From Vietnam to the World Trade Center
A bugle, a soldier, and a real hero of September 11th
by Jari Villanueva
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Above is a photo of US Army PFC
Ira Rolston sounding a captured Viet Cong bugle in the Ia Drang Valley Battle.
I found this picture some time ago while researching at the National Archives.
The picture floored me as here appeared to be a photograph of a bugler during
Vietnam sounding a bugle in the field! Looking for more information on this
photograph, I contacted Pvt. Rolston in July 2002.
Mr. Rolston was a member of 1st Platoon, B Co., 2nd Battalion, 7th US Air
Cavalry, and was a radio operator during the Vietnam War. The bugle is a
clairon d'ordonnance, no doubt left by French troops when they departed in the
late 1950s. It was captured during the Ia Drang Valley Battle in 1965.
According to Mr. Rolston, with whom I spoke with on July 4th, 2002, the picture
was one posed for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. The bugle was loaned
to him by his company commander, Lt. Richard Rescorla. Since Rolston had played
trumpet in high school Lt. Rescorla loaned him the bugle to use while in
Vietnam. Mr. Rolston laughed at the idea of sounding actual calls during
battle. "We all would have been hitting the ground," he said. He did "toot it a
bit," though.
There is more to the story.....
Ia Drang was the Army's first major battle in Vietnam, and one of its bloodiest.
The battle claimed 305 American lives, soldiers who died in fierce combat with
a North Vietnamese regiment that also took heavy losses. Lt. Rick "Hard Core"
Rescorla was one of the heroes of that 1965 battle. Rescorla commanded 1st
Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, and was almost
worshipped by his soldiers, who called themselves the "Hard Corps" after his
nickname. But his courage and infectious optimism resonated beyond those under
his immediate command.
"Rick was the best combat leader I ever saw in Vietnam," said Pat Payne, the 2nd
Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment's reconnaissance platoon leader in Ia Drang.
Rescorla's role in that battle is recounted in detail in the book We Were
Soldiers Once And Young, a searing account of the action by retired Lt. Gen.
Harold Hal Moore and Joe Galloway. In 1965, Moore was a battalion commander in
the center of the battle, and Galloway was a UPI reporter who covered the entire
engagement. Even those only vaguely familiar with the book have seen Lt.
Rescorla's image - he is the gaunt soldier on the cover with the 2-day old beard
and the bayonet fixed to his M16.
Rescorla left Ia Drang with a
battered French bugle, seized as a trophy from the Vietnamese. His division
came to see that bugle as a talisman.
In 2001, Richard Rescorla was a retired Army Reserve colonel and the head of
security for Morgan Stanley's Individual Investor Group at the World Trade
Center. On Sept. 11, Rescorla found himself leading a massive evacuation of
Morgan Stanley's 2,700-person workforce which occupied floors 44 through 74 of
the South tower. As soon as the first plane hit the North tower, Rescorla
sprang into action. He ignored the admonition of Port Authority security
officials to stay put. A co-worker shot the now-famous photograph (below) of
Rescorla commanding his troops with a bullhorn.
Employees marched two-by-two down the stairwells. Rescorla sang patriotic songs
to keep them calm. "Today is a proud day to be an American," he is said to have
told co-workers.
Most of Morgan Stanley's
employees were safely out of the building by the time the second plane hit the
South tower. And incredibly all but six of Morgan Stanley's workers survived.
Richard Rescorla was one of the lost six. He was last seen walking back up the
stairs, in search of stragglers.
So here is a little bit of history. A bugle and a soldier and a real hero of
September 11th. I'd sure love to see and hold that bugle one day.