American Valor Quarterly Issue 5 - Winter 2008/09 | Page 13

Edward J. Herlihy Citizenship Award
Colonel Cyril “Rick” Rescorla, USA (Ret)
September 11, 2001. A day Americans will never forget. The destruction of the World Trade Center at
the hands of bloodthirsty terrorists is an image forever burned into our minds.
Yet despite the horror, the nation found a newfound resolve. Inside the buildings, selfless acts of
heroism were displayed that were so profound, had they been witnessed on a field of battle they would
have merited all the glory given to those who have received the Medal of Honor.
Among the heroes, one man’s story stands out. He was a hero before, in the jungles of Vietnam, under
a legendary commander in one of the toughest fights in U.S. history.
Ia Drang Valley, Central Highlands of South Vietnam. November 14, 1965. Elements of the 1st
Battalion, 7th Cavalry touch down in a clearing dubbed Landing Zone X-Ray. Their mission: to find and
kill the enemy forces suspected to be in the area. They would not have far to look, as three battalions
of North Vietnamese sat waiting on the nearby Chu Pong Mountain, eager to get a shot at taking on the Americans.
Fighting quickly erupted, as then-Lt. Col. Hal Moore built a defensive perimeter around the edge of the landing zone. The next
morning, shortly after 9:00 AM, men from the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry arrived at X-Ray to reinforce the soldiers under Lt. Col.
Moore. Among them was one of the few soldiers on the battlefield to have combat experience, a platoon leader in Bravo Company
by the name of Rick Rescorla.
A native of Cornwall, England, Rick Rescorla grew up idolizing the men of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division stationed near his
hometown. He would join the British Army, fighting the Communist insurgency in Cyprus, and later served with the Northern
Rhodesia Police. He eventually moved to the United States, where he joined the Army and was made a platoon leader in the 2 nd
Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
At LZ X-Ray, the situation was dire. The vastly outnumbered Americans were nearly surrounded by well-trained and motivated
North Vietnamese soldiers. Yet Rescorla’s confidence never wavered. He walked among his men’s foxholes, singing Cornish songs,
including a version of the famed old military march, Men of Harlech, and leading cheers to raise morale.
A fellow soldier, Larry Gwin, said, “I saw Rick Rescorla come swaggering into our lines with a smile on his face, an M-79 on his
shoulder, his M-16 in one hand, saying ‘Good, good, good! I hope they hit us with everything they’ve got tonight—we’ll wipe them
up!’ His spirit was catching. The enemy must have thought an entire battalion was coming to help us, because of all our screaming
and yelling.”
The men of the 1st Cav held out at X-Ray, eventually beating back the tremendous North Vietnamese onslaught, due in no small part
to the leadership of Rick Rescorla. He was a rock on the battlefield, steady and strong, and would be awarded the Silver and Bronze
Stars along with the Purple Heart. Hal Moore called him “The best platoon leader I ever saw,” and it was Rick Rescorla’s photo that
adorned the cover of General Moore and Joseph Galloway’s classic account of Ia Drang, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young.
Rick Rescorla returned to the States and retired into civilian life. Several years later he took charge of security for Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter, located in the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. In 1992, Rescorla warned the Port Authority,
the owners of the World Trade Center, of the danger of a potential terrorist attack which might bring the buildings down by planting
a truck laden with explosives next to one of the load-bearing columns in the basement. Yet he was ignored, and in 1993, Islamic
terrorists detonated such a bomb. While it failed Ѽ