Posted on 08/24/2015 5:45:33 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
The Air Force is awarding Airman First Class Spencer Stone its highest non-combat honor, the Airman’s Medal, for his heroic actions aboard a Paris train, the Air Force announced Monday.
Stone, Alek Skarlatos and college friend Anthony Sadler took down a gunman wielding an AK-47 and box cutter as he began an assault on a high-speed train bound for Paris late Friday.
The trio have been hailed as heroes in France, where they were awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor, on Monday by French president Francois Hollande.
“What the gunman did not expect was a confrontation with our very own Captain America. Believe it or not, that is what Airman Stone’s friends nicknamed him during Air Force technical training,” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James told reporters Monday when announcing the medal.
If it had not been for Stone’s actions, James said, “I’m quite sure today we would be sitting here considering a bloodbath.”
A representative for the Oregon National Guard, where Skarlatos serves, did not return requests for comment.
According to the Air Force, the Airman’s Medal was established in 1960 and is awarded “to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States or of a friendly nation who, while serving in any capacity with the United States Air Force ... distinguished himself or herself by a heroic act, usually at the voluntary risk of his or her life but not involving actual combat.”
James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Stone may be eligible for other honors, including the Purple Heart if investigators determine the attack was an act of terrorism.
LOL. Kerry got one of PHs for shooting himself in the butt with an exploding store of rice.
It may come.
It will be a struggle. Ask the guys at Ft. Hood.
Unfit for Command: All of Kerry’s PHs were questionable. Especially the first one.
A1C Stone is actually the second airman to receive France’s highest honor in 2015. SSgt Gregory Swarz from RAF Lakenheath was honored for rescuing three French airmen from a fire at a Spanish air base in January. A Greek F-16 crashed into a French aircraft that was being refueled on the ground, igniting an inferno. Swarz rushed into the flames and pulled the French airmen to safety.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/06/24/maintainer-receives-airmans-medal/29215435/
Maybe not quite on the level of thwarting a terrorist attack, SSgt Swarz is definitely a hero.
As an Air Force retiree myself, I agree. Go USAF. The other guys were fantastic too, but I am a little biased toward the Air Force. 😃😄😎
If they were not getting so much publicity, I am sure that Obama would pressure the military to court martial these guys. He must be frustrated.
...Kerry got one of his PHs for shooting himself in the butt...
Corporal Archie Miller of Portsmouth, Ohio was finally ordered home when he received his 5th Purple Heart in 1945. While actually in battle, under enemy fire, and fighting aggressively unlike John Kerry, Miller was wounded 2 times by sniper fire, 2 times by mortar fire, and was last wounded by a Japanese hand grenade.
His wife said he was too tough to die.
(NY Times 08/03/45)
It is embarrassing to even mention Lurch in the same context as this brave man.
Awesome! New heroes meeting new threats.
INNOVATE
ADAPT
OVERCOME
Interesting optics. Are those U.S soldiers?
The right stuff.
A young man to be proud of.
US Airmen greeting the young Airman.
Also It is noted one of them is Black.....so what a great example to the black community to discern taking down there own black guys in crime!
Why isn’t the man who first rushed the gunman being honored?
No, silly person, it was another workplace violence incident.
Fry Nidal Hasan!
The beards and well trimmed mustaches seem out of place.
Army Reservist? His command has not yet acted.
On leave and this happens. No uniform to put on either.
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