Nick Palmer slain by sniper

LEADVILLE - Rachele Palmer admits she felt it when her son told her he wanted to be a Marine. She respected his decision, she says, but she worried and she prayed.

Saturday, she and her husband heard the knock on the front door they hoped for so long they would never hear.

"I just really prayed that they were here to tell me that there was an injury and (Nick) was on his way to Germany, but every word they kept saying just kept on getting worse and worse," she said quietly.

"It's a hard thing for a mom and dad," she said.

Nick Palmer was 19 years old. He wasn't born in Leadville, but he had spent the better part of the last 12 years at the town which is a little over 10,000 feet in elevation.

He went to Lake County High School. He played football. And he had an older brother in the Navy.

On Saturday, in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, he was looking out of the top of a Humvee, working the machine gun, when a sniper killed him.

His parents say their pride in their son cannot be matched. Brad Palmer, his father, says he wants people to remember his son's commitment to his country.

He says he wants everyone to continue to show their support for every man and woman still over in Iraq.

From KUSA 9