Teller County town to honor fallen Fort Carson soldier

The town of Florissant in Teller County plans to honor a Fort Carson soldier who died last weekend while serving in Afghanistan.

Residents contacted KRDO NewsChannel 13 to say that SFC. Elliott J. Robbins, 31, lived in the town with his wife, Vicki, and new baby son, Elliott Jr.

The couple recently bought the historic Costello Street Coffee House in town, residents said. On Wednesday, people placed hundreds of flags around the coffee house, throughout town, and along U.S. 24 in the area.
“It’s always hard to see military people come to your house,” said Harold Perry, the restaurant’s general manager. “You kind of know what’s going on. It was very hard for us to work that day. We actually closed early Monday and closed the next two days out of respect for the family.”

Residents also said some banners may be hung across the highway entrance into town.

A ceremony to honor Robbins begins at 6 a.m. Thursday outside the restaurant. The event will include a color guard, remarks from a former Army commander and prayer led by a local pastor.

According to an Army release, Robbins was killed Sunday during a non-combat-related death in Helmand Province.

Robbins was a medic assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson. He was on his third deployment that would have ended next month. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and previously to Afghanistan in 2017.

Robbins was born in San Diego and later moved to Ogden, Utah. He would have celebrated his 32nd birthday next month. His funeral has yet to be scheduled.

Robbins is the third member of his unit to die in Afghanistan this year. Two comrades were killed by gunfire last week.