The man who has been at the forefront of many emergency situations in the Shoalhaven marked 40 years of service with NSW Ambulance.

To celebrate the occasion colleagues arranged a celebratory breakfast at the Bomaderry Ambulance Station where he has been based since 1989.

"I had no idea this was organised," he said.

"I knew today was the 40th anniversary, I just did my night shift, finished work and was ready to head home and then everyone just arrived.

"It was a nice surprise and great to see a number of former colleagues I've worked with over the years present - that meant a lot.

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"It feels pretty good - I'd always joked and laughed in 2020, it would be 40 years of service aged 60, I wanted to hang in until that date. I got there and I'm pretty happy about it.

"Pretty shocked actually, I joined the job 40 years ago, you never know where the job is going to take you."

He joined the service as a 20-year-old after hearing of a mate's exploits as an ambulance officer.

"I'd had a few odd jobs here and there and I had a mate who was already an ambulance officer," he said.

"We'd catch up at weekends at barbecues and his week sounded so much more entertaining than mine did. I saw ambulance was advertising and another mate and I both applied and we got recruited at the same time.

"Peter's since moved on from the job but I never regretted joining the ambulance service, it's been a great career."

He admitted it is a demanding work environment.

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"There are a lot of things about the job," he said. "It's shift work - I've been doing shift work for 40 years, been on call for 32 years. Working nights, working weekends, missing a lot of family events, special occasions.

"Your social life gets very disrupted because of the job.

"You can be at a barbecue on a weekend and get a call out and you could be gone for hours, sometimes overnight, even days.

"The job can be demanding but it's the part of the job I enjoy - the challenge.

"You don't know what the next phone call will bring.

"I love my job - I consider myself very fortunate to be in the job for this length of time and the alarm goes off in the morning and I can roll out of bed and still look forward to going to work."

He's seen some massive changes, not only in the job but the equipment that is used.

"When I think back to the early days, an ambulance officer had a wooden first aid kit, a stretcher and some know-how and that was about it," he said.

"These days we have some wonderful drugs for pain relief, and with the equipment we can do a whole lot more for the patient pre-hospital. We get some good effects and good results and that makes me feel good."

He says he's been fortunate in his career to have experienced so much.

"I have a helicopter background, SCAT the Special Casualty Access Team, Rescue, Urban Search and Rescue which took me to Vanuatu on deployment after a cyclone, a swiftwater technician and some stories go with that as well," he said.

"It's a varied job with lots of opportunities to do different courses, I'm happy to say that made the job interesting."

Jason paid credit to his family and his colleagues.

"I work with a great bunch of people here in Bomaderry, the greater Shoalhaven and the Illawarra," he said.

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"But I also want to give a lot of due and credit to my family.

"My beautiful wife Lisa, who is my rock, hand on heart I wouldn't be here without her love and support, and our three kids Jemma Chris and Josh and their partners Nathan, Lauren and Tarryn.

"Family for me is what makes it and I wouldn't be the man I am today without my family."

He admitted paramedics often do experience the worse things in life, people's tragedies, but said there was also a lot of good as well.

"As a paramedic you can't get away from the fact that you do see some terrible things," he said.

"But as a paramedic you don't focus upon those things, you focus on the good things about the job.

"It doesn't have to be as obvious as a cardiac arrest when you get someone's heart beating again, and give them a future life or delivering babies.

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"Just being able to go to someone and give them reassurance, make them feel better about themselves. It doesn't have to be something that relied upon a drug, it can just be that voice, that helping hand that makes a difference."

One of his more challenging jobs was when he was called to a three men entrapped in a cave in the underground complex at Bungonia by flood water after heavy rain.

"We went underground for 11 hours on that job," he said.

"Again a good outcome, with the help of caves rescue we got them out and reunited with their families.

"As for fun experiences on the job, I'd have to refer to my workmates - they are the people that give me a lot of joy. They make me laugh when things are tough. What I enjoy a lot about this job is the people I work with."

He has attended plenty of funny jobs over the years but says delivering babies is always a special experience.

"We all experience it at one time or another," he said.

"Literally, I've been to the baby that has been born in the toilet. The mother had no idea she was pregnant. You think it's an urban myth but I've actually done a job like that.

"Another job we were in a rescue truck, no ambulance, no stretcher to put a person on. We had just finished at an accident scene and we were told to respond to a woman in labour on the side of Island Point Road.

"We went driving along, saw the hazard lights flashing, I said 'that will be it'.

"We pulled up and the woman was at the back of the car leaning over the boot, doing the pelvic gyration.

"She said the 'baby's coming'. She starts pulling her pants down - there's cars going past.

"I said 'hang on' and had a look and there was a head and all of a sudden there was a baby boy in my arms on the side of the road.

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"That was special. My family always laugh about me and my stories. You always have your go-to stories, the ones you keep repeating and you apologise to the people who have heard them before but jobs like that are what brings a smile to your face and make the job worthwhile."

He says after 40 years it's hard to pinpoint a single highlight.

"I've had a very varied career, taking on the specialist roles and it's not just doing the course, it's maintaining the currencies that go with it. My time on the helicopter was excellent .

"My highlight would have to be my family, and making a difference to those people who need us - not one particular job - I value my role and appreciate that I can make a difference in the lives of some people."

Jason Watson's career started in 1980 at Marrickville where he was stationed for two years, followed by two more years in rescue at Caringbah, before undertaking the Intensive Care course and being stationed at Rockdale for four years.

In 1989 he was appointed station officer at Bomaderry and has been here ever since.

His wife Lisa said she was proud of his milestone.

"I'm very proud of him. Forty years is a huge achievement, especially in this field,"She said.

"It's a difficult field now, especially for paramedics. They have a lot more to go through now than they did 40 years ago.

"There's a huge responsibility on them and I really take my hat off to these wonderful people who do a great job."

She deflected claims she was the "rock".

"I wouldn't call myself the rock," she said. "Jason's had a rewarding career and being a nurse we complement each other. I appreciate what he goes through.

"The best thing for us is we can debrief and I understand what he's going through so it's a lot easier.

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"You get used to him not being around as you understand he's got to be out there on that road helping people."

Shoalhaven Duty Operations Manager Inspector Chris Lahene said Jason's career needed to be celebrated.

"I've known Jason for 21 years since I came here and he was a fixture then," he said.

"Having 40 yesrs in the job is truly remarkable. He's done all the specialties and remains on road working as paramedic and rescue paramedic.

"He's also happy to impart his knowledge to our junior staff.

"Forty years takes a special kind of person and a special kind of family.

"We do take the job home with us and our loved ones feel the brunt of the things we see and do. It does take a special kind of person.

"Jason was taken aback this morning by the gathering but it's wonderful to celebrate such a great career."

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