September 11th

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It seems that after eighty seven hundred and sixty days
and nights, the tears would stop falling, the pain would ease,
the loved wouldn't be so lost, as remembered that this
day September eleven would come and go as if it
were September ten or twelve, And maybe it would be
it not for the things, the stuff, the ball cap,
the softball glove, the favorite dish, or the song they

(00:23):
always turned up loud and sang along when it came
on the radio, or the symbols like a red bandana.
When Wells Crowther of Nyack, New York, was six, his father,
whom Wells idolized, gave him a stylish handkerchief. Wear it
in your suit pocket when we go to church, instructed Dad.
But if you need to blow your nose, here's a

(00:44):
red one. Carry it with you everywhere, and Wells Crowther
did to school, to work under his hockey and lacrosse helmets,
on dates, weddings, rock concerts, through Boston College, and even
to his desk on the one hundred fourth floor of
the World Trade Center's South Tower, where his Wall Street

(01:05):
career was blooming. On his last day, as usual, Wells
was there early at eight forty six, he felt the
whole building shiver. His co workers were buzzing as they
gathered by the window to see the North tower ablaze.
An airplane had collided with it. Somebody quickly suggested, let's
get out of here, so they hustled to the express

(01:27):
elevators that would carry them to the seventy eighth floor,
switch cars, and then head down to the street. Wells
was curious but not frightened, but he knew his mother
would be, so he left her a reassuring voicemail. Moments later,
United Flight one seventy five came swing out of the sky,
slamming into the South tower, cutting a diagonal slice between

(01:51):
floors seventy seven and eighty five, nearly thirty floors below Wells. Meanwhile,
the seventy eighth, which had been clogged with nervous New Yorkers,
was a now graveyard for both the killed and soon
to be dead. Stunned victims, some burned, all hurting, were
blinded by smoke and debris. Fearful to even take a step,
they cried out for help. Suddenly, a young man whose

(02:16):
face was covered with a red bandanna to filter out
the smoke in the dust appeared before them. He called out,
this way to the stairs. Anyone who can walk, get
up now. Anyone who can help others do, I'll show
you the way, words usually spoken at the hour of

(02:36):
death by angels. The plane had severed the elevators and
two stairwells, but Wells and his bandana had found one
stairwell intact. The nine to eleven Commission, in its final report,
cited Crowther as the only individual on nine eleven who
spread life saving information. He, with one victim over his

(02:59):
shoulder escort, ordered them down to floor sixty one. They
took it from there. Wells went back up to seventy eight,
found three more, climbed the seventeen floors a third time,
collected three more badly injured, some barely conscious, before descending
himself to the main lobby on the ground, delivering each
of the survivors who followed the red bandana to the

(03:22):
street below. Crowther was preparing to make a fourth trip
when the tower collapsed. Months later, his remains were found
where he last stood, just ten feet from safety. Wells Crowther,
age twenty four, of Nyack, New York, spent the last
hour of his life, saving eighteen others, But how did

(03:45):
they know that it was him beneath the red bandana.
A year later, the New York Times interviewed survivors. Two
were quoted as recalling an heroic, fearless young man who
led them through the smoke, the fire and fear wearing
a red bandanna. They were able to get just a
glimpse of his face, but never his name. Reading about it,

(04:05):
Well's mother sent photos sinking confirmation, Yes, it was her
son who saved their lives. The red bandana became famous.
Baby boys born that year were named Wells. School teachers
and preachers across the country retold his story to their
flocks with a red bandana, a symbol not of our

(04:27):
worst day, but of one of young man's best days.