The Department of Defense confirmed Friday that Pfc. Kyle J. Coutu, 20, of Pawtucket, a U.S. Marine, was killed Thursday during combat operations in Afghanistan.
The DOD said he died in Helmand Province, the scene of a big push by the U.S. military against the Taliban.
http://newsblog.projo.com/...
I am a product of Pawtucket. It is where my daughter was born and my grandmother is buried.
A tough city, seemingly, always in hard times.
Pawtucket is a city of 72,958, persons founded in 1671, at the strategic falls of the Blackstone River and the upper tidewaters of Narragansett Bay. It is a city with a special place in the industrial history of the United States. For it was here at the Slater Mill Historic Site that Samuel Slater successfully constructed and operated machines for spinning cotton yarn in 1793. Besides textiles, a variety of machines and iron working shops grew up alongside the textile industry.
Affectionately dubbed the Bucket, it is a city representative of America's industrial past. As kids, we called it Poor-tucket. It is also a city of immigrants and thus a hope for a better future. It is home to the Red Sox farm team, the nicknamed Pawsox.
This tough town produced a great enlisted man that gave his life for a greater cause. He was not yet old enough to walk into a bar and buy a beer but his name now will be remembered long after ours are forgotten.
This dairy is in dedication to Kyle Coutu of Pawtucket.