9/11 Hero Bill Van Scoyoc on Rick Rescorla, the Vietnam Vet who saved 2,700 lives (Full Interview)

this is Veterans Chronicles I'm Greg Carabas honored to be joined today by Bill Vance Koyuk who is not a veteran of the United States military but he's here to tell us about a very special one named Rick Rescorla he's also here to tell us about his role in the harrowing events of 9/11 inside the World Trade Center and Rick thanks very much for being with us hey Greg it's a pleasure to be here with all of you and honestly I'm just so appreciative of the fact that we get to speak of of Rick and his heroism and what he did on 9/11 where were you born and raised so I was born and raised in Yonkers New York Westchester County and Yonkers is about 20 minutes outside of Manhattan and as you can probably tell by my accent I am a an absolute New Yorker through and through even though I live in Florida now for last nine years which is basically just southern New York but but it's great I'm very proud of my heritage where I come from and nothing to me was more spectacular than working in New York City Gate for the years that I did and in particular working in the Trade Center which to me was the penultimate of my career from experience standpoint just a wonderful place to be okay and very proud of the firm that I worked for and and the presents that we had in that building where'd you go to school well I went to high school and I owned a preparatory high school and then I went to Community College Westchester Community College and had a great time there and loved playing baseball for Westchester Community College just a wonderful experience and you know kind of ended up in this career really as I I don't even know how I ended up in this career I was actually all set to become a police officer and just kind of fell in my lap because a very good friend had mentioned to me that you know he should take a look at it because it's something that he thinks I'd do really well in kind of started it and got involved with it and just just really liked where I worked for it and who I worked with and you know things have just been fantastic 24 years later 24 years a market Stanley 24 years 24 years I'm dating myself now so I think suspected in 1995 yes and did you work at the I'd sent it right away no actually I started in White Plains New York and I didn't actually start at the Trade Center officially until ironically September 11th of 2001 my first thing and I was asked to go into a management training program and our responsibilities were when folks went to go to work for Morgan Stanley gay they in the broker training position they were kind of after they passed their examinations since in New York City for a three week training program which was coordinated at two World Trade Center and my job or one of my responsibilities was worked with colleagues to help coordinate that program which was a three week program and just it was a wonderful wonderful experience for her for everyone there got to see the culture of the firm and they also got to learn you know some of what you need to be or hopefully we can need to be successful as business how many employees at Morgan Stanley have at the Trade Center well I mean my memory was Morgan Stanley was a single largest tenant in that location with a presence in in multiple buildings in the Trade Center and I believe we had somewhere in the vicinity of about 3334 hundred employees in total in the buildings there how did you meet Rick or Scarola well I mean interesting enough I mean Rick's personality gay and Rick's presence were always known even for somebody new coming to to the location I remember just the initial fire drills and and and some of the preparatory events that they would have in a trade center you know a trade center was a great location and it was one of the most amazing places I've ever set foot in my life and it was just unbelievable and we would have safety and fire drills on a regular basis and Rick would coordinate and run those drills and I didn't know who Rick was honestly when I first knew him but his presence of his demeanor certainly defined him when I first met him and I could just tell I could sense his passion for making sure that everyone was secure and he was protecting everyone in that building you mentioned its demeanor what was it like a regular day he was great I mean you know Rick was definitely an again I didn't find out until until after the fact but you know Rick was a soldier I mean he was he was somebody that was inspiring somebody that you would see that that you would want to look up to and if somebody was a true leader and someone that you had confidence in that that would do the right thing at the right time so only after the fact that I even find out of his valor and his courage in Vietnam and what he did and funny for a guy just coming there working in a building I never had more confidence and felt more secure gave working with someone that I did with Rick I just thought he was fantastic Wow how did he talk a little bit about how he approached his job how he was his mission to protect everyone how did that manifest itself and how he interacted with you and everybody else there well what I think was great about Rick is you know there was an open line of communication for where we worked I mean obviously we were in up an incredibly high profile building and folks would always talk about gave the bombing incident that happened back in the early 90s and that story was so prevalent and told so many different times that it almost became self educational gave for what you needed to do to hopefully or hopefully not ever encounter okay a similar situation such as that but I think Rick did an unbelievable job of instilling in people the fact that you need to be quick you need to be decisive you need to listen and you need to leave that building and that's exactly what he instilled because all I can think about is my own part in what happened and the decision was almost instantaneous it was from all of the training I remember people said it took two hours to get down the stairwell okay during the bombing and I remember saying man I don't want to be in this location for two hours if something get really bad is gonna happen and I certainly want to have anybody that I'm responsible for put it in jeopardy for that period of time so when the events happens we made the decision just incredibly quickly to evacuate that building and I accredited a lot of that to Rick you know I really truly believe just in the short period of time that I worked with him and the training that he gave us that he played a big role in not only saving my life but but so many other people now you mentioned there's 3,300 people in different buildings in the World Trade Center complex so in the building you were in where were most of them concentrated what floors of the building or was it all over the place so I am my responsibility and where I worked I worked with a great group of people on the 61st floor of tower 2 and that particular day we we're on the second day of a three week training program where we had of course ironically the largest training class we've ever had of 276 people that really came in from all across the country and these folks were here on their second day of their first week of a three week training program in New York City and as a native New Yorker I can tell you wholeheartedly you know New York is it's the greatest place in the world but you know what if you're not accustomed to it it can be pretty intimidating place so you know you know these people were just trying to get used to gate and accommodated to being in New York City which you know for a lot of them was just an overwhelming experience to begin with and certainly and of course no one would have ever anticipated what was what was to kind of happen moving forward and and that was you know something that just came and you know was quite unexpected how did you learn about the first plane hitting Tower 1 and what was the reaction well what I remember from that and I have a day I should say is you know walking in and going to my job and being there at 7:00 a.m. and getting things prepared and fortunately the first speaker that we had that day actually showed up 15 minutes early which you don't think about certain things until they matter and I thought that was fantastic getting him on early having him speak and kind of getting the class ready and and and have everybody be attentive for that time and when he finished speaking he finished speaking about fifteen minutes early and ironically he never realized how important that time would be because what I did is put everybody on break came for an extended period of time and told them hey you can go with you know come downstairs and relax go to the cafeteria get yourself coffee and you got a half-hour now instead of 15 minutes on a break which is great but literally maybe about five or ten minutes after he'd finished speaking someone came running up to me and they said you know there's this there's some structural damage in one of the offices and I said what do you mean and I actually walked back there and I saw a crack in the glass of one of the rooms that we used to house whole of people that we had and I knew something was wrong because it just didn't seem right and I remember looking out the window and you know as a big New York Yankee fan I remember when the Yankees beat the Mets in 2000 we had a ticker tape parade down there and it was greatness all these wonderful things flying outside because people were celebrating this was kind of like a more horrific version of that there was debris there was things that were on fire and there were there were just you knew something was wrong so my first instinct was go back into the center room gate try to get my hands around all the folks that were still up there trying to organize it and wait for instruction and that's exactly what we did and after the second plane hit Tower 2 they were still telling the building management was still telling people not to leave the building right well I remember this vividly we decided because of security and the folks kind of instructing us and saying might not be a bad idea to leave the building I remember making the decision because it was my class that let's let's sleep you know I just thought it was a prudent decision that was the right thing to do and we can always come back to the building but again after all the stories and all the education that Rick gave us and and the team put it in our heads you know you can't always leave the building you know it can take time to get to ask this and I certainly want to see anybody jeopardized or any lives put in danger so we actually evacuated went down stairwell and got to about the 50th floor and the 50th floor was a reentry floor and right before we got to the 50th floor it actually had come across the intercom system that you know building one was hit by an aircraft building two is secure go back to your desks and I remember I had a small group of people with me and they actually said well what do you think we should do I said oh well I'm just thinking we should just leave because you know what I mean I don't know what's going on in the other building and if there's a fire you know smoke can certainly be dangerous and not something that we want to encounter and let's just go downstairs and what we group and we'll figure it out and I would say literally within two or three minutes of that decision well then we got hit and what part of the plane hit your building to this day I don't know exactly where it was but yeah it was above us I think it was somewhere in the probably in the low 90s her high 80s and all I can tell you is we felt the impact of the building you know if you worked in the World Trade Center that building was so tall and it was such an incredible structure that it would actually sway with the wind so you know sometimes you'd be in there and you actually feel like you were moving in the building which was great it was just such a structural marvel and it was just an incredible place to be but when we got impacted by a plane it literally felt like like we were on a pendulum just swinging back and forth and and actually you know good good I felt like I was gonna fall out of the building and what amazed me was just how incredibly well composed the folks were as we evacuated the building and all I could think about that day was you know I usually talked to my mom early in the morning all the times before which work should always call me and that particular day I was just so busy having a chance to do it and I was just kind of kind of regretful I didn't have a conversation with it because I know if I was gonna go there or not but all I could tell you was that folks were just incredible and amazingly focused and just everybody was pitching in to help everybody else just just get out of the building real contact with record I mean point during the morning no I mean it just the security team that that Rick was in charge of and entrusted to and I remember coming down when we when we finally got down the stairwell there was the observatory deck which I believe was on the eighth floor and that was actually with a senior member of management from Morgan Stanley who was helping me I get some of the the folks who moved downstairs and I can remember as we went down the escalator for me for I could hear it because Rick had a voice you never forget you know with his accent and just his authoritative demeanor which was again as a soldier as somebody to respect as a leader you certainly make note of when you hear it and I could hear him instructing us you know to come down and to exit the building and I didn't actually see him run up the stairs but I heard the stories of him coaching and helping and singing and doing anything he could to help people feel better for for the for the chaos that was ensuing us and trying to relieve and soothe us but also trying to do what Rick did best which was protect and get people out of the building you mentioned that folks had said it took two hours to get downstairs back in the 93 bombing how long did it take you and the folks you were responsible for to get down there that day amazingly fast I never walked down 61 flights of stairs faster and actually at one point I was carrying a couple people with me that we're having a hard time getting down 61 flights of stairs the old story I like to tell is you know I was probably about 30 pounds lighter back the heck probably in the shape of my life and it actually was helpful because it allowed me to help some other folks that maybe weren't quite as physically adept him walking down 61 flights of stairs to get down there and I'd say we got down the stairwell and out of the building in probably less than 12 minutes 12 minutes so then did you find the people you had sent downstairs earlier did you reconvene with them somewhere outside or inside her well I mean we're anyways kind of scattered at that point well when we were outside I remember I had a group of people with me and someone else from Morgan Stanley senior management and quite frankly we didn't know what to do and what was going on but I remember going up to a police officer that was there and I said you know I've got some folks I'm responsible for what do I do and he said I see he goes guy downtown he goes because we heard there's another plane coming and at that point I said alright you know what we would house all the folks that would come in for this three-week training program in three different locations there was a wonderful hotel called the South Gate right across the Madison Square Garden the East Gate which was located right near there and the hotel Surrey so I just basically said to to the folks I was with just go back to the South Gate I'll get my way up there eventually and and you know we'll begin to try to piece this together and I remember making that walk from downtown Manhattan to the South Gate hotel and I was desperately trying to call my mom and my dad because you know my dad was a former World War two veteran and unfortunately was incapacitated back then in a wheelchair you know my parents were elderly and I just want to make sure that they knew that I was okay but there was just no cell phone service at all and I think I found a one pane phone where there wasn't a line of 20 people on and I was able to call my parents and let them know and they asked me they really requested that I come home just walk back to Yonkers a little bit of a long long but I said look I said I've got responsibilities here I said I've got people that I'm responsible for that are gonna need my help and I don't know quite frankly what I could do for them but but just to have somebody there that can help them I thought would be the right thing to do so what did you do with them well I walked back to to the South Gate hotel and you know all I can tell you is the people and the staff at the South Gate Hotel were so amazing in helping me identify myself I told I told them who I was and I said I have no lists I have nothing that's going to be able to be a roster for for accountability for the folks that we had and they set me up in the back of the hotel and really in my own command center and provided me every resource I needed to try to piece this together and try to see out of the 276 people we had who we had and who was in the hotel and how we combined people that were and really just account for everybody and it was a long long process and you know we actually figured out a system where we had the other two hotels fax in the registry for people that had checked in and I had actually spoken to the people that had checked in went out to the streets of Manhattan at one point walked around and it was amazing after only a day and a half how many people are recognized from the class and I think a lot of folks were in shock as you can imagine and just trying to get them back into the hotel and try to help them and make sure that their well-being was taken care where were you when the tower came down this was when I was walking from downtown New York and interestingly enough I had walked East and I think I was somewhere probably around Canal Street or I remember being near Jay in our music world which was a place that I knew very well on that electronics store and I just felt this Rumble and it was like nothing else I ever felt that thought it was an earthquake and I remember running under an awning and looking and just seeing we'll look like a house carts just come down and see this giant billowing smoke coming out and I remember at that point I thought to myself I can't believe I just saw and the folks and the people that were in there were the only thing at the forefront of my mind and it was devastating did you head back to the hotel then what did you how did you respond in terms of making decisions after that I just decided to go back to hotel and do everything I could whatever help I could provide and whatever I could do to help that's why wasn't it and you know look I always think about 9/11 I always I always say you saw the best in people and the worst in people on the same day which is something that you don't frequently see but I can't really look back on it with any positive memories except for one thing you know people lost their families they lost their husbands their wives children it'll never be a positive experience for me but the inspiration of seeing people bond and work together the greatest thing I've ever seen and people truly wanted to help each other that day and people truly wanted to work together and together we all overcame something we never thought we'd have to experience but we work together through it what are some examples of what you saw people who perhaps didn't even really know each other because they were all coming together for this training session how did they work together you talked about how you are pretty much carrying two people down the stairs well what I'll always remember when we were in the South Gate hotel probably about an hour and a half everything happened someone had come up to me and said you know you probably should dress or have a meeting with the people that are here and again by no means was I an expert in dealing with situations such as this so I was kind of piecing it together myself but they said they need to hear from somebody in leadership or management here some type of reassurance that there's going to be support and help for them and really addressing them on on what's going on so I had a meeting and I remember saying to myself you know a lot of folks left there a lot of ladies left their pocketbooks and gentlemen left there their jackets with their wallets in it and there are people in need of money and they needed some help and support so I actually passed the cardboard box around the meeting room and I said you know look we'll get this straightened out and the firm will come in and support us I know that fact cuz it's just a great place to be I said but in the interim people need food and you know just need some help and I passed around a cardboard box and I would say within less than five minutes at $3,600 in there and I remember looking at that saying to myself that reaffirms my my faith in humanity because again as I stated people cared more about other folks than they cared about themselves and they wanted to help and donate it any way they can I remember having a meeting and again not knowing what to say but all I did was say then I'm gonna give you the best ever I have to work this through and I know this great firm that we work for will surely support us and help us and I'm gonna get you home and back to your families I don't know how yet I'm going to just just give it some time absolute faith and that got a little complicated since they grounded all flights well it wasn't easy you know what I remember vividly was we had actually begun to get a little bit of a sense of normalcy within the first let's say day or so and you know for me I just wanted to make people feel good so I remember taking them to - we had a restaurant lounge bar and in the in the South Gate Hotel where I just told that ready to come and just meet and we had a whole huge group of people and it was great and I really felt like you know what we're getting people in a better place this has been an incredibly traumatizing event but we're getting people in a better place and you know lo and behold we have the bomb scare at the Empire State Building and that was kind of difficult because after that you know parents were driving up from all over the country to come and pick their children up they just did not want to wait for us to get them back and we I actually really felt that oh boy you know we I think we kind of had it under control but it went a little chaotic after that event now you mentioned as you were exiting Tower - you could hear Rick Rescorla encouraging folks singing to them and obviously you cleared the tower by a number of minutes before it came down why didn't Rick ultimately get out in time I understand he went back up what do you know about the sequence of events there you know I read about Rick after everything happened and what's so inspiring about him was not only his actions that day but his actions prior to that day in Vietnam and Rick had always been asked did you ever see the movie we were soldiers in JooJoo ever jizzy and at least from what I read I don't think he did and Rick's opinion was always you know what the heroes aren't the folks that are still here the fewer the heroes of the folks that are that are no longer here and again just in my interactions with him that's exactly how he came off which to me meant he would rather sacrifice himself to save save someone rather than then provide for his own security and you just knew he was going to get people out of that building as many as he could and his own safety and his own thought of himself it was it was not number one priority for him how does your company respond you mentioned you knew that they would take care of the people who had left their wallets and so forth but their offices were gone for thousands of people so how did the company recover from that after 24 years of working for him it's not even it's not even a company I work for it's a part of my life and what they did to help people and to to make this unbelievable horrible event even somewhat paddleboat the people was extraordinary to me you know Morgan Stanley actually set up business contingency areas for folks to work out of and Morgan Stanley helped and provided counseling and services to people that were affected by what we saw and Morgan Stanley never forgets the events of that day and you know look with all the folks we had we still had 12 people that didn't make it out of that building that that were part of our family and every year we honor them and every year we talk about wreck and every year we provide whatever support we need for people to help them because 18 years later I can only tell you it's a part of my life that'll be a part of my life and there will be something that will always be in my memory and I'm grateful for the firm I with because of what they did from a support standpoint the help they gave people that continued support that they give them I think it speaks volumes about this problem you mentioned twelve people didn't make it out Rick being one of them if Rick hadn't worked for you hadn't been there hadn't been helping people out sobbing it's impossible to know how many more would have lost their lives but the fact that out of 3,300 the toll wasn't higher how much credit does Rick deserve for that and it unbelievably enormous amount of credit again there's someone that only worked in the building for a year I really felt that I was trained to make the right decision and I give a hundred percent of the credit to Rick and and his team and to me I can't even fathom how many lives could have been lost bad enough the lives that we did lose but I can't even fathom the lives we could have lost if we didn't have someone like him who not only was a hero but a leader an incredible one like you said we're talking here 2019 it's been 18 years and obviously the first few anniversaries of 9/11 got wall-to-wall media coverage and attention and unless it's a 10 or a 15 it doesn't seem to get as much now I assume that's not the case with you and Morgan Stanley so when that day comes around and it seems like it's almost inevitable that it's a crisp day with not a cloud and sky just like it was that day what are you what goes through your mind first think about 910 and being with my family and me and my friends and going to a Yankee Red Sox game that never happened because rain down and then hanging out with my friends watching the giant Bronco game would light before getting home early in the evening getting ready for the next day couldn't wait and just so excited about my job and what I did with folks and I remember walking across the street because I lived in Battery Park City at that time and it was a beautiful day it was it was a perfect day and I remember thinking like man this could be a good day we're gonna get so many things done it's gonna be just great and yeah obviously we didn't know what was gonna happen but you know the the memories the folks that didn't get out of the building the lives that were irreparable changed they're always gonna be a part of it but the inspiration that I found that day seeing people work together and uniting is really when I try to put it the the forefront of my mind for for that day evil didn't win that day good did and it came in a very very very costly price but you know it prevailed last question you said earlier that you live in Florida now we're talking here in Washington the reason you're here is because Ric we're squirrel is being honored this week at the American Veterans Center conference what does it mean to you that he is being honored and that you are part of the opportunity to honor him I couldn't be more honored to be with the people I'm going to be with you know as the proud son of a World War two veteran as the proud nephew of an uncle who I never met who also unfortunately died in World War two there's the American Legion Post named to him to have a whole family that was so focused and centered in the military nothing to me is of greater value than to be surrounded by people that I really feel are the true heroes and someone like Rick to me is a hero with no limitations for how you think of him for what he did the lives he saved and everything that he accomplished to be associated in any way shape or form to keep his memory alive and to see him get the recognition that he deserves to me is it's priceless and if I could have a conversation with him today I would just say thank you because I've got great family great kids and I couldn't be happier in my life and I think he had a big part in helping to make sure that I experienced that and for him it came at the ultimate cost I can't make that up to him but I certainly would love to see him honored and have his memory be being the front everybody's mind well that will happen this week and Billy I know that you've been very humble and talking about how the other people worked well together and the heroism of brick that day but I'm pretty sure those 276 people are really grateful for your leadership that day as well and so thank you for that and thank you very much for being with us today thank you Bill Van Schaick is with Morgan Stanley and as was a former colleague of Rick Rescorla who is being honored at the 2019 American Veterans Center conference I'm Gregor rhombus this is Veterans Chronicles you

Channel: American Veterans Center

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Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

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Length: 34min 56sec (2096 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020