Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Sarun Sar

Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Sarun Sar
Master Sgt. Sar and his 12-man special operations team were sent to search for Taliban fighters in the snowy mountains of eastern Afghanistan on March 5, 2005. As their helicopters attempted to land outside an area suspected of sheltering insurgents, the group began to receive heavy automatic weapons fire from the direction of the village. Sar told his team to follow him as he started running toward the insurgents. Sar was out front alone as his team was temporarily pinned down. He continued to take enemy fire as he waited for his team to catch up to him. When they did, Sar and the team medic went after an insurgent hiding in a hut. As soon as he opened the door, the Taliban fighter fired three shots at Sar; the third shot hit Sar’s helmet but did not severely injure him. Sar killed the insurgent. The team continued to sweep the village and cleared the area of enemy fighters and rounded up a large cache of enemy weapons. On January 3, 2006, Sar was awarded the Silver Star Medal.