By MARSHA MERCER
Three young Americans
on vacation captivated the world last week when they risked their lives to save
hundreds of train travelers in Europe from a terrorist attack.
“They are truly heroes,”
said Jane Hartley, U.S. ambassador to France. “When most of us would run away,
Spencer, Alek and Anthony ran into the line of fire, saying `Let’s go!’ Those
words changed the fate of many.”
As we go about our ordinary
days, celebrating the extraordinary acts of Spencer Stone, 23, Alek Skarlatos,
22, and Anthony Sadler, 23, a question arises: Would I do what they did?
“I hope I would,” my
dentist said as he cleaned my teeth. Me too, although I hope never to find out.
Nobody wants to think
what might have happened had the three buddies not been aboard that particular
car on the high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The three acted
instantly.
“It was either do
something or die,” said Sadler, a student at Sacramento State University. The
joyous news is that nobody died.
Skarlatos, a specialist
in the Oregon National Guard just back from nine months in Afghanistan, spotted
the shirtless guy with an AK-47 rifle strapped to his chest.
“Let’s go!” he said. The
three tackled the heavily armed Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani, 25, who viciously slashed
Stone, an airman first class in the U.S. Air Force, with a box cutter. British
businessman Chris Norman, 62, an IT consultant, heard “Let’s go!” and joined
the three Americans. He tied up El Khazzani.
Stone nearly lost his
left thumb and suffered other wounds, but he still saved the life of Mark
Moogalian, 51, a French-American professor at the Sorbonne. Moogalian, originally
from Midlothian, Va., is also a hero.
Moments earlier, Moogalian
tried to wrest the rifle from the terrorist and was shot in the neck. Bleeding
profusely, he could have died but for Stone, an EMT who used his uninjured hand
to apply pressure to Moogalian’s neck to stop the bleeding until help arrived.
“Let’s go!” reminds
many Americans of other heroes. On Sept. 11, 2001, “Let’s roll!” was the rallying
cry of Todd Beamer and other passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who tried
to storm the cockpit, where terrorists had taken over the plane, rather than
allow the terrorists to fly it into the U.S. Capitol. The passengers sacrificed
their lives to change the fate of many.
The American friends
were just 9 or 10 years old on 9/11 and have grown up under the constant threat
of terrorism. The military men said their training kicked in on the train.
“It was not really a
conscious decision,” Skarlatos told reporters. “We just decided to act … It was
gut instinct.”
French President
Francois Hollande, who presented the Legion of Honor to the Americans and
Norman, said: “We are still vulnerable. This is further evidence that we must prepare
ourselves for more assaults, and thus we must protect ourselves.” Moogalian and
a Frenchman who confronted the gunman will receive the honor later, authorities
said.
Not only France needs
to be watchful.
U.S. government reports
have warned for years that America’s passenger rail system is vulnerable to
terrorist attack. Whether Congress should pour billions into tightening
passenger rail security and whether passengers would put up with the time and
inconvenience required is open for debate.
The busiest U.S. train
stations do have armed guards, plain-clothes officers who watch for suspicious
behavior, random passenger and bag checks and bomb-sniffing dogs, but Amtrak
carries about 32 million passengers a year to 500 destinations in 46 states.
Every day, more than 86,000 passengers ride more than 300 Amtrak trains. Most stations
have minimal security.
Three times as many passengers take the train as fly between Washington
and New York. Between New York and Boston, trains carry more riders than all of
the airlines combined, Amtrak says.
For the foreseeable
future, it’s up to passengers to stay vigilant. “If you see something, say
something” still applies. But in a rare, horrifying moment, ordinary people may
have to do something extraordinary.
British businessman Norman,
who lives in France and travels frequently, had thought ahead about the
nightmare scenario.
“My position was, I’m not going to be the guy
who dies sitting down,” he told CNN. “If you’re going to die, try to do
something about it.”
© 2015 Marsha Mercer.
All rights reserved.
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