QUEENS (WABC) — A candlelight vigil was held in Queens on Monday night to honor the life of U.S. Service member Staff Sergeant Angel Rampersad.
She was killed in Jordan by an Iranian missile.
The community in her hometown turned out in great numbers to support her grieving family.
A family so proud and so heartbroken at the same time.
“Considering the controversial conflict we have over there. And the parents’ pain, me as a parent, as a grandparent, you can only feel that,” Howard Beach Resident Ralph Rivera said.
Her church pastor watched her grow up in this community ever since her family moved from Trinidad.
“She understood that protecting others, standing for freedom and stepping into danger was not just an act of duty. It was her expression of love,” Pastor David Yankana said.
Ozone Park expressed its gratitude, a week after she and three other American servicemembers were killed in an Iranian missile attack on their air base in Jordan.
“Angel Rampersad was not born in the United States of America but Angel Rampersad was willing to die for the United States of America. That takes a lot of courage,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said.
Elected and community leaders, noted that Rampersad’s family didn’t want the world to learn her name this way and promised that her name would be honored.
“Your desire to preserve her memory is now our responsibility to ensure that it happens,” Ozone Park Block Association President Sam Esposito said.
“I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Thank you,” Rampersad’s mother said.
Her family is planning a final goodbye later this week.
And leaders are planning to ask the city to rename not just this intersection where she lived after her, but also a stretch of Cross Bay Boulevard and a school PS 63.
They’d bear her name, Angel Sarah Rampersad and her rank: Staff Sergeant.
At the vigil Monday night, they announced she was posthumously promoted.
