Update, 3:55 P.M.: Shortly after this post went up, the Hill's Kristina Wong reported that the Air Force planned to give Spencer Stone the Airman's Medal. The Airman's Medal is a noncombat award, given for "Heroism involving voluntary risk of life under conditions other than those of conflict with an armed enemy of the US." It is the kind of award an airman would receive for, say, saving a drowning man while on his day off at the beach—not, typically for engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a terrorist while unarmed. Nominating Stone for this medal also implies that the Air Force does not believe Stone to be eligible for the Purple Heart, despite his wounds. Read on to see why this is an injustice.
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone is a hero—everyone is agreed on that fact. So are his friends, Specialist Alek Skarlatos of the Oregon National Guard, and Anthony Sadler, a college student. All three were awarded the Legion of Honor over the weekend by the president of France for taking down the heavily armed Ayoub El Khazzani before he could massacre passengers on a high speed train bound for Paris.
Stone is an active duty Air Force medic, based in the Azores. He deserves to be decorated by the Air Force for his courage, and to receive a Purple Heart for his wounds—he nearly had his thumb severed by the terrorist’s box-cutter, among other injuries. Skarlatos, if he is still on active duty (he reportedly returned from Afghanistan only last month, so it is possible) also deserves a valor award from his own chain of command.
Reading and listening to their account of what happened, the Silver Star—at a minimum—seems appropriate. Stone and Skarlatos, with Stone in the lead, rushed down the high-speed train’s aisle, covering about ten meters of open space as El Khazzani was struggling with his Kalashnikov. With the help of Sadler they successfully beat the terrorist unconscious, and tied him up with the help of a British passenger named Chris Norman. Then Stone, even though wounded by El Khazzani’s box cutter, saved the life of Mark Moogalian—another passenger who had struggled with the gunman—by jamming his fingers into Moogalian’s neck and staunching the bleeding from an arterial wound.
The Air Force’s official requirements for the Silver Star are as follows:
Gallantry in action that does not warrant the MOH [Medal of Honor] or Air Force Cross: a. While engaged in an action against an enemy of the U.S; b. While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or c. While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the U.S. is not a belligerent party. (Note: "Gallantry in action" means heroism of high degree involving risk of life.)
Emphasis mine. Hand to hand combat when the other guy has an assault rifle, a pistol, and a box cutter, while you’ve got nothing but two hands and an attitude, is no everyday act of bravery. You could certainly categorize it as "heroism of high degree." The rub, of course, is whether or not El Khazzani constituted an "enemy of the U.S.," against whom Stone, on leave, suddenly and unexpectedly found himself in action. The same issue also applies to the question of whether or not Stone rates a Purple Heart.
Khazzani was already on the radar of the intelligence agencies of multiple U.S. allies in Europe (heck of a job, guys) and is thought to have at least made an attempt to travel to Syria to fight with the Islamic State—and may have succeeded in doing so, though that is unclear. It shouldn’t matter. He is clearly part of a network of Islamist radicals against which the United States is engaged in military action in Iraq and Syria, and more quietly through its counter-terror efforts around the globe. Stone’s actions are no different from those of a World War Two airman on a two day pass in France who happens to encounter some German troops behind the lines, and valorously subdues one in hand-to-hand combat.
Stone—and, if he was on active duty at the time, Skarlatos—deserves to be formally recognized by the military. Maybe he rates even more than a Silver Star. He doesn’t rate less.