Iraq

On this Veterans Day we meet Donald Ruggieri.  He served five years in the Marine Corps, and was deployed to Iraq as an explosives dog handler.

He continued that work state-side, working with the secret service on missions for both President Bush and President Obama.

Ruggieri is not only a veteran, but also a student at URI where he is studying to become a veterinarian. 

Ruggieri spoke with Rhode Island Public Radio’s education reporter Elisabeth Harrison.

Rhode Island has lost a sixth soldier to the war on terrorism. The Rhode Island  National Guard has announced the death of Staff Sergeant Timothy McGill in Afghanistan.

Sergeant McGill lived in Ramsey, New Jersey but was a member of the Rhode Island National Guard.  He was assigned to company A 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces.  He was killed Saturday from wounds received by small arms fire in eastern Afghanistan.

In a Rhode Island political career spanning nearly 30 years, Lincoln Davenport  Chafee has marched, Thoreau-like, to his own drummer. This afternoon, the state’s 74th governor, a man who tried to do his best in the worst of times, showed the state once again that he follows his own compass, announcing  he will not seek reelection in 2014 to the governorship he won narrowly in 2010.