Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is
Giovanni rent to Reap. He joins us today to share his story of witnessing
the nine to eleven terrorist attacks in September of two thousand and one. And
Giovanni, thanks so much for being with us. Good morning. Where were
you born and raised? I was born in la and then I was raised
in Miami, Florida. And so at some point along the way, you
were hired by Morgan Stanley. When did you start working there? So it
all started in nineteen ninety nine. I interned at Morgan Stanley and it was
a great time because during that time it was the year of technology stocks and
the market was on a tremendous run. So I fell in love with the
industry. That was nineteen ninety nine, two thousand, graduated from University of
Miami. My goal was always to become an attorney, but I kept getting
a call from someone at Morgan Stanley. At the time, it was Dean
Winter, Morgan Stanley, Dean Winter, and they wanted me to come back
into the business and go into their training program. And so I decided to
give law school a year did great, but then I pivoted into the industry
and it was the best decision ever. Had you actually moved to New York
by nine to eleven or were you there for a training exercise? It was
for training, so the firm would put us up for three weeks and it
was the best program out on Wall Street by far. And so we went
up to New York for three weeks and unfortunately, by day two is when
the accident happened. Talk about that morning, how early had you gotten to
the towers and what was happening. It's interesting because that morning, I believe
there were some elections in the city, so it was quiet. You didn't
really see a lot of police officers out on the street. And we would
typically get to the World Trade Center by via bus, I want to say,
by seven some fifteen, and it was quiet. We got there and
it just did dacim off already even before it did it did. I even
made a comment to someone that was sitting next to me, and I asked,
isn't it weird that you don't see a lot of police officers or a
lot of movement in the city. It was just very, very quiet,
and I guess it's because it was the elections happening and it was just really
early. But typically you would you would see a lot more folks, you
know, out and about, but a beautiful day, as I recall,
it was a gorgeous day. So once you got to the office and you're
doing your training, what happens. I think it was probably after that first
session, right, Yeah. So at the time, Philip Roth, which
was our chief technician at the firm, so he was the person in charge
of just teaching us about charts for the market, and so he did his
session a bit early and at the time, my very good friend Bill Vanskoik
was our MTA, which is the person in charge of the program, and
he said, we have twenty minutes. Make sure make sure you get some
coffee and don't leave the building because the session is going to start very soon
and you don't want to be late because if you're late, pretty much you're
gone. I mean, they were pretty strict, but at the time we
wanted to take a break. Who was my first time alone in the city,
so I wanted to take a look at what the city had to offer.
So I just went downstairs with a couple of folks to go grab a
cup of coffee, and so when we went downstairs, that's when we walked
out of the turning doors. We walked out, and that's when somebody which
was walking by, who's bizarre, someone with a book bag, young person
walking with a book bag, said get back in the building. Get back
in the building. At that time, you started to see that there was
debris coming down. And it was because the first the first plane went through
World Trade Center one, and is that the tower you had been in.
I was in World Trade Center to what was it like to see the debris
coming down? Was it close to you? It was so it was so
at the I just remember every mass confusion. So we start running back into
the building and half of us are going one way and the other half were
going the other way. And then some of the debris was falling onto the
building and was hitting some of the folks that were behind us, and I
just remember looking back and a piece of it was either a piece of the
building or the plane just completely flattened out of a taxicab across the street.
And that's when I knew that there was a major issue. The person I
was were trying to get back into the building, but we just one person
kept We were pushing this way, and another group were pushing that way.
Every everyone was panicking, and so the guy in front of us started punching
through the glass to try to get us in, and he finally punched through.
We got in and just mass confusion. And I remember my roommate at
the time stating that was a plane. I heard a plane going through hitting
the building. And I said to him, I said, Alan planes aren't
allowed to fly around, you know, that close to the buildings. That
had to be a generator or helicopter maybe hitting the building, but it was
the plane. Now where you were through those revolving doors. Did that put
you out of the building between the towers. Yeah, so the the north
tower, which is which got hit first. We were in World Trade Center
too. We went back into World Trade Center too. And what's interesting there
is that at the time I left everything upstairs, I mean my phone,
wallet, and I told I told my roommate, I have to go upstairs.
I have to go grab my stuff, all my personal belongings up there.
And uh and he said, no, no, don't do that,
don't do that. I'm like, I'll be right back. So I walk
up. I walk up to security, and they're like, oh, there
was an accident World Trade Center one. You're cleared. You know, we're
we're safe. You can go up, go upstairs, I mean, take
the elevator up. And he pulled me aside again. He said, look,
do me a favor, please. If you're going to go upstairs,
you get you have to see your prayer with me. And I've known him
for I think forty eight hours, and I didn't want to be rude,
so I said, okay, I'll do it fine. I was more concerned
about my personal belongings and uh and being late to class. Right, So
he grabbed my hand, I said a prayer, and I don't know what
it was, but something just completely changed my mind and I decided to stay.
And so as I reflect on it throughout the years, if I would
have taken that elevator up right, because we were you connect down on the
sixty first, I believe at the time we're on sixty four, probably would
have been in the elevator shaft when when the second plane hit. So he
saved my life. We connect every year. One day they're still in touch.
We do yeah, just over a text phone. Call, Yeah,
so what did you do after you decided not to go back up? We
were just trying to figure out what the next move was. We were still
confused because we knew something happened outside, but inside it was it was calm,
and security again was very assertive that everything was fine. But then all
of a sudden, we started seeing folks running downstairs and panicking and running out
of the building. And that's when we decided that, look, we need
to get back to the hotel. Something that doesn't seem right, and so
we started quickly walking through the lobby of the World Trades. We were still
in World Trade Center two, and we're in the lobby and we're walking out,
and all of a sudden, you start seeing a lot of folks running
and I'm assuming that all these folks were seeing what was happening in World Trade
Center one, and so took the you know, the emergency exit and just
wanted to get out of the building. So we were quickly trying to decide
which way we were going to leave, but we were still kind of trying
to figure it out. Was just very confusing at the time. Then all
of a sudden, we start seeing a tremendous amount of people running, and
we decided, okay, we we can't be last out. So we started
running and all of a sudden, when when we were about to hit the
exit, I remember the entire floor just shaking, and that's when the plane
went through World Trade Center two. Right now, describe that moment a little
bit more. How did it feel? What did you hear? Yeah?
I remember running through the egg and right before I went through the exit,
I looked left and I remember that they were carrying someone and you can tell
that he had just either it was a heart attack or a stroke. And
so I remember running out and the first thing I did was I stopped and
I looked up and that's when I first saw both towers on fire, engulfed
and fire at the top. And was there more the brake coming down because
of that? There was? Yeah, And so I ran across the street
and I looked up and it looked like it was snowing from all the pay
people work from the two towers. They were just all coming down slowly.
It was amazing. And I remember across the street there was a work van
and had the AM radio was all the way up, and so I'm listening
to it while I'm observing, observing what was happening, and the person on
the radio was stating that he thought it was an attack, a terrorist attack,
because two airliners went through both towers. But I remember just everyone running
out of the towers, pure pure panic. People running over people, just
trying to get away. So Giovanni, let's take a quick break. Yep.
We'll be back with much more of your powerful story from September eleven to
two thousand and one in just a moment. We're speaking with Giovanni at Rentaria.
He was in the South Tower, not eleven, two thousand and one,
and we'll have much more in just a moment. I'm Greg Corumbus.
This is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Honored
to be joined today by Giovanni rent Aria of Morgan Stanley. He was in
the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September eleventh, two thousand and
one, took a break against advice during a training session for Morgan Stanley,
and as he just explained in the past segment, got there just as the
first plane hit the North Tower, and as he was about to leave the
South Tower. That's when the South Tower was hit. Obviously many floors above
him and Giovanni. You weren't a full time employee there yet you were there
for a training session. Had there been any discussion about safety and security protocols
prior to that? Yes, yeah, So they did a great job of
briefing us of what the security plan was. Business continuity plan is what we
call it at the firm. So I can't speak for that because I wasn't
in the building or on the floor when it happened. But my good friend
and colleague, Bill Vanskoyek did an incredible job of evacuating the entire class and
it was the largest training class at Morgan Stanley deem winner Morgan Stanley at the
time. And so not only was Bill, in my view, deemed the
hero, but so was the head of our security, Rick Raskola, And
they were good friends. And we've talked to Billy before and based on what
you've heard, what made them hero us that day their conviction, their conviction
to protect employees, not to think about business at the time, but to
really think about the safety of the employees and everyone that was in the building.
And that's what made a history. Now, from what you said a
little bit earlier, it seems like there was confusion. Based on the way
you told it might have been a lot shorter of a period of time than
I at first perceived it when this all happened, and that was the everything's
fine, just go back to work situation. Was it really just a few
minutes before they realized, now we need to get you all out of here,
or until the moment of the second plan impact was the South Tower basically
business as usual. So we were down in the lobby and we're again we're
trying to figure out number one, assess what happened, and then number two
whether we should go back up or just to leave. And so there was
I want to say, a good ten minutes of discussion, but there was
really no guidance from security downstairs. But this is security for the building,
not from Morgan Stanley. There they were busy evacuating folks correctly, and it
was confusing that what was happening outside, but yet in side it was clear.
So we made the decision to evacuate once we started to see the amount
of people that just wanted to leave the building. So it was obvious at
that point we left off in your narrative when you came out of the building
after the South tower had been struck. You give us the very vivid picture
of it feeling like snow was coming down with all the paperwork from the gaping
hole in the tower. What did you do that? It was an astounding
moment, and so I was observing what was happening. So the towers were
on fire, and then unfortunately seeing folks jumping off off the building. You
witnessed that, Yes, yeah, and I just I'll I'll never forget someone
standing next to me saying, look at them jump out like flies. They're
jumping out like flies. And so I was still in the background that working
then was there, and that AM radio is all the way up, and
I remember one of the comments that they made was, look those are those
are two jets that went through the building, and I'm sure there's a significant
amount of fuel in those towers. And at that moment I decided that I
needed to leave. I didn't know what to expect. I don't know if
the building was going to explode, whether it was going to melt down,
but I wanted to seek shelter, and so the firm at the time,
the turning class was divided into two different hotels, and I decided, I'm
not taking the subway, I'm not getting in in the cab. I'm just
going to run all the way up to Lexington. I think it was around
fifty fifth But at the time I wanted to find a pay phone to call
home to let everybody know that I was fine. What is your mind even
able to process the reality of watching people from the windows? To this day,
I still reflect on that, and it's a tough moment for me because
especially on the anniversary. For every year, on that date, I reflect
and sometimes I asked why why me? Why was I spared? And other
folks not so very difficult just seeing folks making the decision whether they were going
to fortunately burn alive or to to jump. But after listening to the work
van, I decided I needed to to call back home because I'm sure that
my family was watching it on TV, and I know that they thought that
I had passed away. Is that what they told you when you call him?
Yes, my stepfather at the time, and the reason why I wanted
to become an attorney was because he was an attorney by trade back in his
own country in Columbia, and uh, he walked into my mom's office and
said, are you seeing what's happening on the news, And she said,
he's he's in that World Trade Center. And she's like, I can't believe
what I'm saying. And you know that that's not that's not what I wouldn't
say. And he said, don't worry about it. He I know him.
He found a way to get out. Pure luck. But I'm really
glad that I called. I was able to find a pay phone and the
line was very long, very very long, because all towers were down,
telecommunication towers were down. And so I'm happy I called because once my mother
saw what was happening on TV, she picked up the phone and she called
the branch, the local branch in Florida that I was working out of,
and she asked for the manager. The manager was conducting a sales meeting at
the time. He exits the sales meeting, gets on the phone with my
mother and she, uh, she said, are you seeing what's all right?
Are you watching what's happening on the news. And he was briefed and
he said, don't worry about your son. I know exactly where he is.
This is right after the first the first plane went through. Don't worry.
I know exactly where your son is. He's on World Trade Center to
the other building, and he's right in the middle of the tower. The
middle of the tower. That's where we have our classes. Hangs up.
She has a sense of relief that she knows that I'm in the other tower.
And then a couple of minutes later than the plane went right through the
second World Trade Center, and that's that's why she thought I had passed away.
So I'm very happy that I was. I was able to make a
call and in touch with her and and just put the mid ease. Where
did the planet impact the second tower? The South Tower? How close was
it to the floor You had been on pretty close, pretty close now,
so you were walking and perhaps running north, running in Manhattan, And so
it was about an hour after the South Tower was struck that it came down.
Do you remember hearing anything or seeing the clouds as all that happened.
I can remember to this day. I hang up the pay phone because there
was just a big line behind me. Hang up the payphone, wish the
person behind me good luck. I walked, I started running up the block.
I kept looking back, I want to say, three minutes into into
three minutes after that phone call, the first hour I went down. At
that point, you had no idea if the rest of your class had made
it correct. Did you kind of phraze there? Did you moving? What
did you do? Fight or flight? And it was at that moment flight
and I wanted to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible, and
but just thinking of all the folks at my Peers, other folks at Morgan
Stanley, and just everyone in general. Just devastating moment, and I just
I just remember all the police officers rushing towards the area at that point.
Did you think there might be another one? I did? I did,
And I thought maybe the Empire State Building was next, or one of the
other high towers in midtown. You just start thinking of the worst. And
at the time, it was my first time in New York City as an
adult, so I didn't really have a plan heading back to the hotel,
and took me a while to get back to the hotel. But once I
got back to the hotel, that's when I had that overwhelming feeling of sadness
because for the first time in my life. I walked into this hotel and
some of my peers that I had spent the last two days with were on
crying and hysterically and couldn't keep their emotions in check because they thought that they
were going to die. How long did you stay in the room and just
kind of stay in shock like that? And so once once I got back
to the hotel, my roommate was there, a person that saved my life,
and we were trying to figure out how we were going to leave the
island. But again he was at the time, he was from the Midwest.
I'm from Florida, don't have a lot of experience in New York.
And we go back up to the room and Morgan Stanley had given us a
binder with with maps and and UH subway schedule, just a tons of information.
And again it's it's one of those moments where we needed to be assertive.
So I said to Alan, We're going to grab that map. I
don't know if we're going to get out of the city today, but we
are going to get out of the city. We're gonna go see our families.
And so we took the map and we decided to have meeting points in
case something else happened during the night. So we decided that we would locate
eight somewhere on the east side and then on the west side by the water
in case there was another attack, that we would be close to the water
and not have to worry or next to one of the tunnels or bridges,
and so we had our plan in place. We couldn't leave the city at
the time because we tried, but they had shut down all the bridges and
tunnels and stuff like that. Giovanni, let's take one more break. When
we come back, we'll tell the rest of your story here on Veterans Chronicles.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus, honored to be joined today
by Giovanni rent Aria of Morgan Stanley. He was doing training with Morgan Stanley
in the morning of September eleventh, two thousand and one, took a break,
went down against advice to street level to grab a cup of coffee,
and that's when he found out the planet struck the North tower. After he
decided not to go back up, he was in the lobby as the plane
struck the South tower, which he was in, and then as he was
making his way back to the hotel, he noticed, of course that the
South tower had collapsed. And at that point you did not know the fate
of the other people you had been with with Morgan Stanley up on the higher
floors. So at what point did you find out how they had fair?
Did you find out later that day or it was several days later? It
was later on that night there was there was a briefing and that's when they
told us that the class was fine. So we had over three hundred trainees
in that class, again largest in Morgan Stanley history for wolf management, and
so made us very happy, which which was a sign of hope. You
mentioned, of course that you were heading north when the tower came down.
I mean, the cloud was massive, so I'm sure you saw that despite
all the skyscrapers between you and the site at that point. But what you
probably couldn't see, depending on how far away you were, and I'm sure
he saw later on television was the people covered in ash, and knowing that
you had just been there, how surreal was that it was. It was
tough to stomach on TV watching it on TV, just to see how emotionally
devastating it was for folks that live there, folks that have businesses in Lower
Manhattan, and and then also all the folks and all the police officers,
firemen just running into that building. And that's that's really what stays with you
to eternity, because those are the real heroes. While everyone was running out,
they were the ones running in. How long did you end up staying
in the city? A couple of days. So we put together, we
formulated a plan. There was one of our peers had connected with his brother
and he was waiting for us in New Jersey, So we just needed to
make it out of the city. We would connect with them in New Work
and then we would figure out a way to get back home. So we
rented a limo and we drove around the city for hours and hours waiting for
bridge or tunnels to open, and they would open up in increments of certain
minutes, and so we got lucky and we made it out to New Work.
What did you notice about the people of New York in response to this
resiliency? Although it was one of the most difficult moments in our in the
history of our country, New Yorkers always think that there there's hope. They
further cause tough, demanding, but yet at the same time extremely supportive throughout
the entire event. Just seeing the way that the country rallied was incredible.
We've said this before, but we'd love to see the country, you know,
act like that united all the time. What's it like to have a
story of that magnitude, a nation changing event like that, also be a
story that you're a part of. For many years, it was very difficult
for me to talk about it, and again it went back to the premise
of y me. And so after a couple of years I started to feel
a bit more or comfortable sharing the story with family members. Took me a
while, and but as as as every year went on, I felt more
compelled to share my story, which which is one of hope. One of
one of the things that I really enjoy is when when I meet someone someone
new, they'll give me some feedback, sometimes in the business setting or just
new friends. If we moved from one city to another, like, you're
always in a good mood, right, You're always in a good mood.
And and if I don't know them that well, I just tell them,
you know, life is short. Blessed with a wonderful family, I've always
worked at one firm, and life is good because I get as I get
to know the person and close family, friends and colleagues. Now they know
that the reason why I'm always optimistic and the class is always half full is
because I'm on borrowed time. I shouldn't be here, So I try not
to take anything for granted relationships, and I try not to waste days.
So it's a blessing that I'm still here, a blessing that I still have
a wonderful family and friends and community. You mentioned a couple of things in
that response that I want to follow up on quickly. You've mentioned a couple
of times, now why me or why not me? Depending on the context.
Would that be the same thing as survivors guilt? Do you think you
felt some of that? I did for many years. Yeah, talking about
it help tremendously. It did. The other thing you mentioned was that you've
worked for the same the whole time. And what I've heard repeatedly is how
odd people were by how Morgan Stanley responded to what happened that day. What
is it exactly that Morgan Stanley did that generated this lifetime devotion in you?
And so many others. That day comes down to the people that work at
Morgan Stanley and the mentors advocates that I had along the way, Bill being
one of them, Bill Vanskoyak, and many others. After I came back
from the accident, the firm did a phenomenal job of hiring a third party
for mental health, and they were pretty persistent on making sure that the employees
that had gone through this event, we're seeking help. And I never wanted
to discuss it. I didn't want to share the story. Do I think
that I probably should have talked to someone about it because I had that guilt
the enters. Yes, By the time you're much younger, you think it'll
go away, you know, just happy to be here. But the loyalty
to Morgan Stanley is the people that I work with day in and day out.
It's a blessing. You mentioned that you're still in touch with the security
officer that asked to pray, and you credit him with saving your life as
a result of that. Are you in touch with other people that day,
whether it's your roommate or other people they do well. My roommates is the
one Alan, and he's wonderful. He stayed at the firm for quite some
time, and then he shifted into a different industry, but we'll always message
each other. On nine to eleven, I also had the opportunity to build
another decent relationship with someone that was at the firm at the time. Seth
pass off wonderful person as well, and we kept in touch for many,
many years. This reminds me that I need to reach out to him because
he's he's a special person. You mentioned that you've talked to a few different
people every year on the anniversary. What goes through your mind every year on
the anniversary and is it still as palpable as it was in the first couple
of anniversaries. It's different now. So I had that sense of guilt first
couple of years. Then I wanted to share the story with certain folks,
and now that my kids, but my daughter's fifteen, my son is thirteen.
Now it's really important to share that story with them so that they carry
on that core value of being optimistic and and to remind them that life is
good. My kids are a little bit younger than yours. In the summer,
driving back out to the Washington area, we stopped at the flight ninety
three memorial in Pennsylvania, And well, they found it interesting obviously there they
don't have any personal memories of it, and it doesn't have the same emotional
impact it had for me and my wifely rethinking and reliving some of that what
we remember from that time. What about your kids? You obviously had a
much more direct connection to it than we did. But as you tell them
about it, do you feel like they get it now? There throughout the
age, now that they're starting to understand how that was a life altering experience.
And now the end, I think they're starting to understand more of why
we have certain conversations at certain moments, whether it's because of school or their
friendships or how they view life. But have I given them all the details?
The enters know, But but I try to give them the life lessons
of what I learned from that experience. I try to share that with them.
Last question, and we've already talked about it a little bit, but
what do you hope every American takes away from what happened that day? I'll
go back to the same bent that I made before. When our country is
united, it is, without a doubt the best country on the globe.
We need to get back there soon. Unified. We're better, do you
have, Annie. It's an incredible story, and I know it's still not
easy to tell, probably after all these years, but I thank you very
mu much for doing so, and we really appreciate your time today. Thank
you very much. Giovanni Rentaria of Morgan Stanley. He was at training at
Morgan Stanley in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on the morning of
September eleventh, two thousand one. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit
American Veterans Center dot org. You can also follow the American Veterans Center on
Facebook and on Twitter. We're at a VC update. Subscribe to the American
Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thank
us again for listening, and please join us next time for Veterans' Chronicles