The Red Bandanna – A Life, A Choice, A Legacy. Tom Rinaldi.
Penguin Publishing Group. September 2016. 224 pp. ISBAN#: 9781594206771.
Welles
Crowther was an extraordinary yet ordinary guy!
From September 11, 2001 to today and beyond, he is a true hero!
Tom
Rinaldi, an ESPN correspondent, focuses on Welles’s background that led him to
the selfless act of rescuing dozens of victims after the planes crashed into
the World Trade Towers right up to the minute they fell. Our hero was fascinated with two areas –
being an athlete and a firefighter, the latter like his father. He was a good student. Despite his ordinary physical build, he
excelled in lacrosse and always wore the red bandanna his father gave him. Even when he began the job of being a junior
associate in a Wall Street firm, he always kept the red bandanna in his pocket
or on his desk. It didn’t matter to him
how much he was teased about it’s out of place quality for a businessman. To Welles, it was his good luck talisman and
later became the same for those who wished to honor this heroic character.
Rinaldi
takes us through the teen and college years of Welles, with some very funny
moments which are so normal for a student who was equally focused on study and
fun.
So
what makes a hero? The upshot is that
heroes are ordinary people who move past circumstances of fear and formidable
challenge to do what needs to be done, with no thoughts of grandeur or
self-serving honor.
Rinaldi
takes us through the moments after the 9/11 attack to the moments when
initially no one knew what had become of Welles Crowther. But little by little, both before and after
his body was found, individual recognized his photo and identified him as the
guy who had led or carried each person down seventeen floors to the status of a
rescued victim. His parents describe the
memorials and eulogies as well as the waving of red bandannas that grew to
symbolize the unforgettable act of a true hero!
Tom Rinaldi has crafted an honorable and real memorial of the man to whom
so many owed their lives and a tribute to what it means to be a true American
in the worst of times! Wonderful book – a forever keeper!
