Trump to Posthumously Award ‘Man in the Red Bandana’ the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Welles Crowther is remembered for wearing a red bandana to save at least 18 people from the South Tower after the 9/11 attacks.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Alison Crowther at Rockland Community College in Suffern, N.Y., on May 22, 2026. Alison Crowther is the mother of 9/11 hero Welles Remy Crowther, remembered as the "Man in the Red Bandana." Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

​President Donald Trump revealed on May 22 that he will posthumously award 9/11 hero Welles Crowther, commonly referred to as the “Man in the Red Bandana,” the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Trump announced the award during a speech in front of Crowther’s mother and sisters on Friday in Suffern, New York, the same county where the heroic New Yorker served as a volunteer firefighter for Nyack Fire Department before he went to college and worked in New York City.