They did exactly what I recommended we all do! They tackled a man with weapons about to unleash his fury on an unsuspecting crowd. In this case, it was an Islamic jihadist in France but the main thing is, they took my advice and not only were they relieved of suffering a horrendous fate at the hands of a terrorist, they were rewarded by the French Nation for their courage.
French President Francois Hollande on Monday pinned the three Americans and a British man with the Legion of Honor medal. According to The Associated Press: Hollande said the men showed "that faced with terror, we have the power to resist. You also gave a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope."
Original Post:
Three Americans who helped subdue an armed gunman on a high-speed train en route from the Netherlands to France, have recounted a bit of their experiences during a news conference held at the U.S. embassy in Paris.
Spencer Stone, speaking publicly for the first time since Friday's incident, said he was slashed with a box cutter several times by the assailant — identified as Ayoub El-Khazzani, a 26-year-old Moroccan with ties to Islamist radicals.
Stone told reporters that he'd just woken up from a deep sleep when he saw the gunman carrying an AK-47 through the train car.
"It looked like it was jammed and wasn't working," the airman first class in the U.S. Air Force said.
Once he'd wrestled the suspect to the floor, it "seemed like he kept pulling out weapons right and left," as Stone kept grabbing each one. Finally, he said, the man got to a box cutter and began slashing him.
Stone, who appeared at the news conference with his arm in a sling and an injury to his right eye, had extensive surgery on his thumb, which was badly cut. He thanked the French doctors and nurses for their care and attention.
Stone said he acted "to survive and for my friends and everyone else on the train to make it."
The assailant "seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," he said. "So were we."
Stone, along with friends and traveling companions U.S. Army National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler, a student at Sacramento State University, were joined by a British man living in France, Chris Norman, in taking down the assailant.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... ench-train
24 Aug 2015, 12:21 pm
