Profiles of American Service: Colonel Cyril R. “Rick” Rescorla

A Hero of Ia Drang, He Gave His Life Saving Others at the World Trade Center

 

Written by Will Armstrong, History Associates Incorporated

 

A photograph of Rescorla taken in Ia Drang was later made famous as the cover photo for the book We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, the definitive account of the battle written by Col. Moore and National Museum of Americans in Wartime board member Joe Galloway.

As a lieutenant in the 7^th Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam, Rick Rescorla found that whenever his superiors needed a job done, and done right, they sent his platoon to do it. 

 

Some of Rescorla’s earliest memories were of American soldiers preparing for the Normandy invasion in his hometown of Cornwall, England, and they made a lasting impression.  As a young man he joined the British Army, seeing hazardous duty on the island of Cyprus, and then joined the colonial police in Northern Rhodesia, a British protectorate.  It was in Northern Rhodesia that he first met a lifelong American friend who persuaded him to immigrate from England to the United States. 

 

Uneasy about the spread of Communist totalitarianism, Rescorla came to see the American military as the strongest bulwark against it.  At the urging of his friend, he joined the U.S. Army in 1963 and quickly found himself at home.  “I’ve got so many buddies now that I feel more settled than I’ve ever been before,” Rescorla said later that year.

 

He quickly gained recognition as an outstanding leader, seemingly fearless and always leading by example, and he wanted his platoon to be the best.  In Vietnam, at the Battle of the Ia Drang in November 1965, Rescorla’s platoon held off the main thrust of a North Vietnamese attack at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray, never losing ground to the enemy.  As he often did, Rescorla tried to inspire his men by singing old Cornish songs.  After a brief rest, Rescorla’s platoon was sent back to the battlefield to reinforce besieged 7^th Cavalry forces at LZ Albany, some distance away from LZ X-Ray. 

 

That night, North Vietnamese soldiers prowled the silent battlefield, executing many Americans who had been wounded earlier in the day.  Rescorla, upon hearing the news from a survivor, led a small patrol beyond the American defensive perimeter and past enemy patrols to rescue as many of his wounded comrades as possible.  Those who watched him in action in Vietnam described Rescorla as one of the Army’s best platoon leaders, and Col. Hal Moore, commanding officer of the 1^st Battalion, 7^th Cavalry, later referred to him as a ‘battlefield legend’ and “the best platoon leader I ever knew.” 

 

Rescorla proudly became an American citizen in 1967.  He left the regular Army and joined the Reserves.  Recipient of the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and the Purple Heart, as well as the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Rescorla earned a law degree and settled into the peaceful life of an ordinary American. 

 

Almost 36 years after the Battle of Ia Drang, Rick Rescorla was retired from the Reserves and working at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Now director of security and an executive vice president at the firm, Rescorla worried constantly about the security of the World Trade Center complex and its vulnerability to terrorism, which he had voiced even before the complex was bombed by terrorists in 1993.  Yet at age 62, he looked forward to spending his retirement days with his wife, whom he had wed in 1999.  It was not to be. 

 

When an explosion at the north tower rocked the World Trade Center complex on the morning of September 11, 2001, Rescorla knew something was seriously wrong.  He ordered an evacuation and guided workers to the stairwells, ignoring officials who urged people to remain at their desks.  When explosions tore through the south tower about 15 minutes later, Rescorla reassured the people descending the stairs, urging them to keep calm.  He spent the next hour making sure that everyone was evacuated, offering words of comfort and, as he had in Vietnam, singing old Cornish songs.  “Today is a day to be proud to be an American,” an evacuee heard him say. 

 

Soon, Rescorla was aware that the morning’s explosions had been from aircraft flown into each of the Twin Towers.  He started a final search to make sure everyone had been evacuated, but time ran out.  At 9:59 am the south tower collapsed, killing Rescorla and hundreds of others still trapped inside.  In all, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center killed 2,749 people.  Yet the vast majority of Rescorla’s colleagues at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, whose evacuation he had personally overseen in the first moments after the attack, survived.

 

 

The National Museum of Americans in Wartime honors the service of Col. Rick Rescorla and all other Americans who have served the cause of freedom.