The Sixth Paragraph - Safety.
Abstract
The Army has made a definite investment of time, effort and funds to enhance its safety program over the last ten years. Unfortunately, the program's effects were slow to reach the soldier level. The Army's effort, in large part, was driven by statutory requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Therefore, the Army's approach was similar to private industry. It hired civilian safety experts at major Army commands to interpret the complicated maze of written laws, regulations and industry standards. These safety experts were staff personnel with direct access to the commander. All was well at the top, but the average troop commander and his soldiers did not benefit significantly from this effort. Major commanders soon recognized that the importance of the program was not getting to unit commanders and their troops when they reviewed accident reports showing an unacceptable level of serious and avoidable accidents. Army leadership in the last several years has made considerable progress in getting the safety message to the soldier, but senior leaders have said we have further to go. A good method to improve safety awareness at the unit level would be to adopt a six paragraph operations order with safety as the sixty paragraph. All good troop leaders refer to their handy pocket size troop leading procedures card regularly during field operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 30, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA195078
Entities
People
- Charles M. Bechtel
Organizations
- United States Army War College