Army Sgt. Carlie M. Lee III

Died May 15, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

---

23, of Birmingham, Ala.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.; died May 15 at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using small-arms fire in Chak, Afghanistan. Also killed was Staff Sgt. Esau I. De la Pena-Hernandez.

---

Sgt. buried in Alabama

The Associated Press

ADAMSVILLE, Ala. — Family and friends said their last goodbyes this Memorial Day weekend to a Jefferson County soldier who was killed while serving in Afghanistan.

Authorities say 23-year-old Sgt. Carlie Lee III was killed in Afghanistan during a fire fight.

Lee’s funeral was Saturday afternoon at Crestview Gardens and Funeral Home in Adamsville. Burial followed at Bayview Cemetery in Mulga.

Lee was on his second tour in Afghanistan. He had already signed up for a third tour.

---

Lee loved mother ‘more than anything’

The Associated Press

The two things Carlie M. Lee III loved in his life were low-riding trucks and his mother. No less an authority than his mother, Norma Lee, said so.

“He loved me more than anything,” she said. “He was my heart.”

Lee, 23, of Birmingham, Ala., died May 15 after his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using small-arms fire in Chak, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Fort Drum, N.Y.

Lee had only recently undergone surgery on his appendix and had not been out of the hospital for more than two weeks when he went back into combat, his mother said.

She said her son joined the Army two weeks after graduating from home-schooling. She said her son was a mother’s best friend.

“He was just full of life,” she said. “He loved everybody. He didn’t judge nobody.”

Lee was a graduate of the Combat Life Savers Course and had previously deployed to Afghanistan from October 2006 to May 2007.

He had re-enlisted in the Army in December and was scheduled to return home in July.

He also is survived by his father, Carlie.