Commander Wallace |
08-24-15 07:11 AM |
France-Legion Of Honor
This is essentially a follow up to a thread CCIP did late last week :
Élysée Palace was the location as the President of France, Francois Hollande awarded the Legion of Honor on Monday. The Legion Of Honor is France’s highest award, was awarded to Airman First Class Spencer Stone, 23; Alek Skarlatos, 22, a specialist in the Oregon National Guard; and their friend Anthony Sadler, 23, for their role in subduing a gunman on a train traveling to Paris from Amsterdam on Friday. Chris Norman, 62 of the United Kingdom and of the British consultant who helped subdue the gunman also received the honor.
The men were credited with preventing what could have been a substantial loss of life. Ayoub El Kahzani , a Moroccan national is in police custody and denies that he had planned a staged attack. He was of course apprehended with an AK-47 assault rifle, handgun, a knife and 300 rounds of ammunition.
In addition A French citizen who was the first to tackle Mr. Kahzani but who has declined to be identified will receive the honor at a later date, as will Mark Moogalian, 51, a passenger with dual French and American citizenship who struggled with the attacker and is recovering from a bullet wound.
The Americans after the ceremony brushed aside suggestions that they were hero's . Instead they simply said it was survival instincts. The 3 men were expected to meet staff members at the United States Embassy, near the presidential palace. France has had to deal with a string of serious terrorist attacks including the one at French Magazine Charlie Hebdo where 11 people were Killed in the building and a French national police officer was killed outside . 11 others were injured. The Legion of Honor initially was reserved for Those of France, however, the novelist Toni Morrison and the actor Clint Eastwood. Airman Stone, Mr. Skarlatos, Mr. Sadler and Mr. Norman were made knights of the order, the lowest of four ranks
Congratulations to all of these men
Well Done :salute:
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