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.
Not sure.
Not him. The uniformed he’s shaking hands with. Hence ‘strange optics’.
As far as I’ve read, Stone is the 1st guy who rushed the muzzie.
Who has a beard?
The guy he is shaking hands with is a USAF Command Chief Master Sergeant. (I don’t know his name.)
Thanks Joe!
The military get paid, too. Anyone willing to put their life on the line is a hero in my book and His. No greater love.
Look at the picture of the fellow who’s hands he’s shaking. His chin is positioned just right above the woman’s hairline to make it appear he has a scraggly beard, though it’s obvious he has a well trimmed mustache.
There were two others. One a banker who is keeping quiet and another French-American born here, lives there.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/24/europe/france-train-shooting/
The French-American academic, 51, was in a hospital recovering from a gunshot wound. Before the other men got involved, Moogalian tried to take away the suspect’s rifle but the man shot Moogalian in the neck with a Luger pistol, his wife, Isabelle Risacher, told France’s Europe 1 radio.
He’ll receive his own Legion of Honor when he gets better, the French government has said.
They deserve every single accolade they get. They are heroes.
I understand now. The hair from the person in the background looks like the Chief has a beard.
The man who first tried to take the gun was shot in the neck. He’s an American. His name is something like Magosian.
I suspect he told them that they would get honored but as soon as it quieted down he would separate them from the service for f***ing up his plan.
Awesome!!There is a hero my friends. Heroes are not hired firemen and police. No way. That is what they are paid for!! Not these men. THEY ARE REAL AMERICAN HEROES!!
Well they are on leave.
Even on leave, they are ever alert to enemy action.
Sorry to see that Levitow died some years ago. Their Spooky gunship, was working out near Long Binh, a few miles from Bien Hoa Air Base, where I was stationed. I believe Spooky is where the Gatling gun was reborn. It all happened before I arrived, but the aircraft actually landed at Bien Hoa. How on earth, was he able to pick up a burning willie peter flare and throw it out of the aircraft? If he hadn't done that, the aircraft would have crashed, and everyone would have been killed. Good for him. My opinion is, in a SHTF incident, people tend to revert back to their training, and they do what they are trained to do.
I would rather have him awarded an Air Force Comendation Medal with a combat V. Not a high ranking medal, but still designated for valor in the face to the enemy.
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