Local memorial service scheduled for area soldier killed in Afghanistan

Following his military burial out-of-state last month, local services for family and friends to honor and remember Sgt. Maj. James “Ryan” Sartor have been set.

Memorial services for Sartor are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019 at the Teague High School Auditorium at 3 p.m., according Bowers Funeral Home.

A ceremony to retire his high school football jersey, #84, will be held during a pep rally Friday, Sept. 6, 2019 on the Teague High School Football Field.

The Green Beret, who grew up in Teague, was killed by enemy fire in Faryab Province, Afghanistan on July 13.

Sartor, 40, lived with his family in Falcon, Colo. for 11 years, but maintained permanent residency in Teague after graduating high school there in 1997 as football standout.

He joined the U.S. Army in 2001 and was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq seven times.

Sartor leaves behind a wife and three children.

He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Carson, Colorado.

Sartor served in the military for nearly 20 years, joining in June of 2001 when he was nearly 23 years old.

He embarked on the first of seven career deployments just one year later, serving in Iraq as an infantryman.

A selection to Special Forces soon followed, and he deployed to Iraq as a Green Beret four more times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010).

He was in the middle of his second deployment to Afghanistan at the time of his death.