Sergeant First Class Sean Michael Lee of New Canaan returns home on August 30 after serving his tour of duty in Afghanistan.
A 1994 graduate of New Canaan High School, Lee enlisted in the army the following year. No stranger to a military career, Lee followed in the footsteps of his father with his younger brother to follow. His younger brother, James Lee, enlisted in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. He returned to the States after an IED explosion injured his foot.
Lee spent a majority of his career in the 82nd Airborne, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina with tours of duty in Heidelberg, Germany and Vicenza, Italy.
In 2003, he participated in the invasion of Baghdad and spent the first year of war as a paratrooper in Iraq. Two years later, he provided security for Baghdad's first democratic election. During this tour, Lee was chosen among 50,000 paratroopers by General William Caldwell, the new Communications Director, and worked closely in the Green Zone in Baghdad from April 2006 until March 2007.
When Lee returned to the States later that year, he returned to his hometown of New Canaan and was assigned to West Point as a military instructor where he remained for three years.
In January 2012, he was deployed to Afghanistan and is returning to New Canaan to attend a close friend's wedding. Lee returns to Ft. Bragg after Labor Day.
