The airman, National Guard soldier and civilian who took down a heavily armed gunman aboard a Paris-bound train were instantly and correctly hailed as heroes for saving untold numbers of lives while risking their own.
A debate quickly emerged over the appropriate decorations to honor their bravery. The French immediately pinned the Americans with the Legion of Honor, France’s highest decoration.
The Army announced it would award Spc. Alek Skarlatos the Soldier’s Medal, the service’s highest decoration for non-combat heroism.
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone has been nominated for an equivalent award, the Airman’s Medal.
However, if French law enforcement deems the event terrorism related, a combat valor award may be an option.
Early reports indicate that is very likely, as the suspect — armed with an AK-47, an automatic pistol, box cutter and 270 rounds of ammo — was identified as a Moroccan linked to radical Islam.
If the link to terrorism is definitively established, Spencer and Skarlatos should be awarded combat valor awards without delay. This will require authorization that does not slavishly hew to outdated Defense Department criteria but instead recognizes that today’s fight against terrorists is not conducted within clear geographic borders. In fact, the enemy has taken the fight to a civilian-packed train, a sprawling Army base in Texas, a small military installation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and elsewhere.
Spencer and Skarlatos were not in uniform when they took down the gunman, but they drew on their military training and instinct to defend others.
Terrorists are targeting people wherever they live, work and play and, increasingly, U.S. military members are being drawn into combat there. The criteria for valor awards must be updated to account for this new reality.
