Everything Robert Laskey has done in his life has led him to do what he’s doing right now. A flight nurse for GundersenAIR for the past six-and-a-half years, Robert is a teacher, a partner … and a rocker. His passion for his job is matched only by his passion for his hobbies – the former allowing him the chance to pursue the latter.
And for Robert, he’d have it no other way. He loves nursing, the variety that’s available, the schedule he works and the living it provides.
“I’ve got the finances to support my hobbies,” he says. “Is nursing a good job? Heck yes, it is.”
‘I really wanted to be a musician full time’
Robert has been a nurse for 28 years – 20 in the air, with the first 13 in his native Kentucky. But long before that, he had his sights set on music. Robert spent his high school years at a school for the performing arts. Upon graduation, he entered the Army, where for a time he played in the United States Army Band.
After six years of active duty, he retired from the military and went west to the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles to study guitar. However, realizing there was little money in music, he eventually enrolled in nursing school.
“I really wanted to be a musician full time. It’s just, in today’s day and age, you’re not going to support a family doing it unless you’re really busting your butt,” Robert says. “Gigs don’t pay anything.”
With a nursing degree in hand, Robert went back to Kentucky where he picked up work in the field, and eventually, found himself on an air service. Meanwhile, he enlisted in the Army Reserves, a decision that would eventually bring together his love of nursing with his sense of duty to country.
It would also bring him to Wisconsin, where he trained at Fort McCoy before being deployed to Iraq and serving as the chief flight nurse for a combat support hospital. He’d eventually end up back in Wisconsin, but for an entirely different reason.
Love on the base leads to new life
While training at Fort McCoy, Robert met Deenie, who served with him in Iraq. Following their tour of duty, Robert returned to Kentucky, and Deenie followed to marry him. But eventually, her family ties were calling her home, so the couple relocated to La Crosse, where they now share a home nestled in a quiet coulee.
Robert accepted a position with Gundersen even before they made the move, and it’s a decision he’s never regretted.
"Gundersen flight service is, by far, the best service I’ve flown with, and Decorah is the best base I’ve ever flown at. And I’ve flown out of a bunch,” he says. “The management of GundersenAIR is outstanding.”
He says, however, that being a flight nurse wasn’t on his radar early in his career. Rather, he was recruited by an ER physician he knew who was starting a new flight service.
“He said, ‘Hey, Robert, you want to fly?’ I said, ‘Sure.’”
He loves the profession because of the level of expertise it requires and the variety of skills he’s able to learn and practice. The work schedule – three 24-hour shifts every two weeks – is an added bonus, he says. Everyone at his base is incredibly professional and skilled, and “it’s just a fantastic environment to work in,” he says.
In addition to the training and outreach Robert does for GundersenAIR, he also spent several semesters teaching nursing at Viterbo University – another side passion he enjoyed.
“I like seeing the lightbulb go on,” he says. “I like teaching things in a way that people understand it very, very quickly.”
Music never far away
Despite all the life changes, Robert never let music drift too far away. Though making it big isn’t his focus anymore, he’s always caught on with a local band he could play with wherever he lived, and that didn’t change when he came to Wisconsin.
Robert, who considers himself a metalhead, has played in bands covering everything from jazz to rock to polka. The band he’s currently in, K. Sterling and the 85 Silver Band, specializes in what he calls “new country.”
He admits he doesn’t listen to country, but when he found the opening in K. Sterling, he decided to go for it.
“Now I’m the lead guitarist in a country band,” says Robert, who has a collection of 15 guitars in his basement, which he calls his “man cave.”
But he’s found a happy medium.
“We’ll do the really twangy country, but then we’ll take a country song and kind of turn it into heavy metal. Play it a little bit louder and a little bit faster,” he says.
The band mostly plays local shows, including Country Boom, Ashley for the Arts, Holmen Kornfest and Sparta Butterfest. They’ve even released an original single, “Feel that Boom,” on Spotify, with more on the way.
Room for both
Robert, who recently completed his 500th flight with GundersenAIR, says his music is a way to relieve the stress that can come with his flight nurse job. On the days that are particularly challenging, he’ll return home, head to the man cave, and play fast and loud. Or if it’s a mellow day, a slow and calming acoustic guitar is more the mood.
What sounds even better, though, is the way he blends the care side with the artistic.
“The nursing profession itself, if you work it correctly, you’re going to have the time and money to follow hobbies and passions,” he says. “I tell kids, nursing is a fantastic job.”