NMCB 3’s safety star shines better than best

Photo By Chief Petty Officer Jesse Sherwin III | Builder Constructionman Gary Lashley a M-240B gunner assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3’s Charlie Company sights in his weapon while he and the rest of the Seabees of NMCB 3 are on the battalion’s pre-deployment Field Training Exercise. The Star on the left of Lashley’s vest was the key part of the battalion’s safety awareness program to remind everyone to Stop, Assess, Think and Review and was attributed for eliminating all injuries during FTX. NMCB 3 is an expeditionary element of U.S. naval forces providing construction, engineering and security services in support of national strategy, naval power projection, humanitarian assistance and contingency operations.  

FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

12.15.2011

Story by Chief Petty Officer Jesse Sherwin III 

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3

ARMY GARISON FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. - Seabees participating in a pre-deployment field training exercise at Fort Hunter Liggett implemented a safety awareness program that is attributed to eliminating all moderate to serious injuries during the exercise, Dec 13.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 called the program STAR, which is an acronym for Stop, Think, Act, and Review. Stop is the simple process of stopping before you perform any task. Once stopped, this will give you an opportunity to think about what you are about to do. Next, you will act on the task at hand and then review what you have just done. If you follow this simple process, then the likelihood of a careless mistake resulting in a mishap and potential injury is greatly reduced. If the controls work, then pass on the information and if they did not work then you will have more information with which to build in better controls and prevent mishaps in the future.

“Historically during FTX we have more than ten accidents to include vehicle mishaps, burns and lacerations,” said Chief Steelworker Anthony Cardona, NMCB 3’s safety officer “This FTX we have had no personal injuries. That is something that has never happened.”

In order to keep the concept fresh for everyone, all hands wore small, white, inch-sized stars on their vests next to their name tags.

“The Safety Star triggers your memory through a visual cue and helps you to remind others to do the same,” said Lt. Cmdr. Gary Doss the Executive Officer of NMCB 3. “This was a very simple process, so people could easily remember it”.

“The star on the uniform became a topic of conservation among the troops,” said Lt. Cmdr. William Wohead, NMCB 3’s Operations Officer. “By talking about the star it spread the word and re-enforced the concept of what we wanted to accomplish.”

STAR is a safety awareness tool and does not replace ORM, which is a deliberate planning process,” said Cardona. “Our STAR program served its purpose, it gave us a fresh look at safety and ORM, while giving the troops simple tools to use in order to mitigate risk and focus on the operational commitment”.

Cardona also said that for future evolutions, to include deployments or exercises, that variations of the Safety STAR awareness program will be reviewed and implemented again.

“The Safety Star is something that is temporary, simple, removable, and seems to work best for a short term push”, said Doss. “If it was permanent it would become just another background item. Therefore, it should be re-emphasized before increased risk evolutions”.

On the Seabee Memorial in Washington DC the words are inscribed “The difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a bit longer”. “Today, NMCB 3’s Safety Star program made that impossible happen”, said Cardona.

NMCB 3 is an expeditionary element of U.S. naval forces providing construction, engineering and security services in support of national strategy, naval power projection, humanitarian assistance and contingency operations.

• Date Taken: 12.15.2011
• Date Posted: 12.15.2011 14:51
• Story ID: 81448
• Location: FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, US