For most pilots, accidents are things that happen to other people—until they're involved in one. The Naval Safety Center is working hard to reduce the number of fatalities and amount of property lost every year to mishaps in the air, on the sea, and on land, but all sailors and Marines must make safety a number-one concern for this effort to succeed.
In a memorandum dated 19 May 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote, "I challenge all of you to reduce the number of mishaps and accident rates by at least 50 percent in the next two years." In the world of safety, this was seen as a very compelling goal—one that could save millions of dollars and hundreds of lives. The real question on everyone's mind, however, was whether the Navy and Marine Corps could meet this goal.
That question now has been partially answered, as we have completed the first year of our two-year effort. In a nutshell, the Navy reduced: total Class A operational mishaps (the best year on record); aviation Class A flight mishaps; shore Class A operational mishaps (excluding motor vehicles); afloat Class A operational mishaps; and total Navy military operational fatalities (see Figure 1). We did not meet the goals for Class A operational mishaps (including government motor vehicles), private motor vehicle fatalities, civilian lost work time cases, or off-duty shore and recreational fatalities. (A Class A mishap is one that costs $1 million or more in damages, destroys a platform, results in a fatality, or leaves an individual with a permanent total disability.)
The Marine Corps met the goals for motor vehicle Class A operational mishaps and private motor vehicle fatalities (a significant achievement) and finished above expectations for total Class A operational mishaps, aviation Class A flight mishaps, ground Class A operational mishaps (excluding motor vehicle), civilian lost work time cases (slightly above), and off-duty recreational fatalities.
Can we meet the goals for fiscal year 2005? If all sailors and Marines view themselves as critical members of the safety team, the culture is in place to meet the goal. On the other hand, if our personnel believe safety is the job of someone else either up or down the chain of command, or the command safety officer, or the staff at the Naval Safety Center or the Safety Division at Headquarters Marine Corps, our chances for success are not very good.
Everyone is part of the solution, part of the "world of safety." Arguably, we experienced fewer mishaps because sailors, Marines, and civilians are engaged in the safety process. They manage risk, control hazards, and follow procedures. As a result, millions of dollars are available to buy those things that contribute directly to readiness. Lives have been saved, and sailors and Marines are there to contribute their invaluable talents to mission accomplishment.
If you look at the statistics from fiscal years 2002 through 2004-680 lives lost and $2.87 billion in property damage (see Figure 2)-the potential for saving substantial resources and countless lives is clear. If you follow the business model that includes all indirect costs, the number grows by a factor of approximately four-and still does not include nonmonetary costs: unfulfilled potential, ruined families, and children who must grow up without a mother or father. If we meet the goals for fiscal year 2005, we will save an estimated $520 million and prevent 82 deaths.
The critical equation is simple: safety = savings = improved combat readiness. Think about it this way: If, because of a mishap, a command has nine aircraft instead of its allocated ten, the command's ability to carry out its mission is affected directly. If an aircraft is brought forward to fill in the hole, somewhere in the readiness chain there is one fewer asset on the ramp. There is a direct effect on our ability to fly that next combat sortie or train that next aircrew.
As we all work toward mishap reduction it is important to recognize the barriers we face. Two of these should be familiar to everyone. First, there are those who might accept mishaps as the cost of doing business. Many of the daily activities of the military are dangerous, their reasoning goes, and bad things sometimes are going to happen. The flaws in this logic are evident. The cost is too high, particularly when you realize the vast majority of mishaps are preventable.
Second, at times our culture creates different approaches to safety. Talking about safety is good, but results are realized when speeches, messages, and policies are followed with observable and measurable actions. Rules and regulations are great tools to guide our efforts, but only if people understand and enforce them. When I talk to prospective commanding officers and executive officers, I often ask what actions are taken after an aviation or afloat Class A mishap that damages or destroys an aircraft, ship, submarine, or ground vehicle. They know a great deal about establishing a mishap board, conducting an investigation, and then ensuring the lessons learned are shared to prevent the next mishap. When the topic shifts to a traffic or recreational accident, however, the discussion often centers around notifying the family, ensuring all paperwork is correct, and taking an inventory of personal effects. All are correct steps, but at times what is missing is a discussion of what is necessary to prevent the next car accident.
Within the fleet and the Marine Corps today, many great things are being done. The Commander Naval Air Forces' Operational Risk Management and Fundamentals Campaign, which refocused attention on basic flying skills and greatly expanded the use of risk-management techniques, is an innovative and effective program that can be expanded to other areas. The "1,001 Safety Success Stories" section on the Naval Safety Center's Web site showcases Navy and Marine Corps achievements that prevented injuries, disabilities, and fatalities among our military and civilian personnel. Another example of excellent local efforts and initiatives is at Strike Fighter Squadron 14, which holds a weekly training day for current Hornet issues, appoints safety petty officers of the day who observe maintenance evolutions, and has an excellent safety read board that gets the word out and stresses good practices in the squadron. The Branch Medical Clinic at Pearl Harbor opened a sports medicine and rehabilitation therapy center that returned 78% of its patients to duty status within 30 days. The Vella Gulf (CG-72) safety officer established an aggressive hazard identification and correction process, strict Navy Safety and Occupational Health Program compliance, and accurate self-assessment procedures. As a result, the ship had 60% fewer safety discrepancies in fiscal year 2003 than any other ship. Many programs are working, and the goodnews stories are there.
The Marine Corps is pursuing a number of powerful initiatives to improve the involvement of every Marine in the service's efforts to reduce its rates. In 2000, it established an executive safety board chaired by the Assistant Commandant; members are general officers from all major commands. It meets semiannually to address safety issues. To gather more meaningful information about current trends, Headquarters Marine Corps (Safety Division) completed a study entitled "Statistical Analysis of USMC Accidental Deaths," which was distributed to all major Marine commands to use for analysis and as part of their marketing efforts and behavioral studies. The Commandant has asked his general officers for further recommendations for uses of the study.
Other current efforts include expanding safety and risk management issues within the general officer symposium, Marine Corps commander's course, sergeant major's symposium, and noncommissioned officers symposium. The Marine Corps has incorporated operational risk management training as part of the instruction at all formal Marine Corps schools; these courses now are online. Safety awareness throughout the Marine Corps has been expanded dramatically thanks to a weekly message to all general officers. Individual mishaps are under increased scrutiny because of a requirement for the first general officer in the chain of command to receive a brief about the mishap within seven days, with the Assistant Commandant getting briefed on the eighth day. With regard to tactical vehicle mishaps (particularly Humvee rollovers), several efforts are under way, including development of a standardized convoy checklist, vehicle safety improvements, and an update of the operator training and licensing program. To reduce the number of explosives mishaps, improved training about unexploded ordnance is being developed.
Of particular note is a mentoring program developed by the 2d Marine Air Wing. This promising program focuses on noncommissioned officer (NCO) leadership. All Marines are assigned an NCO mentor (who establishes safety program ground rules) and are categorized into high-, medium-, or low-risk groups. High-risk Marines, for example, have received a court-martial, a drivingunder-the-influence conviction, or been involved in alcohol-related incidents. These Marines are monitored closely. They must contact their mentors at regular intervals during off-duty periods.
These Navy and Marine Corps programs all have significant positive effects every day. At the same time, however, in too many commands there are areas that require attention, such as: personnel not consistently wearing protective equipment; lack of fully developed operational risk management programs; training and supervision shortfalls; limited traffic-safety programs, with no overall coordinator; failure to enforce seat-belt regulations; poorly maintained preventive maintenance programs; lack of hazard reporting; and inexperienced personnel and skill-based errors.
Today, most of these problems are well recognized, and many existing programs address them, but we still need new ideas and approaches. Four key areas offer the greatest opportunities to help us reach our goal.
* Leadership. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England emphasized this point in his November 2003 safety policy statement: "Every command, every work center, every unit will have a safety culture built on three principles: leadership commitment, leadership courage and leadership integrity. . . . Today's leaders must have the integrity to hold themselves and their people accountable for violations of safety standards and to admit their own safety failures so others will do likewise." As operational risk management becomes more entrenched in our culture, the ideal is for sailors and Marines to move from being supervised to being self-supervised and to make the smart decisions themselves. A safety program must be continuously nurtured and maintained, not just something that comes to the forefront after a mishap. A good example of where leadership can make a difference is traffic mishaps. We cannot eliminate darkness or change the weekends (in 2001-2003, 67% of all traffic fatalities occurred at night; 62% occurred on a weekend), but other factors such as the use of seat belts, speeding, drinking, and fatigue can be influenced directly through guidance, training, intrusive leadership, and setting the example.
* Technology. This will not solve the safety problem alone, but it can have a positive effect. The Web-Enabled Safety System is an excellent example. The Naval Safety Center is working to put our database on line so fleet and Marine Corps personnel can report mishaps more quickly and easily, and so operators can analyze mishap and hazard data in real time without having to send questions through Safety Center statisticians. The project will be a one-stop shopping center for automated mishap reporting, data retrieval, and analysis. It will capture full reports, identifying the who, what, where, when, and why of mishaps and hazards and provide users with the ability to analyze information and reports from their own commands or across all platforms. Phase one of this system, for nonaviation mishaps, now is online.
* Education and Training. Safety training exists throughout the Navy and Marine Corps, but who owns it and who drives it sometimes are unclear. To be successful, safety training must be embedded throughout sailors' and Marines' careers. The Safety Center and Naval Education and Training Command are working to determine exactly what safety and operational risk management training Navy personnel receive throughout their careers. The next step is to standardize career-long safety training that will change the culture, inculcating the fact that managing risk at all levels is the foundation of fleet and personnel readiness.
* Culture-Assessment Programs. Culture in this case means the informal rules and attitudes-good and badthat govern how we work and train. To identify humanfactor problems before they produce mishaps, the Safety Center offers workshops led by trained facilitators for various levels of enlisted personnel and officers. Two online surveys offered by the School of Aviation Safety in Monterey, one specifically for aviation maintenance, are a required part of the culture-workshop process. There also is an afloat version of the program available to ships and submarines. The data indicate this approach pays off. During the past two years, Navy and Marine Corps squadrons had 72 Class A flight mishaps. During this period, 99 squadrons (36% of naval aviation) had culture workshops. Of those units, only five had Class A flight mishaps after a culture workshop, accounting for just 7% of total mishaps. The 64% of the squadrons that did not have culture workshops had 93% of the mishaps.
Many efforts are under way to bring attention to safety and reduce mishap rates. We are building closer relationships with our sister services, using the Joint Service Safety Council to pursue common initiatives and programs. One highlight of current efforts among our sister services is the Army Safety Management Information System's private owner vehicle module. Soldiers enter information about planned trips and driving habits, and the system provides a risk analysis, control measures, and narratives of actual mishaps during similar trips. The Naval Safety Center and Headquarters Marine Corps (Safety Division) are working to make this system available to sailors and Marines, with Navy and Marine Corps mishap narratives added.
There also is activity outside the Department of the Navy. The Department of Defense's Defense Safety Oversight Council has met seven times, with nine task forces guiding and monitoring safety initiatives in all the military services. The council is made up of the Under secretaries of Defense, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Under secretaries of the military departments and is chaired by the Under secretary for Personnel and Readiness. The council's charter is to monitor mishaps and trends, determine causes, and recommend ways to prevent them. The task forces are led by flag or general officers or members of the Senior Executive' Service.
What are the prospects for meeting the goals for fiscal year 2005? Many positive things are happening, but the challenge is there before us. Everyone must be part of the solution, and now is the time to get involved. Ask questions and expect success. In the world of safety, success means the mission gets accomplished, no one gets hurt, no equipment gets broken, and no assets are wasted. If we treat safety for our Navy family the same way we do for our own personal families, we will achieve our goal.
Admiral Brooks is Commander, Naval Safety Center. His previous assignments include Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Force Atlantic, and Deputy Director and Fleet Liaison for Space, Information Warfare, Command and Control.