10 Heartwarming Stories of Heroism and Humanity on 9/11
When we think about September 11, 2001, we naturally think about the terrible things that happened that morning.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed. Thousands more were injured. Families lost husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. The images of the burning towers and the people fleeing through the streets remain among the most painful pictures in American history.
But September 11 was also a day when ordinary people demonstrated extraordinary courage.
Some ran toward danger while everyone else was running away. Some stayed behind to help strangers. Some took enormous risks to rescue people they had never met. And thousands of complete strangers suddenly began helping one another simply because there was nobody else to do it.
Twenty-five years later, those stories deserve to be remembered too.
Here are ten of the most inspiring examples.
1. Rick Rescorla: The Man Who Wouldn't Leave Without Everyone
Rick Rescorla had already seen what terrorism could do to the World Trade Center.
He was working in the South Tower when the complex was bombed in 1993. Afterward, he became convinced that another attack was possible.
So he prepared.
Rescorla, a former Army officer and Vietnam veteran, conducted evacuation drills with employees of Morgan Stanley. He developed procedures for getting people out quickly and efficiently.
When the first plane hit the North Tower on September 11, Rescorla didn't panic.
He grabbed a bullhorn and began directing people out of the South Tower.
He sang songs from his military days to keep frightened employees calm as they moved down the stairs.
Nearly 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees escaped the building.
But Rescorla didn't leave.
He kept going back up the tower looking for anyone who might still be trapped.
He was last seen heading upward.
He knew the danger.
He went anyway.
2. Welles Crowther: The Man in the Red Bandana
Welles Crowther was a 24-year-old equities trader working in the South Tower.
He was also a former volunteer firefighter.
When the tower was struck, Crowther began helping people escape.
Survivors later remembered a young man wearing a red bandana over his face to protect himself from the smoke.
Crowther repeatedly went back into the building.
He helped people find the stairs. He carried injured people. He guided others toward safety.
He could have concentrated entirely on saving himself.
Instead, he kept returning for other people.
That red bandana eventually became one of the most recognizable symbols of individual heroism on 9/11.
Crowther didn't survive.
But the people he helped never forgot him.
3. Moira Smith: The Police Officer Who Kept Going Back
NYPD Officer Moira Smith was among the first police officers to respond to the World Trade Center.
She was 38 years old and the mother of a two-year-old daughter.
Smith could have concentrated on getting people away from the disaster.
Instead, she became one of the people helping organize the evacuation.
Smith was among the first to respond and was last seen evacuating people from the South Tower. She helped save hundreds of lives before the tower collapsed.
She was later awarded the NYPD's Medal of Honor, the department's highest honor.
Smith kept returning to the danger.
Eventually, she didn't make it out.
Her story is particularly heartbreaking because she had a young daughter waiting for her at home.
But it is also a reminder that heroism isn't always one dramatic moment.
Sometimes it's simply continuing to help people when you're terrified yourself.
4. Stephen Siller: The Firefighter Who Ran Toward the Towers
Firefighter Stephen Siller had already finished his shift when he heard about the attacks.
He immediately turned around.
By the time he reached Manhattan, access through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel had been closed.
So Siller did something almost unbelievable.
He put approximately 60 pounds of firefighting equipment on his back and ran through the tunnel toward the World Trade Center.
He was 34 years old.
He had a wife and five children.
He knew something terrible was happening.
And he ran toward it.
His story eventually inspired the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which continues to honor first responders and military members.
Sometimes courage isn't complicated.
Sometimes it's simply knowing where you're needed—and going there.
5. Brian Clark and Stanley Praimnath: Two Strangers Who Became Friends
This may be one of the most beautiful stories of 9/11 because it didn't end when the two men escaped.
Stanley Praimnath was on the 81st floor of the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the building.
He became trapped beneath debris.
He called out for help.
Brian Clark, who was higher up in the building, heard him.
Clark had every reason to keep going.
He was trying to escape the burning tower himself.
Instead, he followed the voice.
He found Praimnath and helped free him.
The two men then made their way down the damaged stairwell together.
They escaped only minutes before the South Tower collapsed.
They had been complete strangers that morning.
They became lifelong friends afterward.
In one of the darkest moments imaginable, one stranger simply refused to leave another stranger behind.
6. Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz: Going Upstairs When Everyone Else Was Going Down
Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz worked for the Port Authority in the North Tower.
After the plane hit, they helped people escape.
But then they did something extraordinarily dangerous.
They went back toward the upper floors to search for people who might still be trapped.
The two men and their colleagues helped clear debris and open a stairwell so people could get out.
De Martini and Ortiz eventually died in the building.
They weren't firefighters.
They weren't police officers.
They were ordinary World Trade Center workers who decided that their responsibility didn't end with getting themselves out.
They went back for other people.
7. The Passengers of Flight 93: Ordinary People Who Decided to Fight Back
Flight 93 is one of the most extraordinary stories of September 11.
The passengers learned through telephone calls that other planes had already been used as weapons.
They realized that their airplane was probably intended for another target.
And they had to make a terrible choice.
Do nothing and hope for the best—or attempt to take control of the aircraft.
Passengers including Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick communicated with loved ones and others on the ground as they discussed what to do.
They ultimately decided to fight back.
Todd Beamer famously prayed with telephone operator Lisa Jefferson before preparing to act.
The words associated with the passengers' decision became famous:
“Let's roll.”
The plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania rather than reaching its intended target.
We will never know exactly what would have happened had the passengers not fought back.
But we do know that they refused to simply surrender.
Their courage saved lives.
8. The Boat Captains Who Turned New York Harbor Into an Escape Route
Not all of the heroes of 9/11 were firefighters or police officers.
Some were boat captains.
After the attacks, Lower Manhattan was essentially cut off.
Roads, bridges and tunnels were closed. Hundreds of thousands of people were stranded.
Then civilian boat operators began arriving.
Ferries.
Tugboats.
Tour boats.
Private vessels.
Anything that could carry people.
They started transporting stranded New Yorkers across the harbor.
The evacuation became one of the largest maritime evacuations in history.
Nearly 500,000 people were transported from Lower Manhattan in less than nine hours.
And they weren't all being evacuated by government emergency agencies.
Ordinary mariners saw people who needed help and went to help them.
No one needed to tell them that they were heroes.
They simply brought their boats.
9. Lisa Jefferson: The Stranger Who Stayed on the Phone
Todd Beamer's story is famous, but one part of it is sometimes overlooked.
His final conversation wasn't with his wife.
He tried to reach her but couldn't connect.
Instead, he reached an airline telephone operator named Lisa Jefferson.
She stayed on the phone with him.
For approximately 15 minutes, she listened as Beamer described what was happening aboard Flight 93.
She also prayed with him.
She became, in effect, the last person on the ground to speak with him.
Jefferson couldn't save Beamer.
She couldn't stop the hijacking.
But she could do something else.
She could make sure that he wasn't alone.
And sometimes, when there is nothing else you can do, simply staying with another human being is an act of profound kindness.
10. Lauren Grandcolas: A Final Message of Love
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas was flying home to California after attending her grandmother's funeral.
She was also three months pregnant.
During the hijacking of Flight 93, she called her husband.
He didn't answer.
So she left a message.
She told him there was a problem with the plane.
She told him she was okay.
And she told him she loved him.
Lauren couldn't know what was going to happen.
She couldn't know whether her husband would ever hear her voice again.
But in the middle of an unimaginable crisis, she thought about the people she loved.
Her final message wasn't about herself.
It was about love.
The Other Side of September 11
There is a reason stories like these remain powerful a quarter-century later.
They remind us that September 11 wasn't only a story about evil.
It was also a story about people.
People who ran toward burning buildings.
People who carried strangers.
People who went back upstairs.
People who opened boats to complete strangers.
People who stayed on telephones with frightened passengers.
People who said goodbye to their families.
People who sacrificed themselves so others might live.
And people who simply looked around, saw somebody who needed help, and decided to help them.
We should never minimize the horror of September 11.
But remembering the victims doesn't require us to remember only how they died.
We can also remember the courage that surrounded them.
The kindness.
The selflessness.
The ordinary people who became extraordinary when the moment demanded it.
And perhaps that is one of the most important lessons of September 11.
We don't always get to choose the circumstances in which we are tested.
But we do get to choose how we respond.
On one of America's darkest days, thousands of people chose to help someone else.
That is worth remembering.
That is worth teaching our children.
And that is worth carrying forward.
