<p>The widow of a hostage who was slain in Iraq says the couple knew the risk of taking the job in Iraq but saw it as a way to help solve financial problems.</p><p>Jack Hensley was working as a civil engineer in Iraq when he was taken hostage with two co-workers last month. All three were later killed by their captors.</p><p>Hensley's wife, Pati Hensley, told The Atlanta Journal Constitution on Monday that the couple had been having a hard time making ends meet.</p><p>"We both struggled at part-time jobs for a couple of years before Jack and I both made the decision for him to go to Iraq," she said.</p><p>Jack Hensley liked his work in Iraq, where he coordinated projects to rebuild water systems, power grids, schools and museums, his wife said.</p><p>"He felt safe because he had worked in Saudi Arabia before," Pati Hensley said.</p><p>Both she and her husband were experienced international contract workers. Neither expected Jack Hensley would get caught up in the increasing violence aimed at Westerners in Iraq.</p><p>But Hensley _ along with fellow American Jack Armstrong and British engineer Kenneth Bigley _ was kidnapped Sept. 16 from their Baghdad villa. Tawhid and Jihad, a group led by terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the abductions and killings.</p><p>Pati Hensley spoke of the decision for Jack Hensley to go to Iraq as she greeted well-wishers at a fundraiser for their daughter's college education. Organizers at the Great Harvest Bread Co. said more than $5,000 was raised at the event. About a dozen similar events have been held for the Hensley family.</p><p>During the time her husband was being held hostage, FBI and CIA agents were giving her constant updates on the search for her husband, Pati Hensley said.</p><p>"I knew what was happening every minute, whether it was good or bad," she said.</p><p>The agents at her home, and officials with the U.S. State Department, also helped craft pleas for her husband's release on CNN and network television programs.</p><p>"They guided me in not being confrontational, not threatening. I wouldn't have done that anyway, but the whole issue was to be respectful and not say what I really wanted to," she said.</p><p>Two attempts were made by coalition troops to rescue Hensley and his co-workers, a U.S. government official said earlier this month. The first operation came before Sept. 20, when Armstrong is believed to have been beheaded, the official said. The second came after Armstrong's death but before Hensley's, which was reported Sept. 21.</p><p>Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services, the construction company that employed all three men, has continued to pay their families, Pati Hensley said.</p><p>Meanwhile, the couple's daughter, Sara Hensley, has returned to school but continues to grieve and question why her father was killed, her mother said.</p><p>"People are reaching out and making gifts to her _ not just monetary. We have more stuffed animals than anyone would know what to do with, but she would just rather have her daddy back," Pati Hensley said. "We have a lot of heart-to-heart talks and she's dealing with it slowly."</p><p>As for her own feelings: "I've probably gone through every emotion there is, especially the day that we got confirmation that all of our pleas were ignored."</p><p>Now Pati Hensley said she wants to help families of other victims of Iraqi violence, such as Kennesaw resident Karen Osborne, whose husband, Steven, was killed last week in Baghdad while working as a contract security guard.</p><p>"I'd like to meet with the Osborne family," Pati Hensley said. "I can't bring Steve back for them, but Karen has two daughters that I know are feeling the loss of their dad as my daughter is."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2864a64)</p>
