Note: This article was originally published on Aug. 22, 2004. We’re re-posting it now for our tribute to Colorado’s Fallen.
Henry Cecil Risner’s future had finally started to swim into focus.
And he liked what he saw.
The discipline of Army life moved him beyond a troubled youth in
Golden. His soulmate materialized out of a long-standing friendship
that blossomed into marriage. A baby would arrive in January.
Then, when his military hitch ended in a little more than a year,
there would be college, a job as a firefighter, a home in the
mountains.
“We were so happy with life,” his wife, Emily, said. “We’d had
trials and tribulations, but finally we were on the right track,
headed down a great road together.”
The road ended abruptly in a small town outside Baghdad. Around
lunchtime on Wednesday, Pfc. Risner sat beside his machine gun atop
a Humvee while others in his unit distributed bread to Iraqi
children.
That’s where a sniper’s bullet killed him.
“He was trying to help, and it’s a beautiful thing,” Emily said
from Fort Drum, N.Y., where her 26-year-old husband had shipped out
for Iraq only weeks ago with the 14th Infantry Regiment of the 10th
Mountain Division. “But it’s also a very tragic thing. It’s hard
to understand why these things happen to good people.”
Relatives describe a young man who loved sports, who hunted, hiked
and fished. As the oldest of seven siblings and half-siblings – his
parents divorced when he was 6 – Risner also developed strong
protective instincts.
“He taught me some self-defense moves,” said younger sister
Ellen, 24. “But he always said if a guy ever hurt me, to just tell
him and he’d take care of it.”
Risner grew to 6-feet-1, 210 pounds, and played some football at
Golden High School – although he earned his diploma two years
behind schedule at Jefferson County’s McLain High School.
Relatives say he ran with the wrong crowd toward the end of his
school years but embraced the military as a way to get his life on
track.
When he couldn’t immediately meet requirements for the Marines, he
opted for the Army and enlisted in April 2002.
Nothing changed his life quite like marriage. He and Emily,
longtime friends, got engaged in February and planned to wait a
year before the wedding. After a change of heart, they got married
in March.
“When we did, we knew it was meant to be,” Emily said. “Everyone
that knew us said we were so good together.”
Risner loved being stepdad to Emily’s 4-year-old son, Skyler. So
when his wife recently announced she was pregnant, Risner quickly
expressed his preference for a girl and picked out his favorite
name: Katelynn. They never talked about boy names, but Emily knows
now what she would name a son: Henry.
At his home in Golden, Risner’s father struggled as he considered
what he wanted people to remember about his son.
“That he was a very courageous, a brave young man, that he
believed in our country,” said Jerry Risner, a Marine veteran. “I
served in the active reserves for 39 years, and he said, ‘Dad, it’s
my turn.”‘
A fund has been established for Risner’s wife and unborn child.
Contributions can be made to the Henry Risner Memorial Fund at any
Wells Fargo bank.
