On September 11, 2001, as the South Tower burned, 24-year-old Welles Crowther left his mother a voicemail: “Mom, this is Welles. I want you to know that I’m okay.”
It was the last message she would ever receive from him.
Crowther, a former volunteer firefighter turned equities trader, could have run away. Instead, he ran toward the danger.
With a red bandana covering his mouth and nose, he took charge of the 78th-floor sky lobby — where smoke, fire, and falling debris had thrown hundreds into chaos. Calmly, he directed people to the stairwells, carried injured individuals on his back, and encouraged survivors to support one another.
He went back. Again and again.
Ling Young, one of those he saved, later called him her guardian angel. In the end, Welles is believed to have rescued at least a dozen people before being found alongside firefighters, heading back up the stairs with rescue equipment.
Welles Crowther didn’t wear a cape. He wore a red bandana. And with it, he showed the world that courage isn’t the absence of fear — it’s choosing to act despite it.
Never forget the man in the red bandana