One woman's war and peace : a nurse's journey through the Royal Australian Air Force / Wing Commander Sharon Bown (Ret'd).

Collection type	Library
Author	Bown, Sharon, author.; Nelson, Brendan, author of introduction, etc.;
Call Number	610.73 B787
Document type	Monograph
Year	2016. 016
Pagination	xi, 219 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : colour illustrations, maps, colour portraits ; 23 cm.
Publisher	Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd,
Note	"An Hourglass book." Includes index. 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 t he 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 Eas t 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. He r 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 Roya l Australian Air Force.
Place made	Wollombi, NSW

Abstract

1. Officer training school -- 2. Deployment to East Timor -- 3. Far from home -- 4. Return to East Timor -- 5. ''Mayday!'' ''Mayday!'' -- 6. Broken and banged up -- 7. Losing Mum, losing friends, losing hope -- 8. Working for the Minister for Defence -- 9. ''H ow does that feel, Copper?'' -- 10. Taking command and Afghanistan -- 11. The darkness -- 12. The dawn.