The Special Operations Association of America extends its heartfelt condolences and support to board advisor Sarah Verardo, whose loving husband, U.S. Army Sergeant Michael Verardo, was laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on November 19, 2025.
SOAA members joined leaders including Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in bearing witness as soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the U.S. Army Band, and the Caisson Detachment escorted Michael to his final resting place in Section 57, where his headstone overlooks the Washington Monument.
Michael was memorialized by Hegseth, who called the Purple Heart recipient “a soldier, a patriot, and a man who said ‘Send me. Send me to the Army. Send me to the 82nd. Send me to Afghanistan.’” Hegseth recalled that “even when wounded, [Michael] wanted to return to his men.”
Hegseth refers to the wounds Michael received during two improvised explosive device (IED) attacks he survived in the Arghandab River Valley of Kandahar, Afghanistan while serving as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Bravo Company, 2-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
After recovering from an initial IED blast in early April 2010, Michael asked to return to his company and get back out on patrol. Two weeks later on April 24, Michael suffered catastrophic injuries from a second IED blast. Losing his left leg and suffering a traumatic brain injury and severe burns over much of his body, Michael was in a coma while being transported via MedEvac helicopter to a field hospital in Afghanistan.
Though he was not expected to survive the initial flight, Michael persevered through 120 surgeries and numerous medical procedures over the more than 15 years that followed his injury.
Throughout his recovery journey, Michael had Sarah’s steadfast support. The couple were married in 2013, and welcomed three daughters, Grace, Mary Scott, and Elizabeth, in the years that followed.
SOAA founder and president Daniel Elkins recalls how “in addition to her role as a devoted wife, caregiver, and mother, Sarah’s advocacy efforts have had an extraordinary impact on the communities touched by Michael’s service, including Special Operations Forces members in her role as board advisor at SOAA.”
Service Through The Independence Fund
In 2012, nonprofit organization The Independence Fund “gave [Michael] a new lease on life” by making him one of 2,700 veterans of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam to receive an all-terrain Trackchair to improve his mobility.
Following the donation, Sarah became involved with The Independence Fund’s mission as a volunteer. She was eventually voted in as the organization’s first CEO, a role she continues to fill in addition to advising members of Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs on the unique needs of military caregivers and wounded veterans.
Creating Operation Resilience
Through The Independence Fund, Sarah cultivated Operation Resilience, an effort to counter the veteran suicide epidemic. Author Ben Kesling describes the impetus for the initiative in Bravo Company: An Afghanistan Deployment and Its Aftermath, which details Michael’s company’s 2010 deployment and the losses that Bravo Company incurred long after the battle ended.
“When Sarah Verardo heard Bravo veterans, at a funeral for one of their own, tell each other they’d meet again after the next suicide, she decided to put an end to that,” Kesling wrote. After cold-calling the National Director of Suicide Prevention for the VA, Dr. Keita Franklin, Kesling describes how Sarah and Franklin worked in conjunction with The Independence Fund to sponsor a reunion for Bravo Company. The first Operation Resilience reunion in 2019 drew 98 of the company’s members.
Kesling describes the “magic” of the reunion, which combined team building events and physical challenges like whitewater rafting with interactions with VA therapists. In this environment, Kesling says that paratroopers ”felt free to talk honestly to those who once outranked them. They felt free to ask what the hell happened on that deployment in the Arghandab, what did it all mean? They were freed when they found out that others were hurting and needed help, giving the group permission to admit they were hurting and needed help, too. And so they unearthed as much of the pain, memory, and confusion about those days as they could.”
By the end of the reunion, Kesling reported that participating paratroopers were uniformly enrolled in VA services and had a full call roster to remain in contact.
As of 2019, Afghan combat interpreters have also been welcomed in Operation Resilience reunions.
Today, thanks to Sarah’s efforts, veterans can continue to nominate military units for Operation Resilience reunions through The Independence Fund’s website.
Save Our Allies
In the leadup to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as the Taliban was acquiring territory through the country, Kesling recalls how Bravo Company’s Afghan interpreter “Johnny” reached out to Sarah directly. Johnny hoped to find a way to escape his country before he could fall into the Taliban’s hands.
In addition to helping secure Johnny a flight out of Kabul and resettlement assistance, Sarah became a co-founder and board member of Save Our Allies. The has helped and continues to help Afghan allies repatriate to the U.S. and seamlessly integrate within their new country.
Hero at Home
When Sarah’s oldest daughter expressed that her friends did not understand her father’s injuries, Sarah once against felt called to action. Setting out to provide an education in the invisible wounds of war to children and adults, she created children’s book Hero at Home to demonstrate the heroism of the nation’s wounded veterans.
A Continuing Legacy
Michael’s life has impacted and inspired Americans around the country. In 2021, North Carolina declared April 24 Wounded Heroes Day in his honor.
At the time of his passing, President Donald Trump recalled Michael in a Truth Social post, saying that “Michael’s Legacy of Resilience, and Sarah’s Selfless Dedication, will forever inspire us. Brave Patriots like Michael, and their families, will never be forgotten.”
SOAA understands that Michael’s loss is felt most acutely by Sarah and his daughters.
At the time of Michael’s passing, Sarah praised her husband in a social media post for fighting “the good fight every single day.” She called it “the honor of [her] lifetime to be his wife” and recalled how she “promised him that [she] will forever do relentless good in his honor.”
In her mission, Sarah will not stand alone.
Elkins reiterated that “SOAA will walk beside Sarah as she continues to fulfill Michael’s legacy through advocacy for veterans nationwide and for America’s allies. Her tireless work honoring Michael’s service and spirit will continue to be a testament to the love Michael had for his family, his country, and his friends.”
