RI Native Army Veteran Michael Verardo, Survived Two IED Attacks and 120 Operations, Dies at 40

RI Native Army Veteran Michael Verardo, Survived Two IED Attacks and 120 Operations, Dies at 40

Michael Verardo, born February 16, 1985, in Providence, Rhode Island, spent the forty years of his incredible life as a warrior and an inspiration. The son of Holly Savage and David Verardo, Michael spent his formative years at Saint Andrews School in the aftermath of September 11th. It was there he made two determinations: that he would join the Army and that he would find a way to get his high school crush, Sarah, to go out with him.

 

Luckily for him, Sarah was impressed with his intelligence, kindness, and charm, and though he didn’t know it in those teenage years, he had found his wife. Making it into the Army was harder. Michael had to undergo several painful surgeries just to qualify. But qualify he did, joining and proudly serving with the legendary 82nd Airborne Division as an infantryman and a paratrooper.

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In April 2010, Michael was wounded in an IED attack while serving in Afghanistan with Bravo Company, 2-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Unwilling to leave his unit, he asked to return to the fight. He then experienced a second IED attack that left him one of the most catastrophically wounded soldiers of the Global War on Terror.

 

Michael should have died on the battlefield that day. When he was loaded onto the helicopter, not a man in his unit thought they’d ever see him again. But Michael was a warrior, and giving up was simply not part of his ethos.

 

He fought. And he would not be broken. Despite amputations, burns, and 120 surgeries, Michael lived an incredible 15 years after his “Alive Day”. Those years were spent with his lovely bride Sarah, building a life together. Those years brought him three incredible daughters in Grace, Mary Scott, and Elizabeth, each of whom share his kindness, wit, and compassion. Those years involved meetings with Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, and Judges that led to meaningful permanent positive changes for wounded veterans. Those years led to thousands of Afghan interpreters being brought safely to the United States. And those years inspired thousands of men and women to do more for their country. Because Michael demanded it. Not with words, but with actions. And he made us all better.

 

Thank you, Michael. Thank you for being a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a paratrooper, and a warrior through and through. We will miss you terribly and forever, but we also know that no one could have done more. You were the best of us, from the day you were born until you joined your fallen brothers in heaven on August 26th, 2025.

 

Michael is survived by his wife Sarah, their daughters: Grace (11), Mary Scott (9), and Elizabeth (8), his parents Holly and David, his sister Drew, his beloved in-laws, his loyal companions Bravo and Charlie, and his legacy further lives on in his brothers of Bravo Company, 2-508 PIR, 82nd Airborne Division.

 

You are loved. You are missed. And for the last time, Go Pats.

 

Celebration of Life
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
11:00AM
Weddington Methodist Church
13901 Providence Rd.
Weddington, NC 28104