Tragedies Befall American Heroes Since French Train Attack

Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, who helped stop a terror attack on a French train over the summer, was stabbed and seriously wounded Thursday in a fight — the latest tragedy to befall him and his buddies since they returned home as heroes.

Violence overseas made Stone, National Guardsman Alex Skarlatos and college student Anthony Sadler sudden celebrities in August. In the past week, bloodshed at home thrust them back into the spotlight and shook them personally, first in Oregon, now in Sacramento.

The stabbing happened days after a deadly shooting rampage at the Oregon community college Skarlatos attends.

Stone, 23, was listed in stable condition at UC Davis Medical Center, and officials said he was expected to pull through. Police searched for the two assailants, who fled in a car, and said there is no evidence they knew who he was.

“This incident is not related to terrorism in any way,” Deputy Police Chief Ken Bernard said. “We know it’s not related to what occurred in France months ago.”

Over the summer, Stone and his friends were vacationing in Europe when they sprang into action aboard a Paris-bound train and brought down Ayoub El-Khazzani, a man with ties to radical Islam. He was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a pistol and a box cutter.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the October 9th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.