SGT. 1ST CLASS TYLER HOLMES
631st Support Maintenance Company
Florida Army National Guard
Starke, Florida
In a support maintenance company, you have a wide scope of maintenance military occupational specialties (MOSs) that fall under one platoon broken down into multiple sections. I have been a 91B (wheeled vehicle mechanic) the entirety of my 13-year Army career. As the automotive platoon sergeant in the 631st, I have an allied trades section within my platoon. I have no experience in this area besides what I learned working at a field maintenance shop (FMS) and the little I learned in the H8 Recovery School. I am now tasked with caring for these Soldiers’ well-being and ensuring they are doing the right thing safely while conducting their duties. The basis of my knowledge was to make sure their connections to the tanks were secure, they were in a clear area and proper personal protective equipment (PPE), such as face masks, gloves, welding aprons, etc., was always worn.
During a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation, my first sergeant asked if our allied trades section had enough time between completing their work orders to create a new stand for our guidon. He wanted something that represented our new commander and our company’s mission as a support maintenance company. I checked with the section leader, an experienced E-6, who confirmed the Soldiers could tackle this project with no issue. The Soldiers were excited to finally be able to use their skills in conjunction with their creativity and seemed happy about the work they were doing. Unfortunately, that happiness soon turned to disappointment and concern.
As we were shutting down the shop for the day and beginning to clean up, the E-5 who was doing most of the welding and cutting on the stand came into my office, where I was meeting with the platoon leader. The Soldier was rubbing his eyes and saying he was seeing spots and experiencing discomfort. When he lowered his hands from his face, we noticed his eyes were bright red and teary. We quickly rushed him over to the troop medical clinic, where the medics confirmed what we suspected — he was experiencing welder’s flash, also known as arc eye or flash burn. Welder’s flash is an eye injury that results from exposure to high levels of ultraviolet radiation. It causes painful inflammation, eye soreness, redness, tearing and sensitivity to light.
The Soldier was prescribed special eye drops and told to keep on his sunglasses when in bright lighting for about a week. He experienced nonstop eye discomfort for several days before returning to normal. The platoon leader, section sergeant, safety officer and I tried to figure out how this happened because we all saw the Soldier using a face shield when he was working on the stand. We soon discovered that the battery in the face shield was dead, so the auto-tint feature didn’t function correctly. We asked the Soldier if he noticed the mask wasn’t working properly, and he said he couldn’t tell. To this day, I still don’t understand why there wasn’t an indication that the mask was malfunctioning.
This incident really stuck with me as a leader. I felt my lack of knowledge about the safety features of our welding equipment contributed to this Soldier’s injury. Since then, I have taken the time to reach out to multiple maintenance subject-matter experts to gain a better understanding of my Soldiers’ MOSs. I now emphasize the importance of not only wearing your PPE, but also making sure it’s in good working condition before use. My section sergeants are tasked with verifying the inspection of all PPE and equipment used before and after the mission. Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to the safety of my Soldiers.