President Donald Trump greets Alison Crowther after his speech about the economy at Rockland Community College Fieldhouse in Suffern, New York, on May 22, 2026. Alison Crowther is the mother of Welles Crowther, a hero remembered as the “Man in the Red Bandana,” who saved many lives at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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.