The Red Bandanna

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) becomes a touchstone for Welles as he begins his financial career in Manhattan. He admits to his father that he wants more than anything to be a fireman with FDNY, and he plans out the steps he’ll need to take to be accepted into the department. Welles enjoys a party on the department’s Marine One fireboat, hosted by Empire Hook and Ladder alumnus Harry Wanamaker, but Welles’s first and only serious contact with FDNY is when he helps department firefighters rescue people from the World Trade Center South Tower on 9/11. Welles’s body is found alongside several FDNY firemen at the lobby level of the ruined building. 

An investment bank, Sandler O’Neill is where Welles works immediately after college, moving up quickly from researcher to trader. Sandler’s offices on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center become a death trap on 9/11 as an exploding airliner many floors below cuts off nearly all escape routes. One stairwell remains undamaged, and Welles and others use it to get out; Welles stops at the 78th floor to rescue a number of injured people. Sixty-six Sandler employees die that day; the survivors regroup in Midtown, where the firm rebuilds and thrives. 

Welles loves sports. As a kid, he plays Pop Warner football; in high school he plays hockey and lacrosse; in college he plays Division One lacrosse. From a young age, Welles puts energy and passion into his play, practicing for hours on end with a hockey puck and stick. In team play, he learns the vital importance of leadership, determination, and contribution. At college, he can be seen walking while “carrying a lacrosse stick across his shoulder, twirling and spinning it by reflex, its webbing in constant rotation” (49). The stick relays the nervous energy of a high-level competitive sports player; energy that years later will give him the focus and dedication to save lives.

The Twin Towers, among the world’s tallest office skyscrapers at 110 stories, preside over New York City until 9/11, when airliners strike both buildings, causing their destruction and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Most of the 14,000 workers escape before the towers collapse, many through the efforts of FDNY firemen and Welles Crowther.