Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone – whose name emblazoned international headlines in August 2015 after he and two friends subdued an armed terrorist aboard a train bound for Paris – will join five other veterans in attending President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
According to the Military Times, this will be the third time in five months that Stone, now a medical technician at the 60th Medical Operations Squadron at California's Travis Air Force Base, has made an official visit to Washington, D.C.
For subduing the gunman – a heroic action which resulted in a severed thumb and a near-fatal stab wound – Stone earned the Purple Heart and Airman's Medal. He was awarded Belgium and France's top honors as well. On Oct. 31, he was promoted to airman first class. He has plans to leave the Air Force before his enlistment is up at the end of the year.
Stone is just one of the six veterans invited by First Lady Michelle Obama to Tuesday's address.
Maj. Lisa Jaster will be there as well. Jaster, a 37-year-old engineer, became the first female Army Reserve officer – and just the third woman overall – to graduate from Ranger School.
Earl Smith, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, met Obama in an elevator before he became president. At the time, Smith presented him with his screaming eagle patch, first earned when he was a private, as good luck. Perhaps his presence in the crowd is the president's good luck charm.
The Military Times reported in a separate article that veterans will be a focal point of Obama's speech. While legislators are still upset over the stagnant reform situation at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Obama will point out the progress made in caring for veterans in their life after service, jobs programs and falling rates of veteran homelessness.