New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the funeral of US soldier Angel Sarah Rampersad, who was killed in the Iranian attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Mamdani did not get an opportunity to speak at the ceremony.
According to a New York Post report, while other officials took the podium during the ceremony, Mamdani reviewed the notes he had prepared on his iPad but his name was not called. A source close to the funeral claimed that Rampersad's family did not want Mamdani to speak in order to avoid "political distraction."
New York Governor Kathy Hochul delivered a speech at the ceremony. Hochul said, "After reading about this woman from afar and admiring her, I feel as if she could have been one of my daughters."
Prepared speech text released
The mayor's office shared the text of the speech Mamdani planned to deliver after the ceremony. The text included the following statements:
"It is often said that our martyrs 'gave their tomorrows for our today.' Sergeant Rampersad had tomorrows ahead of her: birthdays, ordinary mornings, evenings to spend with loved ones. But she gave them all up so that we could have our own tomorrows, so that we could stand here safe today."
According to a statement from the US Central Command (CENTCOM), Rampersad was killed while defending against Iran's ballistic missile and drone attacks. The other two US soldiers killed in the attack were identified as 1st Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan (25) and Private Isabella Gonzales (19).
The War Department reported that Rampersad, 28, served as a signal operations support specialist in the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, under the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Germany. Rampersad and the other soldiers were deployed to Jordan as part of Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
