Three American Train Heros Receive French Citizenship

The three American train heroes, who foiled a terrorist attack on a speeding Thalys trains bound to Paris, are now brand new French citizens.

Anthony Sadler, Alex Skarlatos and Spencer Stone who were rewarded the highest French award of the Legion de Honneur requested to become French citizens.

Several months after requesting French citizenship, Emmanuel Lebrun Damiens, the consul General of France  based in San Francisco, awarded them citizenship in a ceremony in Sacramento, California on January 31, 2019.

They certainly “earned” their French citizenship in one of the most courageous ways possible!  All three risked their lives to save passengers from being blown up that very fateful day of August 21, 2015.

At the time Sadler had joined his best friends Stone, who was stationed in Portugal with the US Air Force, and Skarlatos who had just completed a tour in Afghanistan with US National Guard.

I had written about their extraordinary  and monumental undertaking a few years ago, that required making split second decisions to disarm the terrorist, armed with an assault rifle, and 270 rounds of ammunition,  intent on blowing up the train.

Not only did the threesome save hundreds of people from certain death, but Spencer Stone used his military Medic training to save the life of French American Mark Moogalian.

Even though Spencer’s thumb was dangling from being sliced with a box cutter, he inserted his fingers into the Moogalian’s neck wound and compressed the carotid, thereby keeping him from hemorrhaging to death.

These three courageous young men all attended the same high school in California and had remained best friends in the years following graduation.

The three were also described as being  bonded by their deeply held Christian faith.  Anthony Sadler’s father is a pastor.

A lot has happened to them since that fate filled day in 2015.   Besides the French Legion de Honneur award, each were awarded honors from the United Sates, Belgium, the city of Arras and military awards for Stone and Skarlatos.

In a most unbelievable stroke of bad luck,   Spencer Stone  was  aggressed by another assailant in Sacramento, California within 3 months of returning to the US.

He was stabbed multiple times resulting in life threatening injuries that were much more severe in nature than the injuries he suffered from the train terrorist.

The  three co authored a book about the terrifying trip on the Thalys and all three apparently have been bitten by the acting bug.

Clint Eastwood choose them to play themselves on a recent film, The 15:17 to Paris which was released this summer. As a therapist I would think this would be a difficult experience, depending on the degree of  PTSD symptoms, which I can only presume afflicted some of them.

One of three said it was  cathartic to have had the opportunity to relive the similar emotions and feelings.   It can be therapeutic for some  with PTSD if they are adequately prepared to do so, but certainly not soon after the traumatic event!

The mere fact that each one of them had also previously written down their experiences in composing the book would likewise be preparative and be a therapeutic prelude to making the film.

Ordinary PTSD victims usually don’t have those explicit opportunities to do so.  I do not know if any of these young men sought therapy after this horrifying and potentially deadly undertaking.

Any attempt to rush PTSD patients into reliving such trauma with life threatening possibilities would be not only non therapeutic but potentially dangerous to whatever stability they had achieved.

Everybody’s psychic composure is different and it depends on the psychological makeup pre trauma along with the degree of life threatening exposure each one went through and how each one handled the emotional aftermath.

Anthony Sadler returned to complete his college studies and graduated from  Sacramento State University in 2017 with a B.S. degree in Kinesiology.

In a strange near miss of being involved in  another tragedy, Alex Skarlatos recounts having just missed being on the Umpqua Community college campus at the time of a mass shooting there on October 1, 2015, that left 10 dead because he was rehearsing  “Dancing With The Stars”.

Since the film Alex said he has taken up acting lessons, hoping for a possible film career and also recently announced his candidacy to run for county commissioner in Roseburg, Oregon.

After being promoted to staff Sargent, Spencer left the US Air Force in 2016 and Skarlatos left the Army National guard in 2017.

In recent interviews all three expressed feeling a deep connection to France. All have returned to Paris approximately 4 times since the event in 2015 and said they have each developed much affection for the city and the country.

Skarlatos revealed he was also going to start taking French lessons, and would enjoy the liberty of being able to travel easily between the two countries and hopefully buy a house.

The others voiced being interested in possibly finding romance in France as well, certainly a very popular wish for many Americans who travel here!

If any of them ever take up residence in Paris, they will be among many fellow Americans.  Approximately at any given time there are around 100,000 Americans living in Paris.

Throw in the many Brits, Irish and Australians who live here;  and Paris enjoys a very large Anglophone  population.   There are all sorts of American expats associations, English bookstores, clubs and restaurants that cater to English speaking expats.

Obviously, if they want to work here, learning French would be an absolute necessity.   I can certainly testify that the very best and most enjoyable way of learning French would be to come here and fall in love with a French national that does not speak much English.

They are only 26 years old and their world seems to have opened up to various new opportunities that they never thought possible since that fate filled day on the Thalys.

Destiny takes many mysterious turns and twists in our lives.  Congratulations Anthony, Spencer and Alex and welcome to the joys of citizenship in France!