Western Morning News (Saturday)
Hero Rick Rescorla is remembered
CORNWALL is today remembering a Vietnam war veteran who was born and raised in Cornwall and died after heroically saving the lives of almost 3,800 people caught up in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center 20 years ago.
On the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on on the United States, thoughts are with the family of 62-year-old Rick Rescorla, from Hayle, who stayed behind in the building to evacuate employees of the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter bank.
His wife Susan told the WMN just days after the attack that she called his office when she heard planes had hit the building and was told: “‘Don’t worry about anything, Rick is getting the people out’. The last communication I had with my husband was after the plane hit the tower. He called me on his cell phone, told me not to cry, he was helping everyone evacuate, but if something happened to him he wanted me to know that I ‘made his life’.”
Rick regarded himself as a Cornishman through and through, Susan said. “He loved America but he didn’t want to forget his roots and he always made sure that he made the rounds whenever he went back to visit Cornwall.”
Rick was head of Morgan Stanley’s security and was in his 44th-floor office in the trade tower when it was struck by the second plane. Susan said she had heard he was moving from floor to floor, making sure people were out.
Bob Sloss, a managing director at Morgan Stanley who last saw Rick around the 10th floor in the stairwell, said: “He was definitely there well after it had been established that the building was in trouble. I was told by the chief executive of Morgan Stanley that Rick was
observed by many as cool and calm, leading people out saying ‘God Bless America’, ‘Peace to you’ and singing to them to help ease the panic.”
It was same tactic he had used to great effect as a lieutenant and platoon leader in Vietnam, where he would sing to his men at tense times and instil in them the courage to get back up for one more round of battle.
Rick, who was born in Hayle in 1939, was a police officer in the former Rhodesia before going to the United States in the 1960s and joining the US Army.
Mervyn Sullivan, 63, also from
Hayle, was Rick’s closest friend at school in Cornwall. The pair went to Penpol Primary School, then on to Penzance County Grammar School and shared the daily train journey.
“I was not surprised at all by what he did”, Mervyn said. “He was an absolute action man. Had everybody else got out of the building, Rick would have been the last one and that is for sure.”
Prayers are also being said this weekend in memory of a former Torquay schoolgirl and vicar’s daughter who was also killed in the attack. Sarah Redheffer, nee Prothero, 35, had attended St Cuthbert Mayne school and South Devon College. She lived with her American husband at Marldon, near Paignton. She was on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower when it was hit.
She was Conference Operations Manager at an event and was among 16 people from a London-based company who died, along with 53 delegates. Sarah’s father, the Rev David Prothero, said at the time that the family were left in a state of confusion and perplexity as they waited for news.