PARIS (AP) - The president of France pinned his country's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, on three Americans and a Briton on Monday, saying they "gave a lesson in courage" by subduing a heavily armed attacker on a high-speed train carrying 500 passengers to Paris.
President Francois Hollande said that while two of the Americans who tackled the gunman were soldiers, "on Friday you were simply passengers. You behaved as soldiers but also as responsible men."
Hollande then pinned the medals on U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and their longtime friend Anthony Sadler. All took part in subduing the gunman as he moved through the Amsterdam-to-Paris train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest. British businessman Chris Norman, who jumped into the fray, also received the medal.
The Americans looked earnest and slightly overwhelmed - and a little under-dressed - for the unanticipated event in the ornate Elysee Palace. Their short-sleeved polo shirts and khakis contrasted with the gilded and velvet-curtained ceremonial hall as Hollande read out their names one by one - and kissed them on each cheek, in French style.
It was an unusual ceremony for the French president's office too, as dozens of photographers loudly shouted out the Americans' names as they approached Hollande standing on the steps of the palace- unlike the quieter, more-subdued welcome for visiting heads of state. The four men listened to a translation of Hollande's speech through earpieces, and the visibly proud mothers of Stone and Skarlatos looked on.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley also attended the ceremony, along with the head of French national railway authority SNCF.
The men showed "that faced with terror, we have the power to resist. You also gave a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope," Hollande said.
Norman said it was less a question of heroism than survival.
"I said to myself, "You're not going to die sitting there doing nothing,'" he told The Associated Press after the ceremony. "I would do it again. But I don't know - I think you never know the reaction you will have in those kinds of situations."
The businessman said he "never thought I'd ever been given such a medal. I will try to be a credit to this honor."
His arm in a sling and his eye bruised, the 23-year-old Stone has said he was coming out of a deep sleep when the gunman appeared.
Skarlatos, a 22-year-old National Guardsman who was recently back from Afghanistan, "just hit me on the shoulder and said "Let's go,'" Stone said.
With those words, Hollande said, a "veritable carnage" was avoided.
"Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity. This is what allowed you to with bare hands - your bare hands - subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all, and a source of inspiration," Hollande said.
Stone left later Monday for Ramstein, Germany, where U.S. air power in Europe is based, and then went for a military medical check at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, according to spokesman Juan Melendez.
Skarlatos also traveled Monday to Germany "to accompany his friend after the traumatic experience they went through together," Melendez said. Sadler's plans were not made public.