Risk Management Magazine

Not all on-duty mishaps occur in tactical vehicles or aircraft. The things Soldiers do during downtime can just as easily affect mission readiness.

During one deployment, I was part of an aircrew that, upon landing, discovered an open and damaged engine nacelle. My first reaction was how the nacelle latch could fail in flight because I always check them during my walk-around. I asked myself, “I did check them this time, right?”

An important aspect of being a member of the U.S. military service is to meet basic physical fitness standards established by Department of Defense instruction. The DOD requires each service to establish its own physical training program to measure fitness in a way determined most relevant to that service.