Passing on the buck: New era of safety excellence

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Benjamin Stratton
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Wing safety has always been a very important factor in overall mission success, especially when it comes to ground safety.

Ground safety is tasked with ensuring the mass majority of the base adheres to their respective safety guidelines and are involved in the reporting process if and when a mishap occurs.

"Every aspect of the Wolf Pack mission goes through this office in one way or another," said Staff Sgt. Cody Hobart, former 8th Fighter Wing ground safety craftsman. "We are intertwined in every aspect to make sure we get the mission done in the safest manner so we don't have interruptions that would impact the mission in a negative way."

Hobart recently was reassigned to RAF Mildenhall, England, after serving his year at Kunsan. But before leaving he ensured he left the Wolf Pack's safety in very capable hands and was sure to bring his replacement up to speed on the strategic importance the 8th FW plays in the Pacific Air Forces mission here.

"Safety is on all levels, it's everywhere you look," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Armour, 8th FW ground safety craftsman and Hobart's replacement. "There's a reason why certain things are done the way they are now. Back when the Air Force began, mishap rates were atrocious. For instance, aircraft were crashing due to foreign object and debris incidents, etc. You wouldn't believe the rate at which we had these sorts of mission hindering incidents back then because safety wasn't thought of at that level yet."

Armour assured though that without the amount of safety requirements woven through every aspect of the mission these days, "we wouldn't be able to accomplish the mission."

Together, Hobart and Armour further emphasized the importance their office and the safety requirements written into every job's respective operating instructions have on the success of the Wolf Pack's mission.

That success stems from individuals adhering to those instructions. But according to Hobart, a lot of safety reports written over the last year stemmed from Airmen treating Kunsan as just another deployment on their way to their next base.

"You have to fight that mindset that you're only here for 365 days," Hobart said. "We walk into legit safety situations at this base you wouldn't normally see at other bases. And that's what makes it challenging here."

But Hobart said this challenge is easily overcome with perseverance and dedication to the job at hand.

"What leadership here pushes hard for is 'leave it better than it was before'," he said. "And that applies to everything, not just safety. You can leave Kunsan better than you found it when you arrived."

This notion applies for all Wolf Pack members and for the new 8th FW ground safety manager, Master Sgt. Wallace Greenwood, this will be one of his number one priorities of the next year.

"Safety's job is not to hinder commanders in their mission accomplishment or to slow down production," he said. "The intent of safety is that we are working with commanders to ensure we are accomplishing the mission as safely as possible."

Greenwood said his office's primary goal is to keep Kunsan's personnel safe as well as keep their equipment functioning and in good working order.

"So without safety, you can't accomplish the mission," he added.

A lot of people, most commanders, say this about their office, and the majority would be correct, however, since joining the Air Force, whether enlisted or officer, the importance of on-the-job safety has been drilled into Airmen across the board and according to Greenwood, there's a very good reason for this.

"We're here to assist commanders in conducting the mission and accomplishing the mission or goal at hand as safely as possible," he said. "We all have very high operations tempo jobs, everyone, from the individual who is pushing paper clips to the security forces member working the perimeter of the base. With that being said, you have to be able to articulate the importance of safety to an individual in a manner they are going to be conducive and sometimes that means reiterating things they already know and refreshing their memory."

Reflecting on what he's learned since switching from a security forces member of 10 years to an expert in ground safety, Greenwood explained his daily sense of accomplishment:

"If at the end of the day we've made it through mishap free -- we've done our job."