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Francois Hollande

Men who stopped train attacker awarded Legion d'Honneur

Jane Onyanga-Omara
USA TODAY
French President Francois Hollande, left, poses with U.S. serviceman Alek Skarlatos, U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, U.S. serviceman Spencer Stone and U.S. student Anthony Sadler after an honorary ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris Aug. 24, 2015.

French President François Hollande awarded France's highest honor Monday to three Americans and a Briton who tackled a gunman on a train from Amsterdam to Paris.

The Pentagon said later that the two U.S. servicemembers given the French award are  being considered for heroic military medals, including a possible Purple Heart.

Hollande presented the Legion d'Honneur to U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, 23; Alek Skarlatos, 22, an Oregon National Guardsman; Anthony Sadler, 23, a Sacramento State University student; and British citizen Chris Norman, 62.

Two others will  receive the Legion d'Honneur at a later date — a French citizen who also tackled the man in the incident Friday but wishes to remain anonymous and a French American named by Hollande as Mark Moogalian, 51. Moogalian, who was shot, remains in a hospital.

"You risked your lives to defend an idea, an idea of liberty, of freedom," Hollande told the men at the ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

"Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity," he said. "This is what allowed you to, with bare hands — your bare hands — to subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all and a source of inspiration.”

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and Jane Hartley, the U.S. ambassador to France, were among those who attended the ceremony.

The three Americans were on the high-speed train when a man armed with a Kalashnikov, an automatic Luger pistol and a box cutter raced through the car. The men tackled and subdued the gunman, who was taken into custody in France.

"He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," Stone said at a news conference on Sunday. "So were we." Stone was stabbed in the neck and thumb, which had to be reattached.

Norman, an IT consultant who helped subdue the gunman, said he thought, "OK, I'm probably going to die anyway, so let's go," The Guardian reported.

Stone left later Monday for Ramstein, Germany, where the United States has an air base, and went for a military medical check at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, according to spokesman Juan Melendez.

Skarlatos also went to Germany on Monday “to accompany his friend after the traumatic experience they went through together,” Melendez said. Sadler’s plans were not made public.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Stone is being nominated for the prestigious Airman's Medal — the Air Force's highest non-combat award and ranked above the Purple Heart. He could eventually be eligible for the Purple Heart if French authorities conclude the attack was a terrorist event.

“Airman Stone and his friends personified service before self, no question about it," James said. "Thanks to them, no one died on that high-speed European train on Friday.”

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the National Guard is  considering appropriate awards to recognize the heroic actions. He said it will be up to the individual military services whether Stone and Skarlatos can wear their French Legion of Honor, although servicemembers typically can't wear foreign medals on their uniforms.

French authorities identified the gunman as Ayoub El-Khazzani, 26, a Moroccan with ties to radical Islam who may have traveled to Syria. His lawyer, Sophie David, said on French TV that her client claims he was just homeless and hungry and wanted to rob the train, then jump out a window.

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook and John Bacon

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