Second calling: Staff Sgt. Robby Estrada goes from softball coach to Army surgical technician
Story and photos by Megan Skipper
For Staff Sgt. Robby Estrada, 36th Forward Resuscitative and Surgical Detachment, Fort Hood, getting out of the Army after experiencing tragedy wasn’t an option.
“I used to be a combat engineer, and after I came back from my first deployment we had lost 10 guys out there … and I wasn’t going to do it again. So my time was coming up on my first contract and I was thinking I love the Army, I’ve always wanted to do it, it’s a family tradition type thing. All three generations, we’ve all been in,” Estrada said.
One option he was presented with was reclassing (switching) to another MOS (military occupational specialty), and two days before he was supposed to get out of the Army, something interesting popped up. A 68D in the Army is an operating room specialist, otherwise known as a surgical technician. The responsibilities of a surgical tech within the Army range from things like assisting the doctor with Cesarean deliveries to sterilizing equipment in a field environment. With such a wide array of job duties, the training for this MOS is lengthy.
“Six months at Fort Sam Houston and then we do phase two at a selected site. So you do another hands-on for another three months, somewhere roughly in there,” Estrada said.
Working as a surgical technician can sometimes be very emotional, especially when assisting on higher risk patients or even births. Keeping your composure during one of these tough procedures can be a daunting task, but Estrada has figured out how to stay focused.
“My first delivery was pretty emotional, I just had to hold it back because I don’t have any kids and just seeing and being there. Seeing how everything happened I was like wow. Really, really amazing,” Estrada said.
Army surgical technicians need to be ready to perform their job wherever the Army takes them, and one way they accomplish this is the conduction of field training exercises. During these exercises, they are able to practice and further hone their skills, in an environment similar to what they may encounter if they were to be deployed.
“So the field environment, it’s a lot different. You have to learn how to build the hospital, your part. So I had to learn how to open up, they’re called ’ISOs’, and they are these shelters that open up, and that’s where we do all our operations. It’s an operating room, it’s like a Conex. So you have this and then you have the sterilization part too, so you have to clean the instruments too. It’s a one way flow, kind of like at the hospital. So we operate here and we operate on all our patients in this one particular building and then we come out and go into sterile processing, which is huge … if you don’t have sterile processing, you can’t operate,” Estrada said.
Before joining the Army Estrada worked as a coach for a few different sports, softball being one of them. He has been able to take things he learned during his time coaching and implement them into his career as a noncommissioned officer, and really enjoys teaching things he’s learned to newer soldiers.
When asked what motivates him to do his work he quickly cited the people he gets to work with.
“It’s the soldiers, because I’ve already done a lot. I’m old, I’m 50 years old, I already did one career before I joined the Army, so I did 20 years and retired and then I came into the Army. I don’t need to excel anymore, I’m more of a teacher of life. I’ve done a lot of things and I try to steer the younger soldiers right,” Estrada said.
