Gov. Kathy Hochul has lashed out at President Donald Trump after Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad — a Queens native killed during an Iranian missile strike in Jordan last week -—was removed from the Pentagon’s official online list of service members killed in the ongoing conflict with Iran.
The Pentagon has attributed the issue to a technical problem.
Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, died during an Iranian strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17, bringing the total number of American casualties in the US-Israeli war on Iran to 18.
The Queens native was one of four service members included in a Pentagon press release detailing the dignified transfer of remains on Wednesday. The press release also described the four soldiers as having been killed in the U.S. Central Command region.
However, the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System currently lists the total number of American casualties in the conflict at 14, despite initially raising that number to 18 earlier in the week.
Hochul called for the names to be immediately added back to the site.
“Sgt. Rampersad served our nation with extraordinary courage and made the ultimate sacrifice… That is why I’m outraged to see her removed from the Pentagon’s official accounting of those killed in the Iran war,” Hochul said in a statement. “The Trump administration does not get to revise the human cost of this war because it has become politically inconvenient. Sgt. Rampersad gave her life in service to this country. Changing a website does not rewrite the truth of her sacrifice.
The New York Times, which first reported the story, cited Pentagon sources who stated that the Trump Administration had removed the four service members because their deaths had occured after the cease fire in April.
The Pentagon strongly denied those reports and condemned the New York Times for what it described as “Fake News media manufacturing lies out of thin air.”
Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a post on X that the Pentagon’s Press Office had disclosed in an off-the-record call with the publication that a temporary data disruption had resulted in the exclusion of the four names. Parnell said the Press Office also informed the Times that it was working to resolve the issue.
“Regardless of that true explanation, the New York Times was already colluding with three anonymous sources to push a completely fake story,” Parnell wrote on X.
Still, Hochul demanded a “full investigation” into the incident.
“New Yorkers and the American people deserve a full explanation. I’m calling on the Pentagon to immediately restore Sgt. Rampersad’s name to its official accounting of those killed in the Iran war,” Hochul said.
Rampersad’s family, friends and neighbors remembered her as a “hometown hero” who will “never be forgotten” in a vigil and press conference held outside her family home on 96th Street on the morning of July 23. A larger community vigil will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 27.
In front of the family home, which flew an American flag at half-staff. Rampersad’s aunt Judy Rackal, who spoke on behalf of the family. She said Rampersad had always dreamed of joining the military, adding that she enlisted a few days after her 21st birthday.
Rampersad was stationed in Hawaii for three years and spent another three years in Germany before re-enlisting and being transferred to Jordan.
Earlier, she attended P.S. 108, M.S. 202, and Forest Hills High School, and then studied at Queensborough Community College and John Jay College.
Rampersad’s mother, Carol Acevedo, spoke through tears during Thursday’s press conference, telling attendees that she was “highly proud” of her daughter.
“She fought for this country and she died for this country,” Acevedo said. “I am a mother that was highly proud of her. I know she was really, really focused on what she was doing.”