The Red Bandanna

At the dedication ceremony for the National September 11 Memorial Museum at Ground Zero in New York City, President Barack Obama speaks of the bravery of one particular rescuer who died saving others during the 9/11 attacks: “‘They didn’t know his name,’ the president told those assembled at the ceremony. ‘They didn’t know where he came from. But they knew their lives had been saved by the man in the red bandanna’” (3).

The man with the red bandanna is Welles Crowther.

Rinaldi describes the titular red bandanna as small but mighty. “Twenty-two inches along any side, four ounces in your hand, barely enough weight to notice. Polyester and cotton, dyed and printed” (5); the bandanna holds meaning and memory far beyond its simple shape: “Fear and strength. Smoke and blood . . . The sacrifice given, and the salvation granted” (5).

Welles Remy Crowther is born on May 17, 1977 in New York City to Jeff and Allison Crowther who name their son for his great uncle Henry Spalding Welles. Alison sees magic in her Uncle Henry, a larger-than-life character who is an expert fisherman (he designed fishing lures used by President Eisenhower) and marksman (he beat Annie Oakley in a shooting contest)—and who takes “a bold and unpredicted line through life” (7).