Risk Management Magazine

While in Afghanistan, every Thursday night I would get together with three friends and watch “Sons of Anarchy,” a television show about the exploits of an outlaw motorcycle gang. After about six months of watching, we decided we all needed to buy motorcycles when we returned home.

Since fiscal 2005, at least 41 Soldiers have been injured by lightning strikes; three Soldiers died from their injuries and another suffered a permanent total disability.

My unit had been fighting fires with as many as five other crews at once for a little over a month when the following incident happened. During this time many of us had logged between 50 and 70 hours on the fires, which is an extremely intense environment for all crewmembers.