Three Carter County Sheriff’s Office deputies were honored last week for actions they took to prevent motorists from drowning in two separate incidents.

Sgt. Robert Huff and Deputy Shelby Adams received life-saving awards for the rescue of a woman on Easter Sunday on Blue Ribbon Road outside of Lone Grove. Deputy Bradley Shorter also received the life-saving award in the high-water rescue of a couple on June 8. It took place on Woodford Road near Mountain Lake.

In the rescue on Blue Ribbon Road, Huff and Adams responded to the call of a truck that had been swept off the roadway.

“A lady called, saying that her truck had been swept off the roadway,” Huff said. “By the time I got there, the water was already coming back over the headrest on the inside of her truck.” Huff said.

Blue Ribbon Road is an access road between Memorial Road and Prairie Valley Road. There is a bridge over a creek, which had flooded. The victim had been going to her mother’s house, got too deep and the water swept the truck off the road.

“She could not get out because the water was already too deep for her to open her doors by the time it swept her off the road,” Huff said.

When Adams arrived on scene, Huff had entered the water, which was waste-high and would get up to his neck when he reached the truck. Adams wasted no time in following Huff.

“I roll up, throw off my vest and belt really quick and start running in the water,” Adams said.

Huff said when he reached the truck, he had to toss five square bales of hay into the creek just to reach the back window, which he busted out and pulled the victim through.

During this time, the Lone Grove Fire Department arrived on scene. Huff and Adams were able to get the lady onto the Lone Grove truck, which got flooded when it began backing up. Both Huff and Adams then got back in the water and helped the lady to dry land.

“That was my first water rescue,” Adams said. “I have done quite a few car accidents as a fireman beforehand”

Adams was a fireman with the Healdton Volunteer Fire Department, he was also an office with the Wilson Police Department prior to joining the sheriff’s office nine months ago.

Huff has been in law enforcement for 14 years, the last four of which have been with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office. Two weeks ago, he was involved in another water rescue, this time in Gene Autry. A lady got stuck in her overflow emergency drainpipe in her pond. As she was clearing the brush out, her legs were sucked into the pipe by water pressure.

“We ended up having to crush the other end of the pipe to relieve the back pressure to pull her out,” Huff said, “Even then, the pressure was still strong enough it was shooting water in the air 40 feet, out the other end of the pipe.”

Shorter was recognized in the rescue of two people, whose vehicle was swept off the road at a low water crossing. After the rescue, Sheriff DJ Long received a phone call from his brother-in-law, who works for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

“He said, ‘man, I just called to let you know your deputy saved these people’s lives,” Long said.

The water was rising and moving quickly, putting lives at risk when Shorter saved their lives.

“If my brother-in-law says it is a Bonafide deal, it is a Bonafide deal,” Long said. “He is not the kind that would get worked up about something.”

Long said that he is proud of Shorter as well as all of his deputies. As a law enforcement officer, through the years, Long said he has been as guilty as anyone when wondering why someone receives special recognition for doing their job.

“I am as guilty as anybody in asking, ‘Why are we giving this person special recognition when they are doing the job we all signed up to do,’” he said. “Myself, somebody tried to give me an attaboy because I pulled somebody out of a building that was on fire or anything like that.

“I don’t need any special accolades; this is the job that we all signed up to do.”

Long said he found his answer to the question in scripture. When looking for a specific verse to reference for a speech in recognition of the deputies last week, he found a passage in the Book of John.

“What I was looking for, wasn’t even in the Book of John,” Long said. “But I thought it was in the Book of John, that was where I was looking, and I stumbled into something that I had read many times and forgotten all about.”

Long said he read the passage, which begins with John 10:11 twice and said, “Lord, I hear you.” The passage highlights the difference between a shepherd and a sheepherder.

“The hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming,” Long read. “He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to them, and he isn’t their shepherd, and so, the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock, and the hired hand runs away because he is only there for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep. But I am the good shepherd, and I know my own sheep and they know me.”

Long said Huff, Adams and Shorter showed in their actions that they are shepherds, not sheepherders.

“That is the reason you get the accolades,” he said. “Because any one of us could be a sheepherder instead of a shepherd.”