Terrell Pruitt's Hustle Puts Us To Shame

Terrell Pruitt made the best decision of his life by accident. When the Ward 1 Cleveland city councilman was an 18-year-old freshman at Cleveland State University, he was young and in need of guidance and tuition assistance. So he picked up a phone book, found the listing for Army and called. 

But the listing was wrong. It was a recruiter for the Ohio Army National Guard. Pruitt hit it off with the voice on the phone and enlisted. 

“It kind of fulfills the way my brain works,” Pruitt says. “You are part of a team. Plus, that fact that you want to do something important.”

He’s had experiences both harrowing and rewarding: one nine-month tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 with a unit of engineers and setting up aid posts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In September, Pruitt was deployed to the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo in a civil affairs post.

His political skills found a new outlet in a region rife with human trafficking, drug running and whispers of terrorist recruiting. To combat those problems, Pruitt held meetings to build trust between the Kosovar police and civilians, helped teach English to schoolchildren and organized basketball and football leagues. 

“It’s similar techniques that we use here at home that we can use there,” says Pruitt, who took over Nina Turner’s council seat in 2008. “You have a lot of young people that are attracted to ISIS. Some of the things that attract them are very similar to the things that attract them to gangs here at home.”

His unit is still there, but Pruitt received a special order for shortened duty so he could resume his City Council duties. He returned to Cleveland in mid-February but intends to keep serving. 

“I love being a soldier,” Pruitt says. “I still really like being a part of that team. The same thing that attracted me to the Army at 18, I still enjoy.”