Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone probably won't miss 2015 and the altercations that came with it.
"It's winding down, hopefully," Stone, 23, told Matt Lauer on NBC's Today Show on Tuesday, referring to being wounded in two separate incidents this year.
The airman became an international hero after he and two others stopped a terrorist attack on a train traveling from Belgium to France in August. Stone suffered multiple cuts and injuries during the altercation.
But he received even more serious injuries during an attack outside a bar in October.
"They actually called out the homicide team originally because they didn't think I was going to make it," Stone said. "I can't thank the UC-Davis [hospital] staff enough for saving my life."
Stone said he is still recovering from both incidents, including still getting "some work done on my thumb," which was cut to the bone during the fight with terrorists on the train.
He said he thinks about that moment "every day."
"There's so many other things that could've gone wrong, and if one of them did, it would've been a totally different situation,'" he said. "Mostly it comes to mind even more given the recent attacks in Paris. My heart really goes out to France for that. That really brought up memories."
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, who also was on the show, said the military needs to be mindful that extremists aren't just downrange anymore.
"The battlefield has become in many ways global and these things can pop up literally anywhere thanks to the power of the Internet," she said. "People can now become radicalized, they can get access to information which 20 or 30 years ago simply was not possible. So I think it's a reminder for all of us that we've got to keep up this fight against Daesh in the Middle East, first and foremost, but we also have to take great care here at home."
That's why James said the U.S. was very glad to have Stone, Army Spc. Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Saddler react so quickly to the attacks on the train.
"What happened on the train that day could have been a catastrophe for many, many people," she said. "When something happens, when there's sudden danger, for most of us the instinct is to flee, to hunker down, to get away from the gun shot, from the firing of guns, but Spencer Stone and his two friends that day, they had the opposite instinct. They went toward the fire, and because of their actions, everybody on that train went home to their families. Everyone lived."
