President Donald Trump honored two fallen American heroes who died during the September 11 terrorist attacks during a Tuesday morning speech at the White House Ellipse.
Trump announced that the Coast Guard will commission a fast-response cutter named for Jeffrey Palazzo, a Coast Guard reservist and New York City firefighter. The president also announced a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom award to Welles Crowther, an equities trader and a volunteer firefighter who saved 18 people before losing his life on Sept. 11, 2001.
Trump made the announcement at the 39th stop of the Steel Across America Tour at the White House Ellipse just days before the nation will honor 9/11 on Friday.
“Today, I am proud to announce that this weekend in New York, the Coast Guard will commission a brand new, beautiful — I bought it myself — I negotiated the price. It was very expensive,” said Trump of the cutter. “It’s called fast response cutter, the most incredible kind of ship you’ll ever see. It can go through anything. They go out into waves that are five times bigger than it, and they come back.”
The president then thanked Palazzo’s family members for attending the event before also praising Crowther, known as the “Man in the Red Bandana,” for his heroic actions saving lives before he perished.
“Welles saved many, many people before losing his own life in the South Tower lobby when the building came down,” Trump said. “He was in the lobby, and that building came down, thousands of tons of steel. Today, in honor of his incredible bravery and all of the other countless unknown acts of heroism that day, it is my privilege to award the very special, the highest honor that we give, highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Crowther’s mother and sister were invited onstage to give brief remarks to the crowd.
“Thank you so very much, Mr. President, for this enormous honor that you bestowed upon my son Welles in remembrance of his selfless actions on September 11th,” said Alison Crowther. “This means the world to me, my daughters Paige and Honor, and our entire family. This will be treasured for generations to come.”
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The Tunnel to Towers Foundation hosted the tour in honor of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. The foundation carried the original 12-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center to more than 21 states over four months.
“We will never forget,” Trump said of the 9/11 attacks. “We say it and we mean it. We will never forget those we lost, and we will never forget the immortal heroes of September 11, 2001.”