French President Francois Hollande pinned the Legion of Honor, his nation's highest award, on three American servicemen and a Briton who risked their lives to stop a gunman on a crowded train in Europe.
"Here are four men who with the help of others acted not just to save their own lives but who also came to help others and saved the lives of others," NBC News quoted the French president.
"You risked your lives to defend an ideal, the ideal of liberty and freedom," Hollande said.
Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone, and Alek Skarlator, all members of the U.S. military, have been friends since childhood.
"Alek just hit me on the shoulder and said, 'Let's go' and ran down, tackled him," U.S. airman Spencer Stone recalled. "We hit the ground. Alek came up and grabbed the gun out of his hand. I put him in a chokehold. It seemed like he just kept pulling more weapons left and right."
British businessman Chris Norman, 62, jumped in and used his necktie to help subdue the attacker.
The gunman, Ayoub El-Khazzani, 26, is on a watch list for a possible visit to Syria earlier this year. A Moroccan citizen, he's suspected of ties to Islamic extremists. But the gunman's attorney says he's just a homeless man who was trying to rob the train because he was hungry.
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