Funeral service for former Fort Carson soldier held at Air Force Academy

A funeral service was held Saturday at the Air Force Academy Cadet Protestant Chapel for former Fort Carson soldier Sergeant Major James “Ryan” Sartor, who was killed in action in Afghanistan.

Sartor, 40, died on July 13 in the Faryab Province. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal.

It was held at the Air Force Academy because the family anticipated nearly 1,000 people to attend that would have overfilled the chapel on Fort Carson.

KRDO was told, after asking USAFA’s Superintendent, Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria, it was gladly lent to the family for the event.

Gov. Polis ordered that all flags in the state be lowered to half-staff.

Outside the chapel, the Patriot Guard waited in the pouring rain for SGM Sartor to be escorted into the church.

His coffin was slowly and meticulously brought up the steps and taken inside with his family, including wife and three kids.

Inside, hundreds of people packed into the chapel waiting to honor the fallen soldier.

Sartor was a green beret and a decorated soldier. His uncle told the crowd, “there was something in Ryan that motivated him beyond what any human motivation could do.”

His best childhood friend cried as he read the words of his own speech.

“Most of all, I’m going to miss my friend. I’m not going to get over this today, or tomorrow, truly maybe not ever,” he said.

His fellow soldier commended his bravery and success in the military saying, “he was the man hard men look up to. Another way I’ve heard that said over the week, is that men look up to green berets, green berets look up to Ryan Sartor.”

Ultimately, it was his wife Deanna who knew him best.

She said, “no matter how many deployments he went on, he was never convinced he had done enough, and I could never convince him that he had.”

Now she’s hoping for the impossible.

“And I’ve begged God to bring him back every day, for the last two weeks, because if anyone was worth it, it was Ryan,” she said.

As she, her three kids and Sartor’s family received a folded flag, it became clear, he was not coming back.