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September 6, 2006

Rhode Island Marine injured in Iraq

NORTH KINGSTOWN -- A 23-year-old Marine reservist from Rhode Island was injured in an attack in Iraq Monday and is being transported back to the United States, according to his father, North Kingstown Fire Chief David Murray.

Murray wouldn't comment on the extent of his son's injuries, but said that Patrick Murray, who was studying business at the University of Rhode Island when he was called up, would be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital later this week, though he wasn't sure where.

Patrick Murray serves in the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, weapons company, which was deployed to Iraq in March. Another soldier from the unit, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Eric Valdepenas, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq's Al Anbar province the same day that Patrick Murray was injured.

David Murray said he wasn't sure if his son was injured in the same attack, but that he was sure that the two young men weren't travelling in the same vehicle.

Both soldiers graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School -- Murray in 2001 and Valdepenas in 2003. Patrick Murray is the middle child of David Murray's three children.

"We spoke to him frequently – he would call or e-mail once every week or 10 days," David Murray said of his son, who was scheduled to return to Rhode Island next month. "He's still alive...Hopefully he's back in the States by the weekend."

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 12:43 PM | Permalink

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