Photo By Staff Sgt. Kevin Schulze | Navy Reserve Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Robbie Klahn, a dental technician assigned to...... read more read more
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CIARO, Ill. (June 22, 2019) — Navy Reserve Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Robbie Klahn, a dental technician assigned to the Expeditionary Medical Facility, Great Lakes, celebrates his 20 year anniversary of joining the Navy today during an Innovative Readiness Training mission in Cairo, Ill., June 22, 2019. Klahn runs the Central Sterilization Room for the dental department of the Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation Tri-State IRT 2019 that provides military medical personnel with hands-on experience by offering a no-cost health clinic to the surrounding community.
Klahn began his naval career June 22, 1999 when he enlisted into the active duty Navy and was sent to boot camp. From there, he became a hospital corpsman dental technician and has remained in that rate through the entirety of his service. With 14 years in active duty and six in the reserves, Klahn’s dental expertise ranges across several areas of the dental rate.
“I have done everything from checking in patients to making fake teeth,” said Klahn. “My units have been so small we had to step up and do a little bit of everything.”
Klahn’s role in the DAEOC Tri-State IRT 2019 mission is that of operating the CSR, a necessary component of the dental department.
“If we don’t have a Central Sterilization Room, we can’t function,” said Klahn.
The dentists and dental technicians on the mission also realize the integral part played by Klahn and the CSR.
“The mission would grind to a screeching halt without the CSR,” said Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Scott, the Cairo site dental officer in charge assigned to Operational Health Support Unit, Bremerton. “[Klahn]’s done an incredible job keeping this operational. What dental does is an amazing service, but we wouldn’t be able to do any of it without Klahn.””
With the entire dental department relying on him to provide sterile working equipment for procedures, Klahn still manages to find time to train and enjoy the mission.
“This is probably the best Annual Training I’ve ever been on,” said Klahn. “Working with patients and seeing how grateful they are as well as working as joint services, it has just been an amazing time.”
As Klahn and the service members at the Cairo clinic site celebrate his 20 years in service, the DAEOC Tri-State IRT is scheduled to complete its final day clinic operation for this training mission today. Seeing over 1,800 patients and performing over 12,500 procedures, the medical personnel with the IRT received valuable hands-on training that prepared them for operation in a deployed environment should they be called on to serve their country over seas.
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 06.22.2019 19:21 |
| Story ID: | 328807 |
| Location: | CAIRO, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 60 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, IRT marks 20 years in the Navy for Sailor, by SSgt Kevin Schulze, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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