Supply Officer Enjoys Helping People

By Staff Sgt. Nikki Prodromos, USA


TIKRIT, Iraq, July 27, 2006 – Army Captain Demechel Robinson likes helping people. Army Capt. Demechel Robinson (shown here as a first lieutenant), of Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, provides security for other Soldiers from a Humvee turret in Tikrit, Iraq. From her job as the assistant logistics officer of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, to her involvement in many charitable organizations, she spends most of her time giving something back -- to her community, her country, and her fellow soldiers.

Robinson helps bring 3rd Brigade Combat Team troops on the ground medical supplies, water, food, ammunition and other necessities by providing an accurate and continuous picture of the brigade's combat power. She explained that her biggest sense of job satisfaction comes from knowing the work she does means something and is helping provide what the soldiers need to survive. She said 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 BCT covers a wide area of operation spanning an area roughly the shape and size of Vermont. Sometimes unit logistics specialists 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 that have also "aimed high," completing Air Force enlistments. She said her original plan was to stick to the family tradition and join the Air Force too, but the Army won her over. Entering active duty in 1991, Robinson enlisted as a private and spent nine years on active duty before transferring to the 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 an 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." Robinson's first assignment was with the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea before landing at the home of the Rakkasans of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. "I would have been really disappointed if I had not gotten the 101st," she said. "I think working with the senior staff officers and the soldiers has made me who I am at this point in my military career."

Outside the military, Robinson is active in the charitable sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and said she donates time, money, clothes and food on a regular basis. When asked what she would like to tell the people back home, Robinson quickly replied: "I would like to let the American people know that we are over here doing what we need to do, and its not all negative like it sometimes gets portrayed. ... I really feel good about what I'm doing over here."

(Army Staff Sgt. Nikki Prodromos is assigned to the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)