He was born in San Antonio to Theora Tate Risinger and Fred Self Risinger. His father, an accountant, also finished floors, but lost the business during the Depression. Fred took a paper route to help out. After serving as student body president his senior year at Brackenridge High School in San Antonio, Fred worked for Bell Telephone in Kingsville, Texas. He was attending college at the "San Antonio branch of Texas University" when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps, and was sent into flight training in bombers. Fred finished schooling and began training crewmembers, particularly gunners, in B-24s. After sailing to Europe from New York aboard the Queen Mary, he was assigned to the 448^th Bombardment Squadron of the Eighth Air Force, and began flying missions. His plane was shot down on his birthday, March 3, 1945, but the crew nursed the plane back to British air space before bailing out. "The worst was a sprained ankle," he says of their jump. Fred recalls the celebrations among the bomber crews, other servicemen, and civilians when Germany surrendered. "We wrecked the club and had a fine time," he recalls. "Gosh, and kissing all the girls. It didn't make any difference what they looked like." Fred flew to America after the war ended in Europe. "I went home to San Antonio, saw Momma and Daddy and sister and a pretty girl I'd known before," he recalls of his thirty-day leave. He chose to remain in service and spent a career of the Air Force. Fred married Alicia Moody in September of 1946, and would have two children and one grandchild. He served in Japan during the Korean War. Later he flew B-47s and B-52s. He retired in 1967, and returned to Bossier City, where he had been stationed earlier at Barksdale Air Force Base. He worked for Snelling and Snelling for several years.