Commander Nathan Saunders

Commander Nathan Saunders, RAN was appointed to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 2002 as a Nursing Officer after completing a number of years in rural and remote healthcare in north and western Queensland. After completing initial entry officer training he posted to HMAS Penguin until 2005 to undertake various duties and roles at Balmoral Naval Hospital and the Submarine and Underwater Medicine Unit (SUMU). During this time he deployed in HMA Ships Manoora and Kanimbla to Operations ANODE (Solomon Islands), SUMATRA ASSIST (Indonesia) and ASTUTE (Timor-Leste) with the Navy’s Maritime Role 2 health capability. His deployed roles have included that of critical care and aeromedical evacuation nurse, health operations and plans officer, and deputy J07/health commander. He posted to HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin early 2007 for duties in Joint Health / Garrison health operations, including direct support to Patrol Boat and Border Protection forces at the time. CMDR Saunders posted to Fleet Headquarters in Sydney for 2009-13 performing primary staff duties in plans/operations, personnel and healthcare governance. In this time he established a formal governance framework for Fleet Health Support and developed extensive operational staff and planning experience at numerous multinational exercises, including RIMPAC and TALISMAN SABRE. These included dual-roles within Australian National Command Elements (ASNCE) undertaking safeguard health support functions and duties, and component level senior health planner interacting with coalition partners. Of note were his selections as ASNCE J07 for the 2013 ASEAN disaster management exercise in Brunei Darussalam, J07 for Op AMULET (2012), and as health planner in 2014 for Ex ARRCADE FUSION; the certification activity for NATO’s Allied Ready Reaction Corp (ARRC). Other early career highlights include: being the first Nursing Officer posted to SUMU (2003-2004) performing hyperbaric and primary health care duties; working in the Amphibious and Afloat Support Group formalising the development, management and force generation of the amphibious health support capabilities (2005-2007); and redesigning medical training and simulation capabilities at the RAN Medical School (2014-2015). CMDR Saunders has also undertaken time in HMAS Tobruk and numerous secondments for non-operational deployments with the RAN’s Fleet Battle Staff, Sea Training Group, Amphibious Task Group, and Mine Warfare Clearance Diving Task Group as the J07/health planner. He was posted to Russell Offices in 2017 as Principal Staff Officer to the Head People Capability (2-star) in Defence People Group before selection to deploy on Operation OKRA (Iraq) as the Health Engagement/Medical Security Cooperation Officer for Coalition Joint Task Force—Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. This position was embedded in the US Army Role 3 Combat Support Hospital and responsible for planning and developing strategic projects with the Iraqi Security Forces aimed at improving their combat healthcare systems. CMDR Saunders was appointed Commanding Officer, Joint Health Unit-Victoria and Tasmania in January 2019 and completed three years in this role during a period of challenging change management and very high tempo due to Op BUSHFIRE ASSIST 2019 and Op COVID19 ASSIST. He was formally commended for his efforts ushering in the new Defence Health Contract in Victoria and Tasmania during his tenure. CMDR Saunders hold numerous academic including a Bachelor of Nursing, Masters of Remote Health Practice, Masters of Public Health, Masters of Health Management, and Masters of Defence and Strategic Studies awarded on completion of the Australian Command and Staff Course in 2016. He is currently posted to the Directorate of Navy Health in Canberra responsible for strategic capability management of the Navy Health workforce.

He is married to Kylie and father to their four boys, all of whom share his penchant for being outdoors, especially if it involves boating, bush walking or the beach.