75-Year-Old Army Vet Survives Knife Attack

75 year old Army vet talks knife attack

James Vernon is the 75 year old Army veteran who fought off an attacker wielding two knives. How? With training he learned as a Soldier over 50 years ago. From People:When he was in the Army more than 50 years ago, James Vernon was trained to fight people who carried knives. The retired 75-year-old Morton, Illinois, man tells PEOPLE he never thought he'd need that training as an AARP member.But those skills came back to him last Tuesday, when, according to court documents, Vernon thwarted a 19-year-old man carrying two knives who walked into the Morton Public Library and allegedly said, "I'm going to kill some people." Court documents allege that the man, Dustin Brown, wanted to kill children at the library before killing himself.At the time, Morton was teaching chess to a group of 16 children and their mothers. He recounts to PEOPLE that at first, "I didn't believe it was happening until after a few seconds."

But then, he says, his mind "shifted gears, and I realized I had to do something."Vernon says he immediately got in between Brown and the children, telling the frightened children and mothers, "It's time to leave."He says he started speaking to Brown, trying to slow him down and diffuse the situation. He stepped towards him, and Brown stepped back. At that point, Vernon quickly looked behind him, and was relieved to see that the children and their mothers had fled to safety.That's when, Vernon says, "He realized his targets got away, and he attacked me. I tried to grab his wrist with my left hand to block the attack, but grabbed the blade."See the full article from People.[mwi-cat-listing cat="94" ppp="4" cols="4" desc="false" type="view" btn_color="black" ]