Pentagon identifies missing soldier as believed dead after Jordan attack

The US Defense Department named the third active-duty soldier believed to have died following an Iranian missile and drone attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan as Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad. She was 28 and came from Ozone Park, New York. The Pentagon changed her status from missing to believed deceased while saying the incident remained under investigation.

US Central Command had initially listed a third service member as missing. On July 19, the command said military personnel had located unidentified remains at the site and that an examination was under way to establish their identity. Military Times reported that the missing person appeared to be Rampersad, but the supplied evidence did not say that the identification process had been formally completed.

Two other soldiers were confirmed dead after the assault. US Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales died at 19; she came from Carrollton, Texas. First Lt. Tyler James Feehan, from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died at 25. Defense Department information cited in the report gave their dates of death as July 17 and July 18, respectively.

Rampersad joined the Army in 2019 and served with the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment. That battalion falls under the 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, based in Ansbach, Germany. That formation’s commanding general, Brig. Gen. Glenn Henke, issued condolences to Rampersad’s family and said the formation was grieving.

The Pentagon listed her decorations as the Army Commendation Medal, two Oak Leaf Clusters for the Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon. Those service details accompanied the identification rather than the still-pending forensic conclusion described in the account.

Military Times placed the deaths within a wider US campaign against Iran that began on February 28. It reported that 18 American troops had been killed in that war by July 21 and that more than 400 had been wounded. Those cumulative figures were presented by the publication as the latest totals available at the date.

The distinction in the official language is important: the Pentagon identified Rampersad and said she was believed to be dead, but the evidence also records that remains were still being examined. Any later confirmation, investigative finding or revised casualty count falls outside the supplied material. The source used both an incident count and a cumulative wartime toll: three soldiers were linked to the Jordan attack, while 18 referred to US deaths across the wider campaign. The more than 400 wounded were likewise described as a campaign total.