Risk Management Magazine

Later that day, I grabbed my multimeter to see if I could figure out the problem with the new water heater. It had two heating elements in the tank — one located about a foot from the ground and the second a couple of feet higher. I didn’t bother to read the operator’s manual.

It was the last month of our deployment and things were pretty routine. My back-seater and I were sitting in our Apache on Mustang ramp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, preparing for an air assault. We were on the auxiliary power unit, ensuring all our systems were functioning, when something caught my eye.

After returning home from a year in Afghanistan, I couldn’t wait to take a nice, relaxing trip with family and friends. So, two weeks after redeployment/reintegration, we packed our bags, coolers and paddleboards and headed for the beach. There, we’d join three other families already enjoying the beautiful weather. Little did I know that this trip would be anything but relaxing.