Risk Management Magazine

My wife says people can be summed up into two categories: those who err on the side of caution and sound judgment (her), and the accident prone (of course, me). Seeing me in short sleeves provides all the evidence needed to support her hypothesis.

It was another hot afternoon in the eastern part of Afghanistan known to many as RC-East, where the temperature can exceed 120 F in the summer. My unit was tasked with providing two CH-47D Chinook helicopters to transport 40 personnel from Kabul to Bagram Airfield. This was supposed to be a simple mission, but as everyone knows, there is no such thing.

When I went to work that morning, I never thought I would later be sitting in the emergency room with one broken hand and a piece of metal in the palm of the other. Complacency and overconfidence had won the day.