Wing commander’s perspective on safety

  • Published
  • By Col. Michael Frankel
  • 47th Flying Training Wing commander
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  We have lost a number of Airmen in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom to accidents. Many are accidents that could have been avoided. Every one of these fatalities died a hero and a patriot, but if someone would have been a little more careful, there is a good chance they could have returned home to their family. This should serve as another reminder, and bring to everybody's attention that no matter where you are, at home or abroad, in a combat zone or not, safety needs to be on your mind. Safety and risk management need to be things we consciously think about as we go about our daily routine, no matter how mundane the task.

I don't intend to bore you with statistics, but as of April 30, the Air Force has lost 13 Airmen to Private Motor Vehicle mishaps. Six of these accidents involved what our Air Force Safety Center refers to as PMV-4s (cars, trucks, SUVs, etc.), and six involved motorcycles (PMV-2s). The remaining accident involved a pedestrian who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. While many of these PMV accidents are still being investigated, we will more than likely find out that some of them involved excessive speed, some of them involved alcohol and others may have involved some other type of poor decision making. What this means is that while we will never completely eliminate accidental deaths in our Air Force, we can absolutely avoid many.

In addition to automobile and motorcycle accidents, our Air Force loses members every year to other activities that on the surface appear routine. For example, already in Fiscal Year 2010, we have lost two Airmen to drowning. As we go through our day-to-day lives, and especially as we move forward into the summer months, which offer more opportunities for outdoor activities, I ask each of you to take an extra minute or two to try and identify what could go wrong. Identifying the hazards in any activity we undertake, even driving to and from work or going for a relaxing cruise on the lake, is a critical first step to minimizing the risk involved.

As I said earlier, risk management is a CONSCIOUS decision-making/risk-mitigating technique. We need to make it a habit! Along with risk management, make sure the Wingman Concept is alive and well within you. If you see somebody doing something that doesn't make good sense, don't be afraid to tell them to stop. Help each other plan for events. Actively discuss who will be the designated driver. Go over your plans with a friend and let them help you make sure it passes the "common sense test". You've heard it before: people are the Air Force's most valuable resource. I could not agree more. Please, take the time to think about minimizing risk and preventing accidents long before you get yourself in a situation you can't get out of. We owe it to ourselves, our families and our Air Force.