Story and photo by Spc. Engels Tejeda
 358th MPAD

Staff Sgt. Terrence Scarborough (center), a motor vehicle operator with HHC 3-7th Infantry Regiment, inspects a squad at Camp Monteith. Scarborough and his team demonstrated a sense of duty and personal courage while operating a check point July 9th. 

Staff Sgt. Terrance Scarborough and his squad left Zegra Firebase to conduct a tactical checkpoint along Route Amber at about 8:30 p.m. July 9. The squad’s mission was to interdict National Liberation Army (NLA) activity in their sector.

Scarborough, a motor vehicle operator, and five soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3-7th Infantry Regiment, set up their checkpoint in a location on the north end of Surlane, Kosovo. The squad was supporting a Bright Skies mission and it was their fifth night as part of the operation.

At about 10:50 p.m., Spc. James Smith and Spc. Aaron Waden, both petroleum supply specialists, spotted a vehicle "creeping suspiciously" down the road.

The vehicle was headed north and there were four people in it –a detail Smith was able to identify because he was using his night vision goggles. Smith and Waden reported the vehicle to Scarborough, whose location was closer to the nearing vehicle.

Scarborough said that he ordered his team to stop the vehicle. As it approached the traffic control point, the soldiers signaled the civilians to stop.

The vehicle slowed down near Scarborough’s HMMWV, but when the soldiers approached the car, the driver "stepped on the gas and fled away."

Scarborough immediately called the soldiers and told them to block the fleeing car. Smith and Waden barely missed the vehicle, but eventually passed it. Meanwhile Scarborough and his driver, Spc. David Lewis, supply specialist with HHC 3-7th Infantry Regiment, followed the car, and noticed that as Smith passed them, the subjects were throwing weapons out of their vehicle.

"When they were throwing the weapons out of the window, it became a really dangerous situation," said Pfc. Joseph Sharpless, petroleum supply specialist with HHC of 3-7th Infantry Regiment. "I was a little scared, but I knew that it was my job and that the people in the car were a danger to the locals."

They identified the location along the side of the road where the weapons were thrown out of the car and reported that location to their headquarters.

Eventually, Smith was able to block the vehicle ensuring that his fellow soldiers and the occupants in the fleeing car were in no danger of a road accident.

Within seconds, Pvt. Bernard Scott, Sharpless, Waden, and Scarborough surrounded the suspects, forcing the four men to get out of the car.

Scott said that as he approached the vehicle he had several things in mind, but he said that the one he was concerned with the most was safety.

"I wanted to make sure that [the occupants] did not have any more weapons," said Scott. "I just wanted to make sure that my guys and I could return safely."

The team reported to headquarters and asked for support. The four men were detained and transferred to Camp Bondsteel.

Two were identified as NLA members who had just crossed the border and the other two men had recently been released from the Camp Bondsteel Detention Facility.

Scarborough said his squad was motivated by the infantry type mission because it was "exciting." He said that a lesson learned from the mission is that any soldier on duty can be required to face such adversity at any time, and therefore, every soldier should be ready.

The courage and sense of duty of the soldiers was recognized by their chain of command. They were praised in front of their company as they were awarded the Army Achievement Medal and received phone cards as a show of appreciation.

Scarborough’s squad members said that they have no doubt that anyone in their unit would react in the same manner under those circumstances.

Sharpless said that everyone in the team is proud to have completed the mission safely and efficiently.

"We are all glad that we can return to our families. I just wanted to make sure that I can come home to my mom Gloria and my wife Jacinta," Sharpless said.