Government mourns US service member with Trinidad and Tobago heritage

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go are mourn­ing the death of a Unit­ed States ser­vice mem­ber of Trinidad and To­ba­go her­itage who was among three Amer­i­can mil­i­tary per­son­nel killed in the line of du­ty in Jor­dan.

In a state­ment is­sued through the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs on Wednes­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­pressed the deep­est con­do­lences of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of the Unit­ed States, as well as to the fam­i­lies, loved ones and fel­low ser­vice mem­bers of the three fall­en sol­diers.

The Prime Min­is­ter paid spe­cial trib­ute to 28-year-old Sergeant An­gel Sarah Ram­per­sad, who, ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion for­mal­ly pro­vid­ed by US au­thor­i­ties, was of Trinidad and To­ba­go her­itage.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Trinidad and To­ba­go ho­n­ours the courage, com­mit­ment and self­less­ness of those who ded­i­cate their lives to serv­ing their coun­tries.

Sergeant Ram­per­sad served with the 52nd Air De­fense Ar­tillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Mis­sile De­fense Com­mand, based in Ans­bach, Ger­many. Her fa­ther is a Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­al while her moth­er is an Amer­i­can cit­i­zen.

The Prime Min­is­ter said Sergeant Ram­per­sad’s death is be­ing mourned with par­tic­u­lar sor­row in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­cause of her mean­ing­ful con­nec­tion to the coun­try through her her­itage, de­spite serv­ing un­der the flag of the Unit­ed States.

The Gov­ern­ment said Unit­ed States au­thor­i­ties for­mal­ly no­ti­fied Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Act­ing Vice Con­sulate in New York of Sergeant Ram­per­sad’s death.

Fol­low­ing the no­ti­fi­ca­tion, Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Sean Sobers spoke with Sergeant Ram­per­sad’s fa­ther on Mon­day to per­son­al­ly con­vey con­do­lences on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

On Tues­day, a team from the Con­sulate Gen­er­al of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go in New York vis­it­ed Sergeant Ram­per­sad’s fam­i­ly to ex­press the na­tion’s sym­pa­thies and of­fer sup­port dur­ing what the min­istry de­scribed as a pro­found­ly dif­fi­cult time.

The Gov­ern­ment said it mourns Sergeant Ram­per­sad and her two fall­en col­leagues, who made the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice while per­form­ing their du­ties, adding that their ser­vice com­mands the na­tion’s deep­est re­spect and their sac­ri­fice will not be for­got­ten.

It al­so ex­tend­ed heart­felt sym­pa­thies to Sergeant Ram­per­sad’s par­ents and rel­a­tives, her fel­low ser­vice mem­bers and all those whose lives she touched, while pray­ing that the fam­i­lies of the three fall­en sol­diers find strength and com­fort in the knowl­edge that their courage, ser­vice and sac­ri­fice will be re­mem­bered and ho­n­oured.