Army Sgt. Anthony Mangano, from Greenlawn, was laid to rest Monday, more than a week after he was killed fighting in Afghanistan.

Mangano?s mother and wife were surrounded by relatives, friends and fellow servicemen and women who gathered at Long Island National Cemetery to pay their final respects to a man they describe as fun, free-spirited and determined.

Thirty-six-year-old Mangano first served in the Army National Guard in 1991 and then re-enlisted last year to fight in the war on terror.

"It was my choice to go fight and die in the name of the United States of America, to defend the greatest country in the world," Mangano wrote in his last letter to his mother Constance.

Mangano was traveling with three other soldiers in Afghanistan on June 21 when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device.