Operational risk management, safety not just buzz words, but Air Force culture

  • Published
  • By Col. Jeffrey J. Pickard
  • 349th Maintenance Group commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Operational risk management and safety are not just buzz words. They are mission-critical processes that enhance mission readiness.

We, in leadership, spend countless hours preaching safety and ORM throughout all levels of the chain. It doesn't matter where you work. We preach it all the time. We also have several varieties of training that we all accomplish: Computer based training, PowerPoint presentations, block training, supervisor training, you name it we do it.

I know there are lots of folks reading this who think we are out of our mind with all the training. Sound ridiculous?

Think of it this way -no matter who you are at Travis, a civilian, military, contractor, active duty or Reservist, our job is to provide combat-ready Airmen to execute mission sets assigned to us in support of our nation at a moment's notice.

Whether you are aerial port, medical, contracting, maintenance, aircrew or force support, you name the job, we are all an integrated team with thousands of moving parts, all with the same focus, the mission.

Where else could you work where someone six months out of high school can be in charge of equipment, personnel or facilities worth millions of dollars? With all those moving parts discussed previously, it can be easy to lose momentary focus and clip a building with a vehicle or stretch out on a ladder to grab something instead of moving the ladder only to fall off of the ladder?

Here's the thing. We need all of us to attain mission success. We need trained professionals with good equipment and safe work facilities in order to attain mission success. When someone gets hurt, when equipment or facilities are damaged, that diverts us from mission success. We lose a member of our team, either for a short time or potentially permanently, lose a piece of equipment that is necessary to do our part of the mission or we lose a facility that now requires us to set up a temporary work site or be at a work stoppage until the repair is completed.

If you play baseball, having a .300 batting average is really good. Hitting .500 is phenomenal. Translate that to what we do. We couldn't achieve mission success by loading aircraft with cargo safely 30 percent of the time or even 50 percent of the time. I wouldn't want a medical technician who could hit the vein 50 percent of the time to give me an IV. Would it be OK if we were passengers on one of our Travis aircraft and they had a .500 average for safe landings? No.

ORM and safety are not buzz words, they are our culture. When you are at work, focus on the job. Always be on the lookout for potential safety problems. We need all of you, we can't do it without you.

Thanks for what you do and for your continued professionalism. I'm proud to serve side by side with all of you.