EP11 - Jamie Caldwell, Emergency Management Specialist and son of Undercover 'M'

Heart 2 Heart Walk Podcast

Jamie Caldwell - Senior NSW Government Emergency Manager and son of Undercover operative 'M'.

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In this episode, Matt talks to Jamie Caldwell, Senior NSW Government emergency management specialist who grew up as the son of a long term NSW Police Force undercover operative.

We cover some really serious topics in this chat; from what it was like to grow up in a loving average everyday family where your dad has multiple false identities as an undercover drug squad operative where it was known that criminal networks had taken contracts out on the family, right through to his observations as a child seeing his dad struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) suffered as a result of the work he did.

With a Dad known as Undercover ‘M’ in the book Secrets of the Jury Room by Malcolm Knox, Jamie’s childhood was far from the norm most would know, however to him it was exactly that. Jamie’s father, Keith ‘Cocky’ Caldwell, was a 30 year veteran NSW Police officer who spent an insane 10 years undercover and worked on some of the largest major crime syndicates in the country. Despite having fantastic physical outlets as a life long surf lifesaving operative and former NSW Police Rugby League champion, Jamie reflects on his fathers passing at a relatively young age, and what effect living with PTSD may have played towards this.

Leaving school against the advice of his teachers at the age of 15 to pursue his surf life saving aspirations, Jamie has proven to all around him that with self-motivation, determination and never leaving those doors closed around you that you can succeed despite what a school careers advisors crystal ball once said. Since this time, Jamie has become qualified and experienced in Paramedic services, Fire and Rescue operations and had the somewhat unique experience of providing these services as a private contractor to large industrial sites and huge expanses of the Western Australian outback under WA government contracts. Moving on to running his own training organisation, Jamie has worked in the NSW Police Force as a Regional Emergency Management Officer, Emergency Coordinator with Transport for NSW and now has the role of Energy and Utility Services Functional Area Coordinator on the NSW State Emergency Management Committee.

If this wasn’t enough, Jamie is also the President of the Bulli Surf Lifesaving Club, and has been responsible for coordinating some hectic rescue operations off the coastline, including the rescue of 7 people from an overturned boat off Peggys Beach, which resulted in the simultaneous resuscitation of 4 patients, one of the largest multi-agency operations seen in the Illawarra region of recent years. Similarly to our earlier podcasts with Dr Dan Pronk and Allan Sparkes CV OAM VA, Jamie also talks about the need for the impacts of emergency services work on our volunteers and private sector responders to be better recognised given their stepping in-and-out of their response roles and sometime limited support.

Jamie puts up the song ‘Working class Man’ by Jimmy Barnes to our Spotify Playlist in recognition of the ‘daily grind’ faced by our first responders in doing their jobs day in and day out.

Get ready for an amazing chat.

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