President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther, the 9/11 victim known as “the man in the red bandana,” during a ceremony near the White House on September 8.
Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader at Sandler O’Neill and a volunteer firefighter from Nyack, New York, was working on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower when the building was struck on September 11, 2001. Survivors later said a young man with a red bandana tied over his mouth and nose guided them through smoke-filled stairwells, carried an injured woman on his back and made repeated trips into the tower’s wreckage before it collapsed. He is credited with saving as many as 18 lives.
The ceremony took place at the Ellipse, adjacent to the White House, as part of a “Steel Across America” tour organized by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which has carried a roughly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower to communities across the country. Trump presented the medal to Crowther’s mother, Alison Crowther, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Why is Crowther being honored now?
Crowther’s story became widely known after a 2002 New York Times account pieced together survivor testimony describing a man matching his description, work that ultimately confirmed for his family how he spent his final hours. He had carried a red bandana since childhood, a gift from his father, and used it that day both as a signal to those he was helping and to filter smoke as he moved through the tower. His red bandana is now displayed at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in Manhattan.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor a person can receive in the United States. Crowther had previously been honored by Boston College, his alma mater, and by New York state officials, but Monday’s ceremony marked the first time he received the nation’s top civilian award. Family members and Tunnel to Towers officials said the recognition arrives as the steel beam tour continues to additional stops around the country in the coming weeks.
Alison Crowther, who accepted the medal on her son’s behalf alongside his sister Paige, said after the ceremony that the honor “means the world to me, my daughters, Paige and Honor, and our entire family” and that it “will be treasured for generations to come.” The ceremony also included recognition of other first responders as part of the broader Steel Across America event marking the approaching 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Sources: The Hill · CBS News Boston · Fox News
