Marine Staff Sgt. Windy Robinson & Army Specialist Gaynelle Smith

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/america...834307,00.html


Marine Staff Sgt. Windy Robinson & Army Specialist Gaynelle Smith
By Bartholomew Sullivan
sullivan@gomemphis.com
March 24, 2003

Renia Smith has two daughters in the military, both far from home.

"I try not to really think about it,'' she says.

Spec. Gaynelle Smith, 35, is with the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. She spent four months in Kuwait last year.

Her sister, Windy Smith Robinson, 38, is stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Glenview, Ill.

Both volunteered for the service.

Gaynelle is a 1985 graduate of Overton High School who went on to additional schooling at the University of Memphis and Shelby State Community College.

Windy is a 1983 graduate of the Memphis Technical High School on Poplar. She, too, attended the University of Memphis before shipping out. She is married to Robert Robinson and has a son, Ryan Cory Robinson, 10.

Windy has been stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Bayonne, N.J., after training in Orlando. Her brother, Ronnie Smith, says she may soon ship out for Okinawa.

Renia Smith, 59, the mother of seven children, is proud of them all. Still, she worries. It's a welcome relief when one gets a four-day pass.

"They're in the military, and it's part of their jobs,'' she says of the potential danger. "We'll be praying for them and maybe their friends will see them (in the newspaper) and pray for them, too.''