American Heroes Awarded French Medal after Thwarting Train Attack

The three Americans and their British compatriot were made French knights and awarded the Legion of Honor medal, France’s highest decoration.

U.S. Airman Spencer Stone and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos were honored today in Paris along with their longtime friend Anthony Sadler and a British businessman, Chris Norman. They saved us. You know, they are heroes.

Stone said another man, who is French and whose name has not been disclosed, “deserves a lot of the credit” because he was the first one to try to stop the gunman.

“A Frenchman who also jumped on the gunman is still in hospital and wishes to remain anonymous”. Speaking as he left the Elysee, Norman said it was “a little bit hard to believe that it’s actually happened”.

“Then I heard one of the Americans shout, ‘Go get him!’ and the other said something like, ‘Don’t you do that, buddy!’ and they charged him”, Norman said, adding that the attacker “put up quite a battle”.

“Act if the opportunity presents itself”.

Maybe you’ve found yourself with having to decide whether to step into a violent situation or not. In February 2014, Spanish authorities warned France that El-Khazzani was an Islamist extremist who could travel to France.

Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor’s office says authorities are formally opening a judicial investigation into terror-related acts.

Khazzani’s father described his son as a “good boy” who preferred “football and fishing” to politics.

In his first remarks since Friday’s attack on an Amsterdam-to-Paris train, Stone said he and his friends took down the gunman before choking him unconscious. Sadler is a senior at California State University, Sacramento, where he’s studying kinesiology. “Mark was able to get to another vehicle and that’s when other rushed in”.

Mr Hollande said: “A terrorist chose to commit an attack”. He’s on vacation, having just returned from his deployment in Afghanistan.

Hollande says the four men’s intervention prevented a massacre.

Now the majority of trains require no security checks prior to boarding, which might increase the risk of such attacks, but security experts says that changing the current practice might be nearly impossible due to the density of the rail road transportation system, The Post reported.

Stone, who wore a sling to the ceremony due to the injuries he received to his hand, has also been nominated for the US Air Force’s highest medal for non-combat bravery.