4/5/2006 4:42:00 PM Soldier made
service his
life calling
By ANDREW UJIFUSA
Assistant Managing Editor
MADISON – Before Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Lee Robinson deployed on his last mission in Afghanistan, he left a message for his parents, George and Mary Robinson of Madison, who were on vacation in Arizona.
“This is your son,” Robinson said in the message. “I’m going to be away for awhile. I don’t want you to worry. We’re just doing our job here, protecting our country.”
Sgt. Robinson of Brandon, who spent many of his early years in Madison and graduated from what was then Madison-Ridgeland High School, was laid to rest in the Natchez Trace Cemetery on Saturday after a memorial service at the First Baptist Church in Madison, where he had been baptized.
Robinson died in combat on March 25 in a firefight while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Special Forces Group in Afghanistan.
About 700 people, including scores of military personnel, attended the memorial service and the burial.
Robinson, 36, is survived by his wife, Tamara, and two children, Savannah, 5, and Patrick, 1, along with his parents, his younger sister Denise Schimmel, and several relatives who still reside in the Madison and Jackson areas.
Robinson’s family filled the first seven rows of the First Baptist Church, with his widow, children, parents, sister, brother-in-law Jay Schimmel, and other relatives sitting in the front row.
As Robinson requested for his memorial service, Psalm 93 was read aloud and the hymn “Amazing Grace” was played on bagpipes before the benediction was pronounced by Dr. John Temple, the pastor of the First Baptist Church.
From the time he earned his Eagle Scout, Robinson made service, honor and sacrifice his calling in life. He enlisted in the Army in 1987 at age 17 and quickly completed training for the Special Forces.
As a communications specialist, he was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Special Forces Group for his entire military career, deploying all over the world, from Panama and Bolivia to Haiti and Kosovo and, finally, Afghanistan.
Robinson served his country at home as well as abroad: he became a member of the Mississippi National Guard Counter Drug Task Force in 1992, and an intelligence analyst for the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) office. He was training Afghan army soldiers at the time he was killed.
At the memorial service in Madison, Major Gen. Harold A. Cross, Adjutant General of the Mississippi National Guard, said of Robinson: “He was a sergeant first-class, a soldier first class, a hero first class . . . he died with the dignity of a patriot.”
Lt. Col. Robert S. Coleman, the commander of Robinson’s unit in Afghanistan, said in a memorial service before Robinson’s body was returned to American soil: “I believe that heaven is an even better place today because our friend Chris is there. The definition of a quiet professional fits no one better than Sergeant First Class Chris Robinson.”
While his body was being flown back to the United States, escorted by his friend and fellow soldier, Mst. Sgt. Reese Robbins, — also wounded in the firefight — passengers on the Delta Airlines flight heard the announcement that Robinson’s body was being returned to Mississippi for burial.
The pilots, crew and passengers collected $480 for a flower arrangement for the funeral, and the arrangement was on display at the service, with a note from “Delta Airlines Flight 715” to commemorate Robinson’s service to his country.
Chaplain Cregg Puckett of the 2nd Battalion, a close friend of Robinson for many years who joined at the same time as Robinson and looked up to him as he advanced rapidly through the Army’s training courses, delivered the eulogy.
“He was my hero for sure,” said Puckett. He had an image of Robinson approaching the kingdom of heaven and what he would say when he got there: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, words from 2 Timothy, said to be among the final of the Apostle Paul at his impending death at the hands of martyrs in Rome.
Robinson was remembered for his courage and dedication to the job and his country. He was also remembered for his love of adventure, his great storytelling ability, his ability to smile in every picture that was taken of him, and his enjoyment of Hawaiian shirts, James Bond marathons, and Clint Eastwood movies.
When he wasn’t repairing communications systems and jumping out of planes at 10,000 feet, Robinson found the time to be a skilled practical joker.
“Somehow, with Divine Providence, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we put him to rest today, on April 1st,” said Puckett, as the mourners in the church laughed.
At one point during his tour of duty in Panama, Robinson was able convince his commanding officer that a pack of monkeys had stolen his rucksack, when in fact a few mischievous soldiers had hidden it.
One simple story exemplified both Robinson’s dedication to his job, his humility, and his ability to “enjoy the simple pleasures in life.”
Late one night, at an annual training session, Robinson and a fellow soldier were called on to fix a radio at a location far from their camp site: Robinson and the soldier had to drive six hours to get to the site and repair the radio, and then they drove six hours back straight through until morning broke over the horizon. The pair stopped at a gas station to rest after nearly 12 hours of driving and work, and as Robinson watched the sun rise and sat in his Humvee, he was able to laugh and joke about the unlooked-for ordeal they had just been through.
His good nature showed itself early, even when he was misbehaving. When he was at Madison-Ridgeland High School, Robinson was in the habit of tucking a Soldier magazine in between the pages of his history book and reading the magazine while in class.
Mike Curley, the history teacher and soccer coach, would give him detention whenever he found Robinson reading Soldier instead of his history lessons.
When Robinson graduated, he left Curley a copy of Soldier magazine.
Curley told someone he wouldn’t trade that magazine for a million dollars now.
As siblings, Robinson and Schimmel grew up as big fans of the Three Stooges television show, and she recalled a dinner at the Jackson restaurant Schimmel’s (which her husband owns) when Robinson spontaneously began imitating one of the stooges, Curly, at the dinner table, right in front of the captain in his unit.
“Everyone knew that side of him,” she said.
When Robinson made the acquaintance of fellow soldiers who didn’t have family to be with, he made sure that he opened his life and his family and his home to those men. By bringing those soldiers home and making them a part of his life, a group of 15 men formed around Robinson that became like a second family.
When driving in a car recently with one of these soldiers, Schimmel recalled how the soldier turned to her and asked: “Do you remember that Christmas I spent with your parents and they bought me a coat?”
All 15 of those men attended Robinson’s funeral on Saturday.
Reader Comments
Posted: Saturday, April 08, 2006
Article comment by:
SSG Chris Thornton
