A hero of September 11 received the nation’s highest civilian honor this week, nearly 25 years after giving his life to save strangers inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
As reported on Wednesday’s AM Update, the presentation took place on the Ellipse outside the White House Tuesday during the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “Steel Across America” event ahead of Friday, when the United States will mark 25 years since the terror attacks.
A 21-foot steel beam recovered from the South Tower stood beside the stage following a months-long journey across the country to honor the victims and first responders who lost their lives.
Crowther’s Heroism
During the ceremony, President Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Remy Crowther, the 24-year-old volunteer firefighter remembered as the “man in the red bandana.”
Crowther was working as an equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 struck the building below him. As he made his way down, Crowther reaching the shattered 78th floor sky lobby where he heard cries for help and chose to answer them.
“A group of people on the 78th floor were trapped with broken bones, charred skin, and eyes and lungs filled with black smoke… They were sure they were going to die. Then suddenly, a rescuer appeared. They call him the man in the red bandana,” the president explained.
“He found an opening in one of the stairwells… and traveled down from the 104th floor to look for those trapped and dying. When he heard cries for help on the 78th floor, he began extinguishing the fires, blocking the exit, directing survivors who could walk,” Trump continued. “He willingly made all of these trips up and down, up and down, up and down, over and over again, saving life after life.”
President Trump called it a “privilege” to award the highest civilian honor “in honor of his incredible bravery and all of the other countless unknown acts of heroism that day.”
Survivor accounts credit Crowther with saving as many as 18 people that morning. He himself never made it out of the tower, and his remains were later found in the South Tower lobby alongside firefighters and other emergency workers near what authorities believed had become a rescue command post.
Crowther’s family spent months not knowing anything about his final moments, but the truth emerged through a 2002 New York Times account as several survivors described the mysterious young man who had led them through the smoke.
They did not know his name. They remembered only the red bandana covering his face.
Crowther’s mother Alison immediately recognized the description as her son, who had carried a red bandana since childhood after receiving it from his late father Jefferson. According to Alison, her husband taught him to always carry a bandana in his back pocket for “messy jobs.”
Crowther’s Legacy
Alison was joined by Crowther’s sister Paige in accepting the medal on his behalf. She credited her son’s ability to respond so decisively to the firefighter training he began as a teenager. Crowther followed in the footsteps of his dad and joined Empire Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 in Upper Nyack at just 16 years old.
Alison said Crowther may have gone to work that morning as an equities trader, but when lives were in danger, he answered as a firefighter. “[That] Welles’s light still shines brilliantly today, even after 25 years, is testament to his legacy of courage, compassion, and love for humanity, that continues to inspire and uplift others,” she said as she accepted the honor.
“Twenty-five years after September 11, his life continues to remind us of something very simple: In moments when others need us, each of us has the power to choose courage, compassion, and service,” Alison added. “That’s the real meaning of the red bandana: To be courageous, to find the good, to be the good.”
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