Sean Michael Lee, an Army paratrooper who helped evacuate thousands from conflict zones after his service — including Fox News’ Benjamin Hall — died Sunday after a battle with esophageal cancer.
Lee was a 20-year veteran of the Army, having served multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the Army’s storied 82nd Airborne Division, according to his obituary.
“He was, to his core, a paratrooper. Long after he took off the uniform, the values forged there remained the organizing principles of his life: duty, loyalty, competence under pressure, and an unwavering commitment to the person beside him,” his obituary reads.
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Lee spent the years after his military service continuing to help people. In 2021, as Afghanistan’s government was collapsing, Lee worked to help evacuate thousands during a chaotic withdrawal as a member of the nonprofit group Save Our Allies.
Just a year later, Lee was in Poland helping deliver supplies to the frontline in Ukraine in the midst of Russia’s invasion. It was there that Lee became a key part of extracting Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who had been severely injured when Russian forces attacked his vehicle near Kyiv. Two members of Hall’s crew were killed in the attack.
“We got the call, we had just finished up a staff meeting with our folks back in the United States, and I can tell you that in about 90 minutes our guys were out the door and on the way,” Lee explained to the Daily Caller during a 2022 interview.
Lee also worked to help wounded veterans through The Independence Fund.
In 2024, Lee helped deliver life-saving supplies to survivors of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. He lived out of a tent in the Tar Heel state as he helped deliver aid to communities where support systems had collapsed, according to his obituary.
Most recently, Lee had been working under Secretary Doug Collins at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Sean spent his life running toward the crisis. After more than two decades in uniform and multiple combat deployments, he continued that service through The Independence Fund, Save Our Allies and ultimately the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Sarah Verardo, a founder of The Independence Fund and close friend of Lee’s, told Fox News Digital.
“Whether evacuating Afghan combat interpreters and their families, helping establish field hospitals in Ukraine, or living out of his car to deliver aid in Western North Carolina, Sean went wherever he was needed most. His service knew no boundaries, and he never wanted fanfare or credit. He simply lived the ethos of ‘send me.'” Verardo said.
She also explained how Lee and her husband, a fellow member of the 82nd Airborne who was wounded in combat, forged a close personal bond.
“Sean walked alongside my husband for years following his catastrophic combat injuries and through his death, and for the better part of a decade, he was a constant presence in the lives of my three girls. He never missed a first day of school or a Halloween with us. Until his final breath, he remained that constant, living with us throughout his cancer battle and, even as his own world became smaller, still wanting to hear about dance recitals, science projects and all the ordinary details of their lives. He showed up for the defining moments and the ordinary ones because, to Sean, service was never a job or an assignment. It was simply who he was,” she said.
“Sean was the definition of a quiet warrior. Our family has lost one of our own, and our nation has lost a patriot whose service never stopped,” Verardo concluded.
He was part of the U.S. military’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was also part of the storied Bravo Company in the 2-508 Parachute Infantry Regiment. Half of the company received Purple Hearts for an Afghanistan deployment that was documented in Ben Kesling’s book “Bravo Company: An Afghanistan Deployment and its Aftermath.”
Lee’s two best friends — Sgt. Michael Verardo and Sgt. Allen Thomas — both of whom deployed with him to Afghanistan, passed away before him.
Lee’s cancer was the direct result of his exposure to the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. He died at age 50.
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“I can’t even begin to explain what the world has just lost,” former MMA fighter and Special Forces sniper Tim Kennedy wrote in a post on Instagram.
“This country has lost one of the finest men ever to serve it,” Kennedy’s message continued.
“Sean redefined the word service. He did not just volunteer to put on the uniform and join the 82nd Airborne. He dedicated his entire life to other people. He put his life on the line more times than anyone can count. Wherever people needed help, you found Sean. Whenever I needed help, I found Sean,” Kennedy wrote.
Lee’s life “cannot be measured simply in years, deployments, jobs, or missions. It is measured in people who made it home because he went toward danger,” his obituary, shared by Heritage Funeral & Cremation Services, says. “In wounded men carried to safety. In Afghan families given a chance to begin again. In communities that received help when they believed they had been forgotten. In veterans whose lives were better because he continued serving them after his own time in uniform ended. And in the children who simply knew him as Uncle Sean: the constant, fiercely protective man who showed up.”
