Sarun Sar

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star Medal to Sarun Sar, Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with Operational Detachment Alpha 732 (ODA- 732), during combat operations in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, in Afghanistan, on 5 March 2005. Master Sergeant Sar and his 12-man special operations team were sent to search for Taliban fighters in the snowy mountains of eastern Afghanistan. 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. Master Sergeant Sar told his team to follow him as he started running toward the insurgents. He 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, Master Sergeant 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 him; the third shot hit Master Sergeant Sar’s helmet but did not severely injure him. He killed the insurgent and the team continued to sweep the village and cleared the area of enemy fighters and rounded up a large cache of enemy weapons.