09/03/2026
Rick Rescorla knew the World Trade Center was a target. On September 11, 2001, when the South Tower was hit, he evacuated thousands of Morgan Stanley employees, got most of them out alive, and then walked back into the burning tower looking for anyone left behind. He never came out.
Rescorla wasn't guessing.
After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he believed the complex remained vulnerable.
He pushed Morgan Stanley to take the threat seriously.
He created evacuation drills.
Twice a year, employees practiced leaving the towers.
Some complained.
Rescorla kept drilling them.
By 9/11, Morgan Stanley had more than 2,500 employees and contractors working throughout the World Trade Center complex.
Then the first plane hit.
Rescorla immediately began evacuating people.
When the South Tower was struck at 9:03 a.m., confusion spread.
Some announcements told people to remain at their desks.
Rescorla ignored them.
He knew the building was not safe.
He grabbed his bullhorn.
“Get out.”
He directed employees toward the stairwells.
To keep them calm, he sang.
“God Bless America.”
Then he kept moving through the floors.
Checking offices.
Searching for anyone who hadn't evacuated.
People were pouring downward.
Rescorla was going upward.
He had already gotten thousands of people moving toward safety.
He could have left.
Instead, he went back inside.
Again.
And again.
He was last seen climbing toward the upper floors shortly before the South Tower collapsed.
Rescorla was 62.
He was never recovered.
Of the more than 2,500 Morgan Stanley employees and contractors in the World Trade Center that morning, only 13 failed to escape.
Rescorla was one of them.
And this wasn't his first time running toward a battlefield.
Before Morgan Stanley, he had served with the British Army and later the U.S. Army.
In Vietnam, he fought at the Battle of Ia Drang, one of the war's most intense engagements.
He earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart.
After Vietnam, he eventually became Morgan Stanley's security chief.
He spent years preparing civilians for a disaster he feared would come.
Then it did.
His drills worked.
His employees escaped.
But Rescorla didn't.
He knew the towers were dangerous.
He got thousands of people out.
Then he went back into the fire for the people who were still trapped.
