A True Hero: In Vietnam in 1965, in New York in 2001

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
FORT BENNING, Ga.

The word "hero" has been so debased and over-used in our modern society that it is almost meaningless when applied to the real thing.

This past week, here at the U.S. Army home of the infantry, several hundred people gathered for the dedication of a larger-than-life bronze statue of a real American hero named Rick Rescorla.

The statue is iconic: the young infantry 2nd lieutenant platoon leader leading the way in combat, his M-16 rifle with bayonet attached ready for use. It is based largely on the photograph on the cover of the book "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young," written by Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and me, which tells the story of the deadly battles in the Ia Drang Valley in the dawn of the Vietnam War.

Rescorla was a hero of the battles of Landing Zone X-Ray and Landing Zone Albany. He earned a Silver Star, the third-highest military medal for heroism, for his sterling leadership of a platoon of Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in those battles in November of 1965.

But that statue in the home and headquarters and training ground for the mud-foot infantry was the result of unvarnished heroism long after the British-born Rescorla left the Army, became an American citizen and retired from the Army Reserve with the rank of colonel.
The statue of the young Rescorla was born out of what he did as an older, heavier, civilian vice president for security for Morgan Stanley in New York City. The brokerage firm occu- pied 22 floors of the south tower in the World Trade Center.

Ever since the failed terrorist truck bombing in 1993 in the basement of that building, Rescorla was convinced that the terrorists would come back to finish the job. He urged Morgan Stanley to build its own low-rise high-security headquarters across the river in New Jersey where most of its employees lived. Not possible, he was told, because the firm had a long-term lease on those 22 floors.

Rescorla fought for the time and money needed for half a dozen surprise full evacuation drills each year. And, yes, he knew how much it cost to pull a couple thousand stockbrokers off their telephones. He knew and didn't care.

On September 11, 2001, Rescorla stood at the window of his office on the 66th floor and watched the tower across the way burn. The Port Authority Police squawk box on the wall urged everyone in the other buildings of the Trade Center to remain at their desks and not panic. You are safe, the reassuring voice said.

Rescorla responded with a curt word: "Bull--!" He grabbed his bullhorn and moved floor by floor ordering Morgan Stanley's 2,700 workers to evacuate immediately. They knew where to go and how to do that, thanks to Rick. Two by two, the old buddy system, they began the long walk down the stairs to the street.

Halfway down the second hijacked airliner plowed into their building. The building shook and swayed. Smoke began filling the stairwells. People were frightened. Rick Rescorla used his bullhorn again. This time he sang to the evacuees, just as he sang to his soldiers on a long night in Vietnam. He sang "God Bless America." He sang the songs of the British Army in the Zulu Wars. He sang the old Welsh miner songs.

He got them all out and headed for safety down the streets away from the World Trade Center. Four of his own security people were still up clearing the Morgan Stanley floors so Rick Rescorla turned and headed back up the stairs with New York City firemen. None of them made it out alive and neither did Rick Rescorla.

His widow, Susan, spearheaded the drive to raise $100,000 to create that bronze image of her hero and ours. Eventually it will occupy a spot on the Walk of Heroes in a new $76 million Infantry Museum being built at the gates of Fort Benning. More than 500 people turned out to see it unveiled outside the Infantry Museum on the old Army post.

Among them were plenty of other real American heroes. There were three recipients of the Medal of Honor for heroism above and beyond the call of duty. Scores of veterans of America's wars of the past half-century and more. Also, Gen. Moore and his sidekick Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley.

As I sat there looking at the statue of Rick my mind carried me back 40 years to that terrible November in Vietnam and the words of the young Rescorla as he and his battle-weary soldiers strode into the surrounded position at LZ Albany to rescue their decimated battalion: "Good, Good, Good! I hope they hit us with everything they got tonight - we'll wipe them up."
You want a definition of the word hero? In my dictionary it says simply: Rick Rescorla.

Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young." Readers may write to him at: Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, 700 National Press Building, Washington, DC 20045.

Survivors' Work on 9/11 Film Leave Widows Feeling Betrayed

SURVIVORS' WORK ON 9/11 FILM LEAVES WIDOWS FEELING BETRAYED
Sunday, April 09, 2006
BY RON MARSICO
Star-Ledger Staff

Widows of two Port Authority Police officers killed on 9/11 say a pair of surviving officers who served with their husbands that day are cashing in on the tragedy by working as paid consultants on Oliver Stone's upcoming movie, "World Trade Center."

Jeanette Pezzulo and Jamie Amoroso said they are upset retired officer Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughlin will earn more than $200,000 each to help the director re-create the heroic efforts of five officers who formed an impromptu rescue team. The widows said they are especially angry with Jimeno and contend he befriended them after 9/11, picked their brains for tidbits about their husbands' lives and failed to tell them until last summer he was working on the movie project for two years.

Pezzulo said Jimeno's decision to make the movie is particularly hurtful because her husband, Port Authority officer Dominick Pezzulo, died while trying to free Jimeno and McLoughlin, both of whom were pinned under wreckage. Officer Christopher Amoroso also died while trying to rescue people at the scene.

"My thing is: This man died for you. How do you do this to this family?" said Pezzulo, who has a son, 12, and a daughter, 8, and lives in the Bronx.

The widow of the fifth officer, Antonio Rodrigues, generally has shunned discussing the issue, said a publicist for Paramount Pictures, scheduled to release the film Aug. 9.

Jimeno, a Chester resident, said "the film only holds the truth and has nothing to do with their personal lives. I've never crossed the line. ... Not one thing have I ever asked them about their husbands' personal life.

"It's our story too," Jimeno added. "We're also victims of this."
McLoughlin, a Goshen, N.Y., resident, declined to be interviewed for this story. But in a previous statement released by Paramount, he said, "I feel someone had to tell the story of the people who were in the Trade Center before and after it collapsed."

The wives -- who also are upset with Paramount -- said they do not want their children to see or hear about their fathers' final moments and they do not want details of their husbands' lives aired before an audience of millions. Paramount plans to show Pezzulo's death scene, though not Amoroso's.

"I did not need a movie to tell me what a hero my husband was," said Jamie Amoroso, who has a daughter, 6, and lives in Staten Island, N.Y.

Amoroso and Pezzulo were among the 37 Port Authority officers who died as a result of the terrorist attacks.

Jimeno and Paramount defend the movie, calling it a truthful story of bravery. Though both wives asked that their husbands be excluded from the movie or their names changed, Paramount and Jimeno say either action would dishonor their memory.

"People are going to go to the film and say, 'Wow, that Dominick Pezzulo was a hero,'" Jimeno said. He also agrees with Paramount's decision to show the officer's death scene.

"The honest truth is, 9/11 is raw. ... If you want to candy coat things, that's not a good thing. I will not allow people to forget how Dominick passed."

A Paramount publicist first denied Jimeno and McLoughlin were paid when contacted March 27, but two days later the publicist and a studio producer acknowledged each received "less than" $250,000, calling it a payment of "life rights" to use information about their families.
Jimeno, 38, in a telephone interview with the publicist on the line on March 31, declined to discuss the payment, saying only, "This was not done for money or fame."

HOLLYWOOD AND 9/11

Stone's movie will star Nicolas Cage as McLoughlin and Maria Bello as his wife, while actor Michael Pena will co-star as Jimeno and Maggie Gyllenhaal as his wife. Actor Jay Hernandez will play Pezzulo and John Bernthal will portray Amoroso. Rodrigues will be played by Armando Riesco.

The film is one of several with 9/11 themes expected in the coming months as Hollywood begins exploring the tragedy after treating it as largely off limits for nearly five years.

Already, controversy has tracked an upcoming release. Recently, previews for this month's release of "United 93" -- a film that depicts passengers' attempts to retake a hijacked plane on 9/11 -- upset moviegoers in New York City theaters.

The director of "United 93," however, gained the approval of all flight victims' families before proceeding, according to a Universal representative.

"World Trade Center" follows the fates of the five Port Authority Police officers who teamed up after the first plane hit the Twin Towers.

Officer Christopher Amoroso, 29, was stationed there that morning; a news photographer would capture the stocky officer, a nasty welt under his left eye, shepherding a woman to safety before he headed back to the towers.

Sgt. John McLoughlin, then 48, based with the three others at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown, quickly commandeered a vehicle and rode with officer Dominick Pezzulo, 36, officer Will Jimeno, then 33, and officer Antonio Rodrigues, 35, to the site before the second jet struck.
The four quickly gathered equipment and met up with Amoroso by chance, forming their rescue unit. All five were traversing the concourse one-story beneath and between the Twin Towers when the first skyscraper fell.

Pezzulo, Jimeno and McLoughlin were pinned in a tangle of steel and concrete. The trio called off their own names, roll-call style, but heard only silence in the whiteout of debris and dust, according to Jimeno's accounts. They also shouted frantically for Amoroso and Rodrigues, but the officers were already dead.

In the moments after the first tower collapsed, Pezzulo managed to pull himself free and then began clawing at the rubble to get Jimeno and McLoughlin out. As he dug, the second tower came down and Pezzulo was struck by a hurtling piece of concrete. He was conscious briefly before he died.

"Willie, don't forget I died trying to save you guys," said Jimeno, recalling Pezzulo's last words.
" 'Dominick,' I said, 'I'll never let anybody forget,"' Jimeno said.
Rescuers eventually freed Jimeno late that night before getting McLoughlin out the next morning. They were the last two people found alive at Ground Zero.

Both men were hospitalized with grievous injuries that ultimately forced them to retire on disability. Port Authority Police brass made McLoughlin a lieutenant; Jimeno was elevated to detective.

LINGERING PAIN
After numerous operations and a stay at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, Jimeno still needs a leg brace and has trouble walking. McLoughlin remained in the hospital until January 2002, with severe leg injuries, as well as kidney and lung problems.

Two months after the attacks, Jimeno said he was finally well enough to reach out to Pezzulo and Amoroso's wives, explaining he wanted them to know how courageous their husbands had been after the attack.

Both wives said they embraced Jimeno, who got to know their children.
"Now, I feel like he gathered this information of how my husband was just to make a movie," Amoroso said.

"All he said was, 'I'm doing it for the kids,'" Amoroso said. She said she responded, "'You're not doing it for the kids. You're doing it for yourself.'"

Jimeno said he remains "here for their children" if needed.

"I can tell them one thing, their dads are bigger superheroes than anyone can create," Jimeno said.

It was not until the summer of 2003, Jimeno said, that he was approached by movie executives about the possibility of making the film. He said he told the widows about the project last summer, after it finally had been approved by Paramount for filming.
Pezzulo immediately balked, but said Jimeno was curt in his response, saying: "Well, you don't own the rights and it's a done deal. ... So it's going to happen no matter what."

Jimeno disputed Pezzulo's account, saying she told him she did not like the movie but would not go public if the account was truthful.

"I'll take my blows," said Jimeno of his decision to help make the film. "But it's the truth."
Paramount invited the two women to meet with studio officials about the film last summer; Amoroso went, Pezzulo declined.

Amoroso said she conveyed both women's desire that their husbands not be included in the film. She also said she asked for a script, but never got one.

Stacey Sher, one of the film's producers, said studio officials did not learn until months later of the women's opposition to having their husbands portrayed in the movie. At the wives' request, Sher said, Paramount agreed not to refer to the women or their children in the film. Additionally, Sher said the studio always has been willing to let the wives see a copy of the script in either New York or Los Angeles.

Paramount also said Jimeno and McLoughlin did not determine what ultimately will be shown on the screen.

"Hollywood sought out Will and John," Sher said. "Will and John didn't seek out Hollywood."

Ron Marsico covers the Port Authority. He may be reached at rmarsico@starledger.com or (973) 392-7860.