Alek Skarlatos became a worldwide hero in August 2015 when he helped avert a massacre aboard a Belgian train.

While on vacation after a deployment in Afghanistan, he sprang into action when an armed attacker began shooting on the train. Alek and two of his friends, Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone and student Anthony Sadler, disarmed and subdued the attacker, who was armed with guns and a box cutter.

He played himself in the 2018 film about the incident, The 15:17 to Paris. Skarlatos placed third on the twenty-first season of Dancing with the Stars.

The California native is an avid painter and military history buff. In between National Guard deployments, Alek studies at a local community college and plans to enter the police force.

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