Army Pilot Rebecca Lobach, 28, Identified as Third Soldier on Helicopter in D.C. Plane Crash

The U.S. Army has shared the identity of the third soldier who was aboard the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into a passenger plane as Capt. Rebecca Lobach.

According to a statement from the Army shared with PEOPLE on Saturday, Feb. 1, Lobach was a 28-year-old captain originally from Durham, N.C. She was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion in Fort Belvoir, Va., and had served since July 2019.

The decision to withhold her name initially was at the family’s request, and now the decision to release her name has come “at the request of and in coordination with the family,” according to the Army statement.

“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. She was a bright star in all our lives,” her family said via a statement released by the Army. “Rebecca was a warrior and would not hesitate to defend her country in battle.”

Lobach’s friend, 1st Lt. Samantha Brown, told CBS News that she also served as a White House social aide during the Biden administration.

In January, Lobach escorted fashion designer Ralph Lauren through the White House as he was visiting to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Joe Biden, Brown told CBS News.

The Army captain attended Sewanee: The University of the South, where she played basketball, and then later went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received her degree in biology in 2019 and was a distinguished military graduate, Brown added. She enlisted in the North Carolina Army National Guard in December 2018 while still in college.

Many of Lobach’s friends and Army colleagues have spoken out following her death, remembering her as a dedicated captain and friend.

“Not only did she deserve what she achieved, but she was overqualified most of the time for what she was able to accomplish,” Capt. Bilal Kordab, who recruited Lobach to the North Carolina National Guard, told USA Today. “Nothing was just handed to her.”

“How do you sum up 28 years of a person?” her friend Lt. Brown added to the outlet. “28 years old and gone violently… it’s the worst possible thing.”

Brown also remembered Lobach as a voracious reader, who would often offer to buy friends books that she liked, an athlete who could “smoke” anyone when it came to weightlifting and someone who was passionate about her work.

“She was just so jazzed” when she received the title of captain one year ago, Brown told USA Today. “She was so proud to be piloting command.”

According to Brown, Robach was also a certified victim advocate with SHARP, the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program.

The Army previously identified the other two soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Md., and Staff. Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Ga., who was the chopper’s crew chief.

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The move to withhold Lobach’s name came after President Donald Trump claimed that the government’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and the mental health of employees were to blame for the crash.

“I am hoping that people can look past the political aspect of the whole situation and look past her race and her gender,” Lobach’s friend, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sabrina Bell, told USA Today. “I hope that she’s remembered more for the impact that she had on other people’s lives.”

On the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 29, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River as the passenger flight approached Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The crash, which involved three soldiers on the helicopter and 64 people on the airplane, is believed to be the most deadly aircraft incident since 2001.

The fiery collision sent both aircrafts plummeting into the Potomac River and all 67 passengers on both aircrafts are presumed dead.