Could any of us do what they did?

Not many summer vacation stories can match that of Alek Skarlatos, who suddenly faced off with a shooter on a high-speed train.

Skarlatos &#8212 a soldier just back from Afghanistan &#8212 was on the train with a couple of friends traveling from Amsterdam to Paris last Friday.

When Alek looked up and saw, “A guy entering the train with an AK and a handgun. I just looked over at Spencer and said, ‘Let’s go,'” he told the press.

Airman First Class Spencer Stone, who’d been sleeping, didn’t hesitate, even though the gunman seemed to have weapons everywhere.

“Alek came up and grabbed the gun out of his hand, so I put him in a chokehold,” Stone told the press. “(He) pulled out a handgun. Alek took that. Took out a box cutter and started jabbing at me with it.”

And then, Stone sees an injured passenger bleeding from the neck and, despite his own injuries, he helps them out.

“I just stuck two of my fingers in the hole, pushed down and the bleeding stopped,” he said.

He saves the man’s life. Finally, the third member of their group, Anthony Sadler along with a British businessman, rush in and tie up the gunman.

And Sadler says there’s a lesson here.

“In times of terror like that, to please do something,” Sadler said.

Which got me thinking &#8212 could I really just go sprinting at a crazed gunman? Mr. Sadler’s friend Spencer Stone is 6’2″, in his 20’s, in the Air Force, and has martial arts training.

I would like to think that even though I am not quite at that physical level, and nowhere near that young, I’d do it if I had to.

In fact, I’d like to think that all of us have a hidden hero inside that’s just there because we all have people we care about and would protect at any cost.

But I think a more practical lesson for most of us is to choose really big travel companions, preferably with martial arts training.