By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
The Ozone Park and Queens community laid to rest a fallen neighbor on Friday. <\/p>\n
Locals, family members, friends and officials honored the memory of Army Staff Sergeant Angel Sarah Rampersad at her funeral on Rockaway Boulevard, several weeks after she was killed by an Iranian missile while serving at a U.S. military base in Jordan. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo words can erase the pain of our loss, but Sarah’s sacrifice will never be forgotten,\u201d said her older sister, Laura Tamby, during her eulogy. \u201cHer life, her service, her laughter, her kindness, and the love she gave to those around her will continue to speak for her long after today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe chose to dedicate herself to something greater than herself, to protecting others, serving her country, and defending the freedoms that we often take for granted,\u201d her sister added. \u201cBehind that uniform was so much more than a soldier. Behind that uniform was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cherished friend and a beloved member of her family.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rampersad was killed alongside two other service members \u2013 one of whom was a younger soldier that she had taken under her wing \u2013 on July 17, when an Iranian missile struck the base where she was stationed in Jordan amid increased violence between the United States and Iran. <\/p>\n
Born in Trinidad, Rampersad moved to Queens at a young age and was raised in the South Queens neighborhood. She attended and played drums in her local church, and went to school in the area, graduating from Forest Hills High School. <\/p>\n
At 18-years-old, she told her family she wanted to enlist in the army, but her mother, who needed to provide parental consent, told her no. <\/p>\n
At 21, Rampersad enlisted, and served in Hawaii and Germany, as well as the Middle East. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe wanted to see the world, but she also wanted to make a meaningful contribution to society,\u201d said her sister. \u201cShe wanted her life to stand for something. She wanted to serve others, and she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her funeral brought in officials from across the state, including Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani. <\/p>\n
Rampersad\u2019s mother, through tears, thanked funeral attendees as she said goodbye to her daughter. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter was a real hero, and I will miss her dearly,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Brigadier General Glenn Henke, the commanding general of 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command of which Rampersad belonged, spoke on behalf of the soldiers that knew her best. <\/p>\n
He described an \u201cexceptional soldier,\u201d who helped build the unit she was a part of and was a mentor to her brothers and sisters in arms, both beneath her and above her in rank. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of her battery commanders said it best: \u2018If you needed technical expertise to be a better soldier, you went to Staff Sergeant [Rampersad], but if you needed life expertise to become a better person, you also went to Staff Sergeant [Rampersad],\u2019\u201d Henke said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever she saw a soldier in need of coaching and advice, she took it upon herself and provided what was needed,\u201d Henke added. <\/p>\n
One of those soldiers she guided was 19-year-old Private First Class Isabella Gonzalez. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnder her example and mentorship, PFC Gonzales quickly developed into a great soldier,\u201d Henke said. <\/p>\n
Gonzalez, along with Lt. Tyler James Feehan, was also killed in the same missile strike. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow we still don’t know what happened in the final moments, but knowing what we know about Staff Sergeant Rampersad, I am confident, and I’d like to believe that she spent her last minutes helping a young private, trying to help her get to safety, putting others before herself,\u201d said Henke. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach The Ozone Park and Queens community laid to rest a fallen neighbor on Friday. Locals,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-312841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}