By President Donald Trump on Tuesday posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Remy Crowther, the 24-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter whose extraordinary actions inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, became one of the defining stories of heroism from that day.
Crowther, remembered as the “Man in the Red Bandana,” is credited with helping save as many as 18 people from the South Tower before he was killed when the building collapsed, explained The New York Times. His mother, Alison Crowther, and sister, Paige Crowther Charbonneau, accepted the nation’s highest civilian honor during a ceremony on the White House Ellipse.
“Welles saved many, many people before losing his own life in the South Tower lobby when the building came down,” Trump said. He described the award as recognizing Crowther’s “incredible bravery and all of the other countless unknown acts of heroism that day.” Trump also quipped that Crowther had become “much more famous than me.”
🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: President Trump posthumously awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther — known as the Man in the Red Bandana who SAVED LIVES and sacrificed his own during 9/11
His mother just walked out and thanked Trump
AMERICAN HERO.
NEVER FORGET.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸… pic.twitter.com/ZPFkqjHBhC
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 8, 2026
Alison Crowther, who wore a red bandana in her hair for the ceremony, thanked the president.
“This means the world to me, my daughters, Paige and Honor, and our entire family. This will be treasured for generations to come,” she said.
Crowther was working as an equities trader for Sandler O’Neill & Partners on the 104th floor of the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into the building. As smoke and fire engulfed the tower, Crowther used a red bandana his father had given him as a boy to cover his face.
Survivors later told remarkably similar stories about a mysterious man wearing a red bandana who appeared amid the destruction on the 78th-floor Sky Lobby. He directed injured and disoriented people toward a working stairwell, helped carry victims to safety and repeatedly went back upstairs rather than escaping himself.
Investigators and Crowther’s family eventually pieced the accounts together and identified the man as Crowther. He is credited with helping save up to 18 people before dying at age 24.
Crowther had grown up in Upper Nyack, New York, played lacrosse at Boston College and served as a volunteer firefighter with Empire Hook & Ladder Co. #1. His body was later recovered from the South Tower lobby. The red bandana that became synonymous with his final hours is now displayed at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Trump first announced plans to honor Crowther in May during an appearance in Rockland County, New York, where Rep. Mike Lawler had advocated for the recognition.
“Boy, what bravery… nobody else would have done what he did,” the president said at the time.
Crowther’s family has spent the years since the attacks carrying his story to new generations through the Red Bandana Project, a character and social-emotional learning program inspired by his life.
Alison Crowther has traveled around the country and overseas telling children about her son’s courage and selflessness.
“Welles’ light still shines brightly,” she has said, even as the country approaches a quarter-century since his death.
Tuesday’s ceremony was held as part of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “Steel Across America” tour and featured a 21-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower wreckage. First responders and families gathered on the Ellipse ahead of Friday’s 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Trump also announced that the U.S. Coast Guard will commission a Fast Response Cutter in honor of Jeffrey Palazzo, an FDNY firefighter and Coast Guard reservist who was killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on New York, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93.
Among the thousands of stories of sacrifice that emerged from that morning, Crowther’s became unforgettable because of one simple detail: survivors did not know his name.
They knew only that when the South Tower was burning and people desperately needed a way out, a young man in a red bandana kept going back in.
[READ MORE: Desperate Dems Use Fake Candidate To Try And Trick Voters In Swing State]
