Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler, both 23, will join Army National Guard Spec. Alek Skarlatos, 22, in Roseburg in coming days as the city recovers following the Oct. 1 attack that left nine people dead before authorities say the gunman, Chris Harper-Mercer, committed suicide. Skarlotos graduated from high school in Roseburg, and went back there after the attack. Stone and Sadler said in a phone interview that they plan to join him soon. They were in New York City over the weekend to receive an award for valor from Belgium’s government. It was the latest honor they received for subduing Ayoub El Khazzani, a 25-year-old Moroccan, after he opened fire on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Aug. 21.
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, raises his injured left hand beside Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, left, and Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before being awarded medals for his role in disarming a gunman on a Paris-bound train on Aug. 21, at the Pentagon.
The three friends were traveling through Europe when Khazzani entered their train car armed with two guns, a knife and magazines of ammunition. Stone charged the man, and his friends helped subdue him after he emerged from a bathroom ready to attack, witnesses said. Stone and Sadler said it has been difficult keeping up with the demands on their time since. Their events have included visiting President Obama in the Oval Office, appearing on national television repeatedly and having dinner at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s house, they said. Skarlotos also agreed to be on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” putting on hold classes he planned to take at Umpqua Community College.
“Honestly, taking down the guy on the train was way easier than any of this aftermath stuff,” Stone said. “It’s constantly go, go, go on our schedule and all these expectations that are a lot harder than having to do what we did.” But the friends, who have known each other since middle school, are grateful for the recognition. Sadler said meeting Obama was “pretty cool,” and Stone described with excitement spending time with Redskins backup quarterback Robert Griffin III on the sidelines of a football game and meeting with numerous members of the Washington Nationals while touring the stadium last month. Sadler, a student at California State University, Sacramento, said it has been difficult to keep up with classwork. But he still intends to graduate from college next spring.
MORE