Tim Sheehy

Business career

In 2014, Sheehy founded the company Bridger Aerospace. Headquartered in Belgrade, Montana, it has provided aerial firefighting services in 24 states and two Canadian provinces. Upon founding the company, Sheehy was its only pilot, operating one plane and assisting ranchers with tracking cattle. In 2024, Sheehy resigned as Bridger's CEO to focus on his Senate campaign. The company was facing a dire financial situation: it had lost $77.4 million in 2023 and $20.1 million in the first four months of 2024.

In 2015 Sheehy spun off a portion of Bridger Aerospace that develops aerial surveillance and imaging systems to form Ascent Vision Technologies (AVT). The company specializes in jamming enemy drones, for the ultimate goal of shooting them down. AVT's technology was used to shoot down an Iranian drone in 2019. In 2020, AVT was acquired by CACI International for $350 million, netting Sheehy $75 million. In 2024, two former employees sued Sheehy, his brother, and their company Bridger Management, alleging that the Sheehys forced the two to sell off stock before the acquisition, which would have been worth about $3 million after the sale.

In 2020, Sheehy co-founded the Little Belt Cattle Company with Greg Putnam, another former Navy SEAL, who runs the day-to-day operations of the nearly 20,000-acre working cattle ranch, which borders over 500,000 acres of national forest. The company manages its own supply chain of sustainably raised Montana beef. In 2021, Sheehy received the nonprofit Montana Land Reliance's Conservation Award for "working to ensure the ranch 'will remain scenic and open space in perpetuity.'"

Sheehy was involved in a 2019 plane crash in which he was receiving multi-engine instruction. The plane crashed into a house, killing the flight instructor and injuring a person in the house. Sheehy sustained minor injuries. After inspecting the plane and interviewing Sheehy, who said he was not piloting it, the National Transportation Safety Board determined the instructor's actions led to the crash.

Sheehy lives with his wife, Carmen, a former Marine Corps officer, and their four children, who are home-schooled, on a ranch outside Bozeman. Before running for the U.S. Senate, Sheehy and his wife donated almost $6 million to various non-profits across Montana, with over two thirds of the donations going to support a neonatal intensive care unit at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital.

During his military career, Sheehy did tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific region.

In 2015, a park ranger cited Sheehy for discharging a firearm in Glacier National Park. Sheehy wrote in a statement, "while reloading our vehicle an improperly placed firearm kept in the vehicle for bear protection fell out and discharged into my right forearm." But in his 2023 memoir, he wrote that a bullet had lodged in his arm during a 2012 Afghanistan firefight. Sheehy told The Washington Post that he "made up the story about the gun going off to protect himself and his former platoonmates from facing a potential military investigation into an old bullet wound that he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012." He said he did not report the incident at the time to protect his unit's members because he suspected it was from friendly fire. In 2015, Sheehy was awarded a Bronze Star with valor and a Purple Heart. Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke performed the ceremonial pinning of the medals. Sheehy has said that questioning whether he was shot in Afghanistan is "tantamount to falsely accusing him of stolen valor", but has declined to release his medical records and said there are no records showing he was shot in Afghanistan.

Sheehy left active duty in 2014 and was discharged from the Navy Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) in 2019. He wrote in his memoir and in a resume submitted to the Montana State Legislature that he had been medically discharged due to wounds received in Afghanistan. In October 2024, an NBC News review of Sheehy's discharge paperwork found that Sheehy voluntarily resigned from commission, contradicting his claims that he was discharged from the military because of injuries he sustained on duty.