MASTER SGT. MICHAEL HESTER
Arkansas Army National Guard
North Little Rock, Arkansas
While deployed to Afghanistan, I was part of a unit assigned to a tiny combat outpost in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Our mission was to work with the local government to develop plans for infrastructure and business/work opportunities. Operating power tools and heavy equipment, such as skid steers, forklifts and an extending-boom SkyTrak, were among our top requirements. Ten Soldiers in our 42-person unit were selected for training and certification on the heavy equipment. All 10 were experienced with these types of machines, but we did have to learn a few things specific to the particular makes and models. By and large, though, we had no problems.
About six months into the deployment, it was mid-summer, extremely hot and bone dry. I was using the SkyTrak — a large, four-wheeled vehicle that’s sort of a combination of a forklift and extendable boom crane — to unload pallets of water from a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle to a shaded holding area. The SkyTrak is about 25 feet long and has an approximately 20-foot boom and 4,000-pound lifting capacity with the forks. I was about to finish unloading the water when another Soldier asked me to bring the SkyTrak over to unload something else. I picked up the last pallet of water, slid it into place with the boom and then backed out to head off to the next job.
It was just a quick trip across an open area to where we had several storage CONEXs. We referred to the soil in this area as moon dust because of its extremely fine, powdery nature. The more we drove over the soil, the moon dust became deeper and blew into the air. As I turned the SkyTrak, I raised the boom a bit so I could better see ahead of the machine. By now, the dust was so thick it blocked my view of the ground. However, I’d made this trip a thousand times before, so I wasn’t concerned.
Suddenly, BAM! Out of nowhere, I struck what I thought was a ramp. It was actually a raised roadbed that was closer than I remembered. Worst of all, I hit it at a slanted angle. The roadbed was about 18 inches high and had a sloping angle to the side of it. Hitting it in a HMMWV or truck wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it proved much differently in the SkyTrak.
When the front-left wheel came up the slope, it forced the SkyTrak to lurch up and to the right. As the machine reared up like some kind of mechanical monster, I saw my friend’s eyes grow huge — probably as big as mine! The sudden shift in weight caused the left-front wheel to come off the ground. The fact that the SkyTrak had an articulated drivetrain didn’t help. The machine seemed to stand still for what felt like a long time on its now-crooked footing. When all the movement seemed to be over, a strange new thing happened.
The SkyTrak was now static only because the large, heavy, extended boom had not caught up to the movement yet. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as the left side of the machine came off the ground to the point that I thought it would overturn. As quickly as I could, I pushed the lever to lower the boom to the ground. This shifted the center of gravity just enough to cause the SkyTrak to settle back down on all four wheels.
In hindsight, I should have had a ground guide walk in front of me when I crossed the open area. A guide could have warned me of the raised roadbed. I also should have lowered and retracted the SkyTrak’s boom, which would have lowered the center of gravity. By pure luck, I did not flip the machine. But rest assured, I am now a much safer SkyTrak operator — maybe one of the safest in the Army!
FYI
Using ground guides in congested or confined areas is critical to personnel safety and to promote safe vehicle operations. These congested and confined areas are defined as motor pools, construction access sites, assembly areas, bivouac sites, parking areas, hazardous terrain or any other situation where visibility is restricted. Before moving vehicles in these areas, the operator and ground guide should have the same clear understanding of what the hand and arm signals mean. The same applies for the use of filtered flashlights or chem-lights in limited visibility. Operators and crews should receive instruction on ground guiding during training events, such as driver training, and periodic refresher training to ensure proficiency is maintained. For more information, visit the USACRC website at https://safety.army.mil/ON-DUTY/Government-Motor-Vehicle/Ground-Guiding.