In 1999, idealistic 23-year-old Registered Nurse Sharon Bown left her comfortable family life in Tasmania and joined the Royal Australian Air Force with the aim of providing humanitarian aid to the world. Through her 16-year military career she deployed on three operations, barely survived a helicopter crash, struggled to return to military service, mixed in political circles in Canberra and … around the world as Aide de Camp to the Minister for Defence, and commanded a combat surgical team during some of the most intense fighting in Afghanistan. During this time, she lost her mother to breast cancer and almost lost her policeman father to a homicidal psychopath on his way to shoot dead his girlfriend but who decided to kill a cop instead. From teaching East Timorese orphans to learn English to tending to wounded Coalition soldiers choppered into her surgical team from deadly battles on the Afghan dust, Sharon’s story is that of a sheltered civilian RN becoming a military Nursing Officer and a commander. Her military service was unique, varied and far-reaching but came at the cost of her physical and mental health. A broken back, shattered jaw and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are the price she has paid for a remarkable and inspirational career in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Wing Commander Sharon Bown (Retd) completed her Bachelor of Nursing at the University of Tasmania in 1995. With post-graduate qualifications in Peri-operative nursing and Advanced Nursing in Family, Child and Youth Health, she worked as a Registered Nurse at Calvary Hospital, Hobart from 1996–1999, including two years in the operating theatre, before joining the Royal Australian Air Force as a Nursing Officer in 1999. During her Air Force service, she served overseas in East Timor and Afghanistan and was appointed commander of the RAAF Base Townsville health centre from 2008– 2011 and as the commander of surgical/critical care team deployed to Afghanistan in 2008. Aside from her military nursing service, she also served as the Aide-de-Camp to the Minister for Defence in 2006 — a unique privilege for a Nursing Officer. During her service she suffered a number of life-altering events such as surviving a helicopter crash with a shattered jaw and broken back and having her policeman father shot in the line of duty, soon after losing her mother to breast cancer. Her service life has exposed her to the best and the worst of humanity and her life’s experiences have resulted in a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sharon retired from the Air Force in 2015 and is pursuing further study towards a Bachelor of Psychology. Sharon is a passionate advocate for Australia’s military nurses and for military and veterans’ health where she hopes her experiences and Psychology qualifications will assist others. She is highly sought after as a public speaker and is often invited to speak about the unique experiences of her service career. She lives in Townsville with her husband and their two sons.
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One Woman’s War and Peace : A Nurse’s Journey in the Royal Australian Air Force is Sharon Bown’s memoir of her experiences as a nurse during a sixteen year career in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Sharon Bown (nee Cooper) grew up in an ordinary family in Hobart, Tasmania. Her father was a police officer and her mother a nursing aide caring for the elderly. In 1999 aged 23, she joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a Nursing Officer hoping to serve her country and have the opportunity to provide rapid delivery healthcare to those in need. After her initial training she was deployed to the United Nations Military Hospital in Dili East Timor. At that time the International Force for East Timor, organised and led by Australia, was present in East Timor to address the humanitarian and security crisis resulting from violence by pro-Indonesian militia in reaction to a UN-sponsored referendum in 1999 that overwhelmingly supported East Timorese independence. While in Timor, as well as her duties as perioperative nurse in Dili, Bown also spent time teaching East Timorese orphans English. On her return to Australian in 2000 she was posted to Richmond, New South Wales and to Amberley, Queensland. She returned to East Timor in 2003 and in June 2004, as part of an Aeromedical Evacuation team on its way to assist a local woman experiencing birth complications, was involved in helicopter crash which left her with a broken back and shattered jaw. Bown struggled not only for her life but slowly to regain her health and independence and finally her career within the Air Force, returning to full time duties in December 2004. In October 2005 she was posted to Bali again as part of an Aeromedical Evacuation team to assist with the evacuation of Australians following the Bali bombings. On her return from Bali she worked for twelve months as Aide-de-Camp to the Minister for Defence, Brendan Nelson and was promoted to Squadron Leader. From Canberra, Bown was posted to Townsville where she worked as a Military Support Officer providing advice to ADF members and, where necessary, assistance to bereaved families. A year later she was deployed to Tarin Kot, Afghanistan where she commanded a combat surgical team treating wounded Coalition soldiers during periods of intense fighting in that region. The hospital also provided medical treatment to Afghan people and, most heartbreakingly, to children. Following her return from Afghanistan, Bown recognized the effort that was needed to ensure that she was home psychologically as well as physically and some time later was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2015 she was discharged from the Royal Australian Air Force as medically unfit.
This book is far, far more than a chronology of a remarkable woman’s career in the defence forces. Wound through the narrative is her own personal story which includes her mother’s fight against and death due to breast cancer, her father’s struggles following his shooting while off-duty by a homicidal psychopath, her reactions to the challenges of treating people from cultures who place a different value on life. There are moments of genuine humour as well as uplifting stories such as her friendships with East Timorese women, especially Miss Gabriella who partly through Bowns’ assistance graduated from Cornell University in 2013 and has returned to East Timor to help with the development of her country. Bowns’ husband and her children are also a presence in the latter part of the book.
One Woman’s War and Peace presents a clear picture of the current role of the Australian Defence Forces and the price that the individuals within it pay for their service, service that is ultimately to the benefit of us civilians. Bown is unflinching in her examination of her PTSD and the effect it has generally on the lives of service personnel. It is to be hoped that such honesty will be rewarded by a thorough recognition of the nature of PTSD and the support needed by defence personnel by those in a position to effect changes in the way they are treated.
The book ends with Sharon Bown’s speech at the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial in 2014. Two sentences stand out and do honour not only to those who died or were injured but also to those medical and nursing personnel who over the decades have battled to save the lives of their injured comrades. Sharon Bown is truly their worthy successor. ‘I have worn their blood. So many of us have worn their blood.’