Risk Management Magazine

Every Soldier's death or injury in training is a tragic loss to the unit and families. We must act at every level of leadership to prevent these needless losses.

Mundane tasks are hurting Soldiers. The Army expects us to do the same or more with less time and resources, which negatively affects unit morale, retention and even safety. Laundry lists of tasks continue to pile on and, unfortunately, leaders may forget or choose to skip important steps, such as risk management, in the planning process. This came back to bite my unit when the routine task of reorganizing a storage container turned into a partial finger amputation – a Class B mishap.

Cold weather is more than just an inconvenience. It can be dangerous and even deadly. Luckily, our bodies have a number of ways of signaling that cold temperatures are creating dangerous conditions, and we know the steps to take to keep a cold-weather tragedy from happening.