Motivated to perform her duty, one air traffic controller beats cancer

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Brugman
  • 60th AMW Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The Airman leans over the console in the control tower 13 stories in the air and directs planes along the Travis runway. 

It was her desire to do this job that helped her beat thyroid cancer. 

Senior Airman Anna Ortiz, 60th Operation Support Squadron, was pregnant with her second child when she complained to her doctor about being sick more often than she was with her first. She also had a lump on the back of her throat that wouldn’t go away. The hard mass had bothered her but she hadn’t thought too much about it. 

When Airman Ortiz signed up for the Air Force nearly four years ago, she was on track to be an air traffic controller. 

The Yuba City, Calif., native had trained to get her five-level and was about to be upgraded, but a cancer diagnosis side-tracked her plans. 

An ultrasound revealed that the golf ball-sized lump in her throat was malignant. 

The type of cancer she had was slow to progress so Airman Ortiz gave birth, spent six weeks recovering, then had her thyroid removed and began radioactive iodine therapy. 

“[The type of cancer I had was] really slow,” she said. “It takes a really long time to progress. I was lucky in that matter.” 

Her thyroid had swollen to twice its normal size. 

The final round of her radioactive iodine therapy was the worst, according to Airman Ortiz. 

She spent three days in a plastic covered room and couldn’t spend time with her husband or children afterward. Only nurses were allowed to visit her briefly to ask if she was okay or needed anything because for a cautionary measure, individuals were asked to keep their distance and not be in contact with her for extended periods of time due to the radioactive iodine. 

“It was weird – the radiation treatment,” she said. Anything Airman Ortiz touched or used had to be wrapped in plastic and allowed to decompose. 

“The only things keeping me going were my husband, my children and getting back into training,” she said. 

Her last treatment was a year ago. Her doctor believes that the cancer is completely gone. 

“It was a really long process,” Airman Ortiz said. “At first I was optimistic about going back to training, but after three and a half years I wondered if that was what I was meant to be doing.” 

Since being diagnosed with cancer, she worked a desk job at air traffic control instead of fulfilling her dream to be a controller. 

“You just keep up a happy face and go on with your day,” Airman Ortiz said. “I didn’t want to talk about it. I just wanted to be a five-level really bad.” 

“Senior Airman Ortiz is an inspiration to us all,” said Tech Sgt. R.W. Bennett, air traffic control tower watch supervisor. “Being one of our top controllers with what she has been through is amazing. You come to the tower and you think your everyday life issues may seem like such a burden, then you see Anna working in one of the most demanding jobs in the Air Force without a hitch, it really puts it all into perspective.” 

On April 4, Airman Ortiz finally received her five-level. 

“I had cancer,” Airman Ortiz said. “It was a moment of time in my life and I grew and I learned from it. [Cancer] doesn’t define me — I beat it. What defines me is being a good mother, wife, Airman and doing a good job in whatever I do.”