Today on Care Under Fire I chat with Rich Sherman, Rich is a former US Navy Intelligence Officer, Gulf War Veteran and is the author and photographer of “Never Home – remembering the military heroes who never returned”. This episode has a slightly different angle as instead of focusing on his own personal story, Rich shares snippets from the biographies of service personnel who paid the ultimate sacrifice in WWI and WWII. We discuss gratitude, being part of something bigger than yourself and how you can commemorate and thank someone who you can never meet in person. To find out more about Rich’s work visit: neverhomeheros.com

On today’s episode of Care Under Fire, I catch up with Sister Cheryl O’Brien. Cheryl served as a RAAF registered nurse and midwife during the Vietnam war. Based out of Malaysia, Cheryl nursed servicemen and their families on Penang Island and worked in the Butterworth Military Hospital. She also flew medivac missions out of Vung Tau, Vietnam to Butterworth and to Australia. Cheryl reflects on the diversity of her military nursing career from delivering babies to treating snake bites to evacuating ventilated casualties from Vietnam as well as the incredible advances in nursing care seen over her 47 years of nursing.

Today on Care Under Fire I chat with Tom, former military psychologist and intelligence officer who served in the Australian Army for 22 years. Tom specialised in critical incident mental health support and deployed to East Timor and Afghanistan six times from 2009-2012. His story, marked with personal tragedy demonstrates that no one is immune to post-traumatic stress and highlights the importance of recognising when to seek help.