The proud father of the U.S. National Guardsman who averted a massacre aboard a Paris-to-Amsterdam commuter train tells
Newsmax TV his son's actions prove America must brush aside political correctness when it comes to fighting terrorism.
"What I like to take away from this is that the PC crowds, they really need to wake up to the fact and call terrorism what it is. It's dangerous," Emanuel Skarlatos, the father of Alek Skarlatos, said Monday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
"It's a difficult thing to defend against but they're willing to die for something. There's an old Greek saying 'It's better to die like a lion than to be slaughtered like sheep,' especially this one, a terrorist coward.... The PC crowd really needs to take a listen."
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On Monday, French President Francois Hollande awarded France's highest honor to off-duty servicemen Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, their student friend Anthony Sadler, and Chris Norman, a British business consultant.
The heroic five sprang into action to overpower a 25-year-old Moroccan identified as Ayoub El Khazzani, who boarded the high-speed train on Friday wielding a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, ammunition, and a box-cutter.
"He's always been for the underdog who needs help and the people on that train were the underdogs. They had no weapons … and my son and his friends had no weapons," Skarlatos said.
"Alek was quick enough to recognize the fact that this AK was jamming and he told Spencer 'Let's get him now' and they just did it right at that moment. It was instinct, maybe survival mode.
"They knew that if they didn't act right then — that guy had engaged that weapon with eight magazines of 30 bullets in each magazine — that there would've been some carnage and my son and his friends would've died, also."
Skarlatos said he learned of the averted bloodbath Friday afternoon when his son called home.
"He said 'Hey dad, me and the guys just took down a terrorist on a train from Amsterdam to Paris.' And I said, 'What?' It just didn't register," Skarlatos said.
"He started explaining what happened.... It was just a short time and I didn't have time to say much except that I loved him and 'be safe.' After he hung up, it just really hit me."
Former Rep. Michael Patrick Flanagan, an Illinois Republican who appeared on "Newsmax Prime" with Skarlatos, told J.D. Hayworth:
"[This was] American exceptionalism. Hollywood paints a picture that we're just a bunch of great bland people of the earth and there's nothing extraordinary or odd or exceptional about us. I have terrible bad news for you out there, including our president, but we are exceptional people.
"Mr. Skarlatos has raised an exceptional young man and has done a great job doing it. The young man's comments were 'don't just sit there. Do something.' What an incredible thing to say. Don't be a sheep on the train. Stand up and do something. Make the world a better place. Take down bad guys like these.
"He wasn't defending Americans. He was defending French men and Belgians. This is the greatest story we've had in a long time and it's wonderful to be able to talk about an exciting young man like this."
Skarlatos added: "I'm sure there are plenty of Americans like my son."
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