1
Mar
2014
As a motorcycle rider with more than 26 years of experience, I consider myself fairly seasoned. Seasoned, however, doesn’t always equal smart. As human beings, we are still susceptible to simple mistakes, overconfidence and errors in judgment.
As aviation professionals, we all try our very best to accomplish the mission. Sometimes, this desire to produce the best results in the minimal amount of time works against us.
I never gave much thought that overconfidence could be a bad thing. This aspect was pointed out in an after-action review one rainy night in Mosul.
Leader involvement, training and empowering subordinates are essential to the success of a safety program. Leaders at all levels must be engaged to make the mission successful. For the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, the emphasis starts at the top.
They say there are only two kinds of motorcycle riders — those who have crashed and those who are going to crash. While I do not take pride in this fact, I must admit that I am a rider who has crashed … twice.
Many times in a deployed environment, things that were once high on the priority list are moved toward the bottom. This can be broken down to two simple reasons: time and threat.