Risk Management Magazine

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?”

I hope anyone reading this article will take this experience to heart and recognize the sights, sounds and smells from that night are ones I will never forget. The life you save could be your own, but it could also be one you can’t live with taking.

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.