The Man in the Red Bandana: Welles Crowther’s Final Act of Courage

On the morning of September 11, 2001, as chaos unfolded in lower Manhattan, 24-year-old Welles Crowther reached for his phone. From his office on the 104th floor of the South Tower, he left a calm message for his mother: “Mom, this is Welles. I want you to know that I’m okay.” It would be the last words she ever heard from her son.

Crowther was an equities trader by profession, but that day he became something far greater. A former volunteer firefighter, he instinctively turned to rescue. Grabbing the red bandana he always carried, he tied it across his face and began moving toward the 78th-floor sky lobby, where hundreds of terrified workers were trapped.

There, amid smoke, screams, and falling debris, he took charge. Survivors remember a young man with a firm voice and steady hands. He directed people to the stairwells, helped the injured to their feet, and carried one badly hurt woman on his back down 15 floors before returning for more. “Everyone who can stand, stand now,” he told the group. “If you can help others, do so.”

Those words, spoken in the most desperate of hours, guided dozens toward survival. Among them was Ling Young, who later recalled, “He is absolutely my guardian angel. Without him, we would have been waiting when the building collapsed.”

Crowther went back again and again. Witnesses say he made at least three trips into the smoke-filled sky lobby, ushering people down before climbing back up. He is credited with saving no fewer than a dozen lives.

When the South Tower collapsed, Crowther did not escape. Months later, his body was found in a stairwell alongside New York firefighters, rescue tools in hand. It was clear he had joined them in one last mission—to save whoever remained above.

Welles Crowther’s story has since become legend. Known forever as “the man in the red bandana,” he represents selflessness in its purest form. In moments of unthinkable terror, he chose not to flee, but to return again and again into danger.

His courage is now woven into the memory of 9/11, a reminder that even in the darkest times, one person’s bravery can illuminate the path to survival for many others.