Metropolitan Police Services At the end of his Short-Service Commission, Rescorla joined the Northern Rhodesia Police (now the Zambia Police Service) as a police inspector on a three-year contract from 1960 to 1963, experiences that made him a fierce anti-Communist. It was during the latter post that he met and forged a "life-altering friendship" with American soldier Daniel J. Hill, who encouraged Rescorla to join the U.S. Army after he chose to accept discharge from the British rather than turn his guns on fellow white colonists resisting independence. On returning to London, he joined the Metropolitan Police. He later moved to the United States after being unable to settle down in London, being interested in fighting instead. U.S. military Upon arrival in the United States, Rescorla lived at a YMCA hostel in Brooklyn until he was able to enlist in the army. "Rick", as he would thereafter be known, enlisted in the United States Army in 1963 and after basic training at Fort Dix, he attended Officer Candidate School and airborne training at Fort Benning. Upon graduation, Rescorla was assigned as a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Rescorla was sent to Vietnam, where he served under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore. The two participated in the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, which Moore would later describe in a 1992 book he co-authored We Were Soldiers Once… And Young, (from which the 2002 Mel Gibson film We Were Soldiers would be adapted); Rescorla is the soldier pictured on the book jacket cover. Co-author Lieutenant General Hal Moore described him as "the best platoon leader I ever saw". Rescorla's men nicknamed him "Hard Core" for his bravery in battle and revered him for his good humor and compassion toward his men; Rescorla jokingly called his platoon "Hard Corps". He is also mentioned in the book Baptism by Larry Gwin who also fought at Ia Drang. The fourteenth chapter of the book, Rescorla's Game, describes him as the "Cornish Hawk". Despite this tough image, according to his second wife and widow Susan Rescorla in her book, Touched by a Hero, music was "so central" to Rick's life that he sang to his troops in Vietnam to calm them – something he would later employ during 9/11 evacuations. In the 1965 Vietnam battle, Rescorla sang the Australian version of Wild Colonial Boy to give