| TIKRIT, Iraq, July 25, 2006 -- U.S. Army Capt. Demechel Robinson likes helping people.
From her job as the assistant S-4 of Operations, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division to her involvement in many charitable organizations, she spends most of her time giving something back. Robinson helps bring the 3rd Brigade Combat Team troops on the ground their medical supplies, water, food, ammunition, and other necessities by providing an accurate and continuous picture of the brigade’s combat power. She explains that the biggest sense of job satisfaction for her comes from knowing the work she does means something and is actually helping to provide what the soldiers need to survive. She is also proud that the soldiers know she and the other members of her team are there for them when they need them. One of the biggest challenges she has encountered during her tour in Iraq is communication. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team covers a wide area of operation spanning an area roughly the shape and size of Vermont. Sometimes they are not able to get supplies to the troops as fast as they would like, but they always get them there. Robinson hails from a military family. Her father, Simmie Robinson, retired from the Air Force after 21 years and she has a sister and two cousins who have also “aimed high,” completing Air Force enlistments as well. She said her original plan was to stick to the family tradition and join the Air Force too, but the Army won her over. Joining active duty in 1991, Robinson enlisted as a private and spent nine years on active duty before transferring to the United States Army Reserve as a staff sergeant in 2000 to pursue a degree at the University of Texas, San Antonio. In 2003, Robinson graduated with a degree in Community Health and a commission as a United States Army second lieutenant.
“I hope to one day provide medical assistance to low-income people,” she said. “That’s one of the biggest things I see. Medicine has come so far, but so few can afford it.” |
