Elderly Vermont couple ends 9-year anti-war vigil

A nine-year vigil by a Vermont couple to protest the war in Iraq is coming to an end with the new year.

In this Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011 photo, John Maddock, Ben Dove, Herb Wilson, Dean Conrad and Corinne Lee, members of the "We In Black" group, stand in silence for the final time in front of the state capitol in Bismarck, N.D. The group first started their weekly vigil in February 2003 as a protest to the war in Iraq. Now after 8 years and 10 months the group feel their original goal has been fulfilled with the end of the war. (AP Photo/The Bismarck Tribune, Tom Stromme)

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A nine-year vigil by a Vermont couple to protest the war in Iraq is coming to an end with the new year.

The Times Argus of Barre says Friday was the last day of a peace vigil in front of the Montpelier post office for 87-year-old Jules Rabin, and his 71-year-old wife Helen, of Marshfield. Their vigil, every Friday at noon for an hour, began in the fall of 2002 with the hope that they the war could be stopped before it started.

On March 19, 2003, the invasion of Iraq began with Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Dec. 15 the war officially ended.

Jules Rabin says that even though there's still a war in Afghanistan, he and his wife have stayed the course.

To hear more about the Vermont couple's nearly decade-long plight, check out a report by Vermont Public Radio.