Risk Management Magazine

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.

Growing up in an aviation family, most of my dad’s stories tended to start with, “No kidding — there I was, inverted in my Huey. I could tell I was inverted because my Air Medals were dangling in my face.” Back then, I used to just laugh at his tales because I had no real experience in aviation. Several years later, I was in a flight of four aircraft that almost went inadvertent instrument meteoritical conditions (IIMC) while trying to return to Fort Drum, New York. The concept of going inverted and not realizing it made a lot more sense at that point.

This less-than-stellar moment in my career happened many years ago. Back then, I knew that not clearing the windows was a stupid move, but I still felt I was incredibly unlucky that someone left a forklift in the road. Then I read a newspaper article that changed my belief that I was simply a victim of bad luck.