PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Col. Dennis S. Sullivan and Command Sgt. Maj. Hector J. Font, 2nd Security Forces Assistance Brigade command team, presented the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment with the Army Safety Excellence Award for having no class A or B accidents for one year.
Class A and B accidents are defined as any accident resulting in more than $200,000 in damage or any permanent disability to a Soldier, while on or off duty.
The Army Safety Excellence Award is the highest achievement a unit can receive regarding safety within its ranks.
Through their leaders and Soldiers, 2-15 FA proved its ability to train and operate safely in combat conditions.
The achievement is larger than it sounds. Every deploying field artillery unit goes through a variety of events that lead to their certification to deploy. Events include individual weapons qualifications and artillery live-fire ranges and culminate in a final training event at a combat training center.
Soldiers of 2-15 FA attended the National Training Center, at Fort Irwin, Calif., in September and October 2012. To get there, Soldiers had to move hundreds of pieces of equipment from Fort Drum to Fort Irwin, execute a month of training and then return the same equipment back to New York.
"(Their) performance was absolutely outstanding, and they were stewards of professionalism during train-up and an NTC rotation," said Capt. Timothy Lawson, A Battery commander.
"The discipline and standards within the ranks is a true testament to the professionalism of each Soldier and NCO," said 1st Sgt. Terrance Stewart, first sergeant for A Battery. "These NCOs have emphasized safety in their day-to-day operations and have demonstrated to their Soldiers what right looks like."
"The U.S. Army is a risk-taking organization; however, one of its priorities is addressing general Army Safety Programs Management Functions," said Command Sgt. Maj. Ernest Warner, 2-15 FA senior enlisted adviser. "Leaders at all levels throughout the Army are responsible for mitigating risk."
The battalion used the Army Readiness Assessment Program, which enabled battalion and battery commanders to understand where they stood as far as safety was concerned within their ranks. This information, assessed and analyzed by the command team, facilitates their enacting policies and procedures, which lessens the amount of risk assumed by the unit.
"Good units police themselves," said Lt. Col. Christopher Wendland, 2-15 FA commander.
Every Soldier within the battalion completed the online Composite Risk Management training course, which acted as a control measure. First sergeants, commanders and leaders at all levels set the conditions for the battalion to achieve the tactical safety award after NTC.
The credit goes to the individual Soldier who makes a conscious decision to do right or wrong.
"The Army Safety Award is not earned by a few Soldiers or leaders within the organization; it is every Soldier and leader fully engaged in making safety happen," Warner said.
Soldiers and the chain of command, through hard work, influence this decision process -- from battery commanders giving safety briefings, to NCOs and officers enforcing strict adherence to standards and providing supervision to Soldiers.
"It is obvious that safety begins at the lowest level with the Soldiers and junior NCOs," said 1st Sgt. Travis Fisher, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery. "It is the senior NCO who inspects the risk management process and gets the assessments approved at the proper levels so as to provide the realistic training."
The Army Safety Excellence Streamer is proudly displayed for the next year upon the unit's colors as a symbol of standards and discipline for all to emulate.
Kennedy serves with 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment.
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