Courtesy Photo | David Longa, the Safety officer of 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 25th Infantry...... read more read more
By Cpl. Robert England
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq – During the course of a 12-month deployment, soldiers perform the same tasks daily, establishing and reinforcing a routine to increase their efficiency in a skill or profession. A negative and potentially dangerous side-effect to repetitious performance of routine tasks and missions, even the most dedicated Soldiers can become complacent.
The Department of Defense employs knowledgeable professionals to assist troops in maintaining high safety standards and counter complacency to accomplish their missions.
“The Army doesn’t train soldiers to do the wrong thing; it’s not that kind of institution,” said David Longa, Safety officer of 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. “Sometimes, however, soldiers get complacent, and my job is to curb that complacency.”
A native of Mangilao, Guam, Longa said he provides professional and tactical advice to commanders regarding individual and unit-level safety policies and procedures.
In addition to advising commanders on creating a safe environment for their soldiers, Longa combats complacency by conducting routine safety inspections of living and working areas around post.
“You can never find him in his office, because he’s always out at each of the units seeing how he can help them,” said 1st Lt. Olha Vandergriff, assistant personnel officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Special Troops Battalion, 2nd AAB, 25th Inf. Div.
Longa randomly inspects soldiers’ personal protective equipment for quality control, and advises commanders on implementing policies for soldiers’ safety.
“I always stress the importance of safety, even if it takes a few extra minutes to do something the right way,” he said. “It takes less than that for someone to get hurt, so I check for the proper uses of all safety devices.”
In addition to providing safety standards for soldiers, Longa visits various operating areas around Contingency Operating Base Warhorse, ensuring civilian contractors use safety gear according to policy.
Preventing accidents and eliminating complacency allows soldiers and civilians to accomplish daily duties with minimal danger to themselves and others, said Longa.
Longa’s eye for safety developed during 21 years of U.S Army service as a weapons technician, which, he said, has greatly assisted him during his eight years as a safety inspector.
“Safety for me started out as an additional duty while in uniform,” he said. “My job in the service dealt with weapons and explosives, and I didn’t want my soldiers to get hurt, so we were always safety-conscious.”
As a soldier, Longa said he attended a week-long training program where he learned the administrative responsibilities of being a safety officer; how to generate reports, how to properly gather and report information during an accident investigation.
He also learned to gather information from the field, during the interactive segment of the class, which allowed trainees to correctly identify safety violations and hazards.
“We were taken to a hangar with all of the violations already in place,” Longa said. “We were split into groups as trainees and were tasked with finding and noting all the violations. When we got back to the class, we used what we were taught in the previous classroom portion of the training to generate our own reports.”
After completing inspections at COB Warhorse, Longa compiles data, using his training and relays it to his counterparts at U.S. Division-North.
In order to keep track of current safety regulations, Longa said he receives updates online with periodic training to adhere and enforce guidelines set by the Department of Defense.
Longa cited his extensive military experience and love for soldiers as the primary reason he has devoted so much of his life to promoting the benefits of living and working safely.
“To do this job and be successful, you need to understand how the military operates as a whole,” he said. “That and you have to want to save soldiers’ lives.”
| Date Taken: | 02.25.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2011 10:19 |
| Story ID: | 67594 |
| Location: | CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, IQ |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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