Paris Train Heroes Write Book on Foiled Terrorist Attack

An Air Force staff sergeant who was injured while stopping a terrorist attack on a Paris-bound train with two of his friends last year said Tuesday he still thinks about the assault that wounded three other people.

"It definitely comes into our mind at least once a day," Spencer Stone, 24, who suffered a knife injury during the incident, told Brooke Baldwin on CNN. "That was one of the questions I asked another doctor I work with. I said, 'When am I going to stop thinking about it?'

"He said that in the first year you'll think about it every day."

"Because he was a medic in Vietnam," Stone added. "He's seen and done a lot.

"He said eventually it will start to fade out of your memory, but it will definitely be something that's always stuck with you."

Stone, student Anthony Sadler, also 24, and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, 23, stopped Ayoub El Khazzani, a Moroccan with jihadist ties, last Aug. 21 after he appeared on a train car carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, an automatic pistol and a box-cutter knife.

The train had left Amsterdam and was carrying about 500 passengers. A British consultant, Chris Norman, also helped stop the attack.

Besides Stone and Khazzani, two others passengers were injured in the attack.
The Americans, who are childhood friends, have been honored in both France and the United States for their heroism.

They have a new book about the ordeal, "The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes."

Skarlatos did not participate in the CNN interview. He was in sniper training.

Recounting the ordeal, Sadler said that "when it first started happening, everyone was in shock.

"Even we were for a split second. Luckily we quickly snapped out of it.

"It was crowded with us three on the guy," he added. "After that, everybody else started to chip in.

"Initially, everyone was in shock."

The two cautioned Americans to understand that terrorism could occur anywhere in the world — and at any time.

"It is something, as Americans in this day and age, we just have to be aware of when traveling abroad," Sadler said. "Terrorism is always in the back of our minds — and it is just something that you should always be aware of."

Stone advised that "nowadays, with this stuff going on, there is no designated battle zone.

"Every average citizen can step up any moment," he said. "Don't let it rule your life. Just keep moving forward.

"Just get prepared — and if something happens, you will have a plan."

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