Risk Management Magazine

When an explosion causes a sudden release of heat, light and sound, the energy causes the air around the point of the explosion to expand outward faster than the speed of sound. The blasts produced by these explosives throw shrapnel, extreme heat and piercing sound at their targets. However, perhaps the most dangerous — yet least understood — effect of an explosion is blast overpressure (BOP).

The weather in South Carolina is often unpredictable. I found that out firsthand one evening as I left work with clear skies showing only to get caught in a gully-washer a few miles down the road. That wouldn’t have been a problem had I been driving a car. On my motorcycle, however, it nearly cost me my life.

My career, like those of most Army aviators, consists of routine flights that represent a lot of planning. But some of those routine flights turn into memorable events. One of those now-memorable flights was a routine mission transporting two people from Cairns Army Airfield at Fort Novosel, Alabama, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then returning.