PARIS (AP) — Recounting how he and two other American friends took down a gunman on a high-speed train in France, U.S. airman Spencer Stone said Sunday that he was awakened from a deep sleep before springing into action and subduing the attacker. 
 
 In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, image made from a video taken by Anthony Sadler, a bag and gun are seen on a train seat after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The man... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, image made from a video taken by Anthony Sadler, a gunman lies on floor with arms tied behind his back, after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Spencer Stone waves as he leaves the police station in Arras, northern France, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. A gunman prepared to open fire with an automatic weapon on a high-speed train traveling from... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mayor of Arras, Frederic Leturque, speaks with the media outside the Arras train station, northern France, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon on a high-speed train... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo provided by Christina Cathleen Coons, a person lies on the floor after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. A gunman opened fire... (Associated Press) 
 
 A police officer works on a platform near a Thalys train of French national railway operator, SNCF, at the main train station in Arras, northern France, after a gunman opened fire injuring three passengers,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A Thalys train of French national railway operator, SNCF, stands at the main train station in Arras, northern France, after a gunman opened fire injuring three people, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. A spokesman... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo provided by Christina Cathleen Coons, a man is detained on a train platform after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, in Arras, northern... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, image made from a video taken by Anthony Sadler, a gunman lies on floor with legs tied behind his back after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to... (Associated Press) 
 
 A police officer uses a video camera at a crime scene inside a Thalys train stopped at a train station in Arras, northern France, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon on... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police officers investigate on a platform next to a Thalys train at Arras train station, northern France, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon on a high-speed train traveling... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Spencer Stone waves as he leaves the police station in Arras, northern France, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. A gunman prepared to open fire with an automatic weapon on a high-speed train traveling from... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, image made from a video taken by Anthony Sadler, a bag and gun are seen on a train seat after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. A gunman... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, image made from a video taken by Anthony Sadler, a gunman lies on floor with arms tied behind his back, after an incident on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam... (Associated Press) 
 
 EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT- In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, image made from a video taken by Anthony Sadler, American Spencer Stone, bottom, attends to an injured passenger, after an incident on a high-speed... (Associated Press) 
 
 Stone said he turned around and saw a man holding an assault rifle and that it "looked like it was jammed and it wasn't working." 
 
 In his first remarks since Friday's attack on an Amsterdam-to-Paris train, Stone said he and his friends took down the gunman before choking him unconscious. 
 
 "He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," Stone said. "So were we." 
 
 Stone spoke at a live news conference at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Paris along with Anthony Sadler and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos. 
 
 Stone is hailed not only for being the first to grapple with the attacker, but for helping to stop the bleeding in a French-American passenger wounded by a bullet. 
 
 Stone, wearing a sling on his left arm, was wounded in the attack and said he will receive further medical treatment in Germany. 
 
 Stone said the attacker kept pulling out weapons from his bag, and that he was stabbed in the neck and sliced on his hand. 
 
 Stone said his thumb was reattached during his hospital stay in Lille. He thanked the French doctors, police officers and others. 
 
 Skarlatos said military training played a part in subduing the gunman. 
 
 "In the beginning it was mostly gut instinct, survival," he said. "Our training kicked in after the struggle." 
 
 U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley praised the three Americans, calling them heroes. 
 
 "We often use the word hero and in this case I know that word has never been more appropriate," Hartley said. 
 
 "They are truly heroes. When most of us would run away, Spencer, Alek and Anthony ran into the line of fire, saying 'Let's go.' Those words changed the fate of many." ||||| When a gunman came into their crowded Paris-bound train car trying to cock his AK-47, three American friends realized "It was either do something or die," so they sprang into action, tackling him before he could get off a shot, one of the three said today. 
 
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 Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and their civilian friend Anthony Sadler were on the Amsterdam-to-Paris train Friday when a gunman, who had already fired a shot that wounded another passenger. 
 
 "At that time he was cocking the AK-47," Sadler said today from the U.S. Embassy in Paris, "So it was either do something or die." 
 
 The three spoke together for the first time together today, detailing what happened Friday when a man identified by authorities as the gunman, identified by French authorities as Ayoub El Khazzani, began his attack on board the high-speed train. 
 
 THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 "In times of crisis ... do something," Sadler, 23, a senior at Sacramento State University in California, said. "Hiding or sitting back is not going to accomplish anything." 
 
 Skarlatos, 22, of Roseburg, Oregon, said the first thing he heard was a gunshot. 
 
 Stone, 23, of Carmichael, California, said the sound woke him up from "a deep sleep," and when he turned and saw the gunman, his first thought was about "survival, to survive and for everyone on the train to make it." 
 
 All three friends credited each other with helping stop the gunman. 
 
 "The gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer had not gotten up," Sadler added. 
 
 "I trust both my friends very much," Stone said. "If it wasn't for them I would have been dead." 
 
 Stone said he put the attacker in a chokehold, but the gunman kept pulling more weapons. The attacker started jabbing at Stone with a box cutter and all three friends began punching and hitting him to subdue him. 
 
 “He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," Stone said. "So were we." 
 
 THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Stone said he choked the attacker unconscious while Skarlatos hit him in the head. 
 
 Stone, who had a black eye and had his left arm in a sling after undergoing surgery to reattach his thumb that the attacker slashed with his box cutter, said that once the gunman was hogtied on the floor, he went to help another injured American, Mark Moogalian, and used his fingers to stop bleeding in the Moogalian's neck. 
 
 Moogalian was the first person to disarm the gunman, according to a statement today from Moogalian's family. 
 
 "When the gunman came out of the bathroom another person engaged him and was thrown to the side, Mark then jumped in and after a struggle was able to get the AK 47 away," the statement said. "Mark then turned around to get his wife out of harm’s way but did not realize the gunman still had a pistol. He shot Mark in the back, the bullet went through his lung and exited his collarbone. When Mark went down that’s when the gunman retrieved the AK 47. Mark was able to get to another car and that's when other rushed in.” 
 
 According to Sadler, the trio were initially sitting in a different carriage, but a bad wifi connection led them to get up and move to what became the scene of the attack. 
 
 "We often use the word hero, and in this case it is appropriate," U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley said in her introduction of the trio. "They are truly heroes." 
 
 She said they "demonstrated the very best of America in their selfless actions." 
 
 The trio will be received by French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace on Monday, officials said. 
 
 They will be awarded France’s highest honor, the Legion of Honor, by Hollande, a spokesman for the interior ministry confirmed to ABC News. 
 
 Stone said he doesn't know when he is going back to the United States, but said he will first go to Germany for medical care. 
 
 According to The Associated Press, France placed El Khazzani on a security watch list in February 2014. Spanish authorities had informed them El Khazzani, who was born in Morocco, had joined "the radical Islamist movement" and may have been a foreign fighter in Syria. 
 
 A lawyer for El Khazzani told a French television station he had told her he was homeless and intended to rob the train so he could eat, according to The Associated Press. Lawyer Sophie David described El Khazzani as very thin and possibly malnourished. 
 
 "He thought of a hold-up to be able to feed himself, to have money," David said to BFM-TV, then "shoot out a window and jump out to escape." 
 
 "He is dumbfounded that his action is being characterized as terrorism," David added. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– "It was either do something or die," says US Airman Spencer Stone in his first public comments on stopping a gunman from rampaging through a French train. He describes waking from "a deep sleep" to see the gunman holding an AK-47, reports ABC News, his first thought going to "survival, to survive and for everyone on the train to make it." The gunman "seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," Stone said, per the AP. "So were we." Stone, along with longtime friends Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos, spoke about the attack today from the US Embassy in Paris; Stone was released from the hospital yesterday after surgery to reattach his thumb, which was severed with a boxcutter. "In the beginning it was mostly gut instinct, survival," added Skarlatos, a National Guardsman. "Our training kicked in after the struggle." The threesome credit each other: "The gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer had not gotten up," says Sadler, while Stone says simply, "I trust both my friends very much. If it wasn't for them I would be dead." US Ambassador Jane Hartley pointed to Americans' penchant for throwing around the word hero" but said, "in this case I know that word has never been more appropriate. They are truly heroes. When most of us would run away, Spencer, Alek, and Anthony ran into the line of fire, saying 'Let's go.' Those words changed the fate of many." The guys are getting some serious praise, and next meet with a grateful Francois Hollande.