From submarine supervisor to neighborhood dentist, DR. ROBERT STABIO is all systems go
By Kastle Waserman
NOT MANY people can say their dentist was a U.S. Navy engineering watch supervisor on a submarine. Dr. Robert Stabio had a life very different before he settled into a career in dentistry.
An interest in engineering and nuclear energy prompted him to enroll in the Navy straight out of high school in 2007. “There was a lot of interest in renewing commercial nuclear power and expanding that resource in the U.S. It seemed like that field would be growing,” he says. “So, I went into the nuclear power program of the Navy.” After a two-year training program, his Navy duties brought him into a submarine to serve as a nuclear power plant supervisor.
Like most jobs, Stabio started in a low-level position and eventually became certified for watch duties and a supervisory position. His days consisted of watch shifts, maintenance and emergency drills. After a while, he says, it was easy to start to get lackadaisical about all the false alarms. That is, until a superior officer set him straight.
“One of our divisional leaders saw I was getting a bit lax. He sat me down and said, ‘You may not be taking this seriously right now, but there will be consequences one day when this isn’t a drill.’”
Sure enough, that day came. Stabio says one of the worst events on a submarine is a fire. “If the compartments fill with smoke, it can get deadly quickly. It’s not like you can call the fire department,” he says. While on watch one day, an electrical fire broke out, putting Stabio to the test. He sounded the alarm, and they found the source of the fire. “It was a pretty tense situation,” he says. “But also thrilling because we trained for it and put that training to work.”
And what could be worse than a fire aboard a submarine? A flood, says Stabio. And that happened, too. “It was two in the morning, and the alarm sounded,” he says. “I was on watch in the very back of the submarine. The first thing you do is activate these valves for the flood control system, which is supposed to stop the water.”
Because of all the drills, the crew assumed the flooding would stop. But it didn’t. “That was a pretty frightening moment,” Stabio says, noting they eventually located the source of the flooding in an internal water tank and were able to get it under control.
By the time he left the Navy, the nuclear energy industry had declined due to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. So, Stabio opted to pursue a career in dentistry. However, he says his time in the Navy has served him well in diagnosing dental patients.
“The Navy helped me develop excellent critical thinking skills,” he says. “When patients come in, they don’t exactly know why they’re having tooth pain, so I have to read between the lines to see what is potentially happening.”
While dentistry provided him with a solid career path, he says he misses working in the nuclear energy field, especially now that there is talk of atomic energy’s resurgence to accommodate artificial intelligence’s energy consumption. So, would he ever go back?
“I think I’m beyond that point,” he says. “But I might consider it if there was a real need. You never know!”
