would help nearly 2,700 people escape the World Trade Center.

Cyril Richard "Rick" Rescorla was born on May 27, 1939, in Hayle, Cornwall, England. Inspired from childhood by American soldiers he had seen in Cornwall during the Second World War, Rescorla chose a life of service early. He joined the British Army, trained as a paratrooper, and served during the Cyprus Emergency, including service in an intelligence role. After leaving the British Army, he served with the Northern Rhodesia Police before immigrating to the United States in 1963. He enlisted in the U.S. Army, completed Officer Candidate School and airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and was commissioned as an infantry officer.

In Vietnam, Second Lieutenant Rescorla became a platoon leader in Company B, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. His reputation as an unusually aggressive but deeply protective combat leader was forged during some of the hardest fighting of 1965. Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore later described Rescorla as the best platoon leader he had ever seen, while Rescorla's soldiers knew him as "Hard Core."

His first major American decoration for valor came before the Battle of Ia Drang. On October 3, 1965, while leading his platoon on a search and destroy mission near An Khe, a booby-trapped grenade exploded, wounding Rescorla and another soldier. His official Bronze Star Medal with "V" Device citation records that he refused medical evacuation while his unit was under Viet Cong sniper fire. Instead, he led a fire team in an assault on the hostile positions and continued exposing himself to enemy fire until the attempted ambush had been defeated. Only after completing the mission did he accept medical treatment. The award was announced in U.S. Army Vietnam General Orders No. 2274 on December 31, 1965.

Weeks later, Rescorla's courage was tested again in the Battle of Ia Drang. His Silver Star citation covers the fighting from November 15 to 17, 1965, when his platoon helped defend a landing zone against a numerically powerful enemy force. Under intense automatic weapons fire, Rescorla moved from foxhole to foxhole directing his soldiers and encouraging them to fight. The citation records that on two occasions he personally assaulted fortified enemy machine-gun positions and neutralized them with hand grenades. His leadership was credited as instrumental in defending the landing zone and defeating the attacking force. For those actions he received the Silver Star, announced in U.S. Army Vietnam General Orders No. 932 on February 10, 1966.

Rescorla ultimately received two Bronze Star Medals, one for heroism represented by the "V" Device and a second award represented by an Oak Leaf Cluster. General Orders No. 2458, dated July 20, 1966, announced his Bronze Star Medal First Oak Leaf Cluster for service covering September 17, 1965, through August 1, 1966. His military record also documents the Purple Heart, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Gold Star, among his other honours and service awards.

After Vietnam, Rescorla continued serving in the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve while building an equally accomplished civilian life. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Oklahoma and a law degree from Oklahoma City University. His military education eventually included the Command and General Staff School, and he continued his Reserve career until retiring as a colonel in 1990. He also worked in education and security, bringing the same emphasis on preparation and responsibility that had shaped his military leadership.

That preparation became his defining legacy. Working in corporate security at the World Trade Center, Rescorla took terrorist threats seriously long before September 11. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he strengthened evacuation planning and insisted that employees repeatedly practice emergency drills. When the North Tower was struck on September 11, 2001, Rescorla rejected instructions telling people in the South Tower to remain in place and began evacuating Morgan Stanley personnel. Even after thousands had begun reaching safety, he stayed behind and continued searching for others as the danger increased.

Nearly 2,700 people escaped. Rick Rescorla did not. He was still inside the South Tower when it collapsed, having continued his efforts to get others out rather than joining the evacuation himself. The same leader who had once moved among foxholes under enemy fire in Vietnam was, thirty-six years later, again moving toward danger while others moved away from it.

In 2019, the United States posthumously awarded Colonel Richard Cyril Rescorla the Presidential Citizens Medal. Its official citation recognized that he helped save nearly 2,700 people, ignored advice to shelter them in place, and continued working to save lives until the tower collapsed. It concluded by honoring his "valiant and selfless sacrifice" for his fellow Americans.

Richard Rescorla's legacy reaches far beyond a single battlefield or a single morning in New York. He was a British soldier, American infantry officer, Vietnam War veteran, police officer, educator, security professional, husband, and leader. From Cyprus and the Ia Drang Valley to the stairwells of the World Trade Center, his life followed one consistent principle: prepare for danger, protect the people entrusted to you, and never ask others to face a risk you are unwilling to face yourself.