Dyess takes home five out of seven annual 12th AF safety awards

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kia Atkins
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  On Dec. 5, Team Dyess was announced as the winner of five out of seven categories for the annual 12th Air Force Phase II Safety Awards.

The awards won were Flight Safety Officer of the Year, by Maj. James Corrigan; Flight Safety NCO of the Year, by Master Sgt. Wesley Hilbrich; Flight Safety Outstanding Achievement Award, by Maj. James Lewis; Ground Safety Outstanding Achievement Award, by Master Sgt. Eric Swafford and Ground Safety Special Achievement Award, by Staff Sgt. Michael Warstler who also won the Ground Safety Special Achievement Award at Air Combat Command. Another 12th AF award won by the safety office was the Annual Phase I Safety Award Safety Professional of the Year by Staff Sgt. Justin McNeese.

One of the contributing factors that made the 7th Bomb Wing Safety Office stand out this year was the ground safety office earning an outstanding during the Consolidated Unit Inspection.

"Only three outstandings have been awarded for ground safety from ACC in the history of the command," said Lt. Col. Edward Brennan, 7th BW Chief of Safety. "And of those three, this is the second for Dyess."

Some other aspects that made the safety office stand out were innovations made by flight safety such as the implementation of a B-1 SAFENET, where B-1 community safety leaders get together and discuss trends, problems and solutions on a quarterly basis. The safety office also leads the major command in motorcycle compliance.

"From a broad perspective, we've tried really hard to be proactive, instead of reactive," Brennan said. "We can always do safety investigations and inspections or look for compliance, but the real question is: what are we doing for risk management? I think the proactive stance is what helped our office do so well."

The 7th BW safety vision is to cultivate a lasting safety conscious culture at Dyess.

"I think one of our most important jobs here is to step back, take a look at the big picture and say, 'okay, what's wrong with that?' Then educate not only ourselves, but other people on how we would prevent a possible mishap," said Master Sgt. Wesley Hilbrich, 7th Bomb Wing Safety Office flight safety NCO. "It's our job to track trends and find facts in a safety investigation, so we can take measures to prevent a similar situation from happening. We can't control everything, but mishaps are preventable through education. It is part of our job to ensure the base is educated."