Americans, Briton who thwarted attack get France’s top honor

PARIS — The president of France pinned his country’s highest award, the Legion d’Honneur, on three Americans and a Briton on Monday, saying they “gave a lesson in courage” by subduing a heavily armed attacker on a high-speed train carrying 500 passengers to Paris.

All took part in subduing the gunman as he moved through the Amsterdam-to-Paris train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley also attended the ceremony, along with the head of French national railway authority SNCF.

Stone, who suffered cuts when the gunman stabbed him with a box cutter, left later Monday for Ramstein, Germany, where U.S. air power in Europe is based, and then went for a military medical check at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, according to spokesman Juan Melendez.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. military services are considering “appropriate awards to recognize their heroic actions.”