Percy Robinson visited Thursday’s McComb Exchange Club meeting carrying a calendar from 1967 — a reminder of a life-changing year, when he enlisted in the Army.
Speaking to the club, the mayor reflected on his military and civil service.
Robinson recalled how on Jan. 12, 1967, he was working at Kellwood and his mother called and said the Army recruiter, whom he had been talking to earlier, was looking for him.
After he got off work, “I talked to the recruiter, filled out a few papers and he gave me a bus ticket,” he said. “He told me to be at the bus station at 8:30 tonight.”
Robinson said he went home and watched “Dragnet,” and his father took him to the Canal Street bus station in McComb, where he met up with another recruit.
“We stayed at the bus station all night,” he said. “We called the reception station and they didn’t come and get us until 8:30 the next morning.”
By 2:30 that afternoon he was taking the oath of a U.S. Army soldier.
The Army sent Robinson to Fort Campbell, Ky., for basic training, where he experienced his first taste of military leadership.
“The drill sergeants, I was very, very impressed with them,” he said. “They were sharp ... and I wanted to be just like them.”
After going to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for medical training, Robinson shipped off to Germany, where he was promoted to the rank of E-5. At that rank, one of his duties was to call the company to attention during “Reveille.”
“I can remember standing out in front of that company, calling them to attention,” he said, recalling the thrill of seeing an entire company snap to attention at his command. “You’ve got to remember, now, I like leadership,”
After he returned to the States, he joined the Mississippi National Guard, which sent him to non-commissioned officers training at Camp Shelby.
He graduated with the adjutant general’s award for outstanding leadership.
Robinson was eventually put in charge of the headquarters company and was promoted to sergeant major.
“In 1996 I was the first African-American to be promoted to the rank of command sergeant major in the Mississippi National Guard,” Robinson said, adding that he was the only one still serving in Mississippi when he retired from the military in 2006.
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Robinson, known for his take-charge attitude as mayor, said his service to the town has been greatly influenced by his time in the military.
Robinson was first elected to the Summit Town Council when he ran for an open seat in 1989.
Four terms later, when he was seeking his fourth term as a councilman he didn’t think he had much of a chance, considering he was serving with the National Guard in Iraq.
“I was in Iraq, and I said, ‘Well, I’m in Iraq, I guess I won’t be elected in 2005,’ ” he said.
But Robinson wasn’t ready to give up the council seat. He called his wife, who had power of attorney, and got her to pick up his qualification papers and collect signatures from voters.
“In June 2005, I was sitting at my desk in my office, looking at my laptop. I pulled up the Enterprise-Journal and saw that I had won my seat back while being in Iraq,” he said. “I will never forget that. That was probably the most memorable election.”
Except, perhaps, for another one — when he was elected mayor in a 2006 special election following the death of former Mayor Charles Carter.
Fielding questions about other issues in town, Robinson defended the council’s controversial decision this year to expand commercial zoning. The town faces a lawsuit filed in Pike County Circuit Court by residents who oppose the changes.
But Robinson insists it was the right move.
“We’ve got to do that,” Robinson said.
The mayor said the town is lucky to have car, tractor and heavy equipment dealerships that are “heavy hitters” when it comes to generating sales tax revenue, but it needs more.
He praised downtown merchants for offering an attractive commercial district full of locally owned businesses that do well to draw in customers from beyond town limits.
“A lot of people really shop those vendor malls,” he said.
Robinson, without revealing many details, said he also has plans for a new park in town.
“I have a space for that and I want to build that piece by piece,” he said.
