In honor of Veterans Day 2024, we are highlighting some of our veteran treasures – our staff! Welcome to this special edition of “Honoring FHW Veterans.”
Meet Jamie Sharpe, who is the Director of Acute Care, in the FHW In-Patient Hospital Unit.
Fresh off high school graduation with a desire to go to college but a bank account that didn’t support it, Jamie Sharpe, enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He became a hospital corpsman serving at the Navy Medical Center, also known as the Balboa Navy Hospital. He was a surgical tech assigned to an operating room unit at the hospital and lived in civilian housing less than a full block from the beach.
Jamie worked the night shift for all of his active duty days. The hospital did surgeries around the clock, seven days a week. The Navy Medical Center encompasses 85 acres of Balboa Park and is the Navy’s largest west coast hospital. It began as a tent during WWI and now serves active duty and veteran’s medical needs.
Jamie had an uncle who was drafted into the military during Vietnam and a cousin who later joined, after Jamie, but service to the country wasn’t a family legacy. In reflection of his time in the Navy, he said he was grateful for the self-discipline it taught him, the focus it gave him, and how it matured him considerably.
“I would support anyone joining,” he said.
The day after Jamie joined the Navy, Sadam Hussein invaded Kuwait. He was initially assigned to a U.S. Marine Corps division and scheduled to ship out within a week of completing his training. But he never did leave San Diego because the war wound down before his boots left U.S. soil. He was disappointed he didn’t get to “see the world.” After two years of training in San Diego, he was ready to go anywhere but San Diego. However, in typical military style, his assignment kept him in Southern California for four more years.
Upon completing his Navy contract, he used his G.I. Bill to attend nursing school at the University of Wyoming and became a Registered Nurse. He did some traveling nursing and then when marriage and a family were starting, they eventually settled in Mesa County, in 2004.
“Being a flight nurse was my favorite job ever,” Jamie said.
However, being a flight nurse was also a night shift job and once kids were part of the equation, it wasn’t the best working schedule. Jamie joined Family Health West in 2023 and oversees the FHW Hospital In-Patient Unit staff and care for 25 hospital patients.
We are so proud Jamie found his way to Family Health West and thank you for your service!
