Fort Sill staff ride personalizes SHARP, safety incidents

By Monica K. Guthrie, Fort Sill CannoneerOctober 29, 2015

Safety triangles
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FORT SILL, Okla. (Oct. 29, 2015) -- Leaders from Fort Sill units participated in a staff safety ride, Oct. 21. The event took 40 leaders on a tour to multiple locations where safety or sexual harassment incidents have occurred.

"In planning we said 'let's make this important to people,' and in order to make things important, it has to be personal," said Col. Jim Payne, commander of 30th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. "We are taking them to where things have happened and discussing, in some detail, what happened, showing them pictures of the person, so that it resonates with them. It's better than talking about it."

Leaders included battalion commanders, first sergeants, sergeants major and also Sexual Harassment, Assault Response and Prevention and post safety representatives to include the Fires Center of Excellence Safety, and Criminal Investigation Command representatives. The purpose of bringing together command teams and SHARP/safety representatives was to create dialogue on ways leaders can help prevent future incidents.

"The SHARP and safety representatives provided additional information as well as subject-matter expertise for our briefers," said Maj. Jimmy Chen, 30th ADA Brigade operations officer. "They also facilitated discussion by answering in-depth questions from the attendees. Their attendance enabled discussions to go beyond the 'who, what, when, where and why' questions and into the 'how' domain, which gets us deeper into the heart of the matter."

The safety ride began with an introduction and statistics brief where participants learned about the typical characteristics of sexual predators.

Capt. Courtney Tiemeyer, commander of B Battery, 3-6th ADA, said she learned typical characteristics in-clude smooth talking, being proficient at physical fitness and at work, and that oftentimes their victims are quiet, have had issues and have more to lose.

From there the leaders boarded a bus and traveled to six sites where SHARP or safety incidents occurred. Case-study sites included on-post locations such as the barracks and motor pool and also off-post locations such as the road leading to the Holy City in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

"We wanted to include off-post locations since our brigade leadership is well aware that our responsibilities should not be limited within the confines of the installation," said Chen. "If we were to limit our staff ride to only on-post locations, we would not get a holistic view of our Soldiers' lives and the potential hazards that exist."

Each command team was given a location and case study to present to the group. As the group arrived at a location, the command team responsible would spell out the details of the incident that took place. From there they took the conversation from saying what happened to "what now?"

"We know the 'what,' now we need to know the 'so what,'" said Payne. "How can we apply what happened here to our lives and to our Soldiers. We have questions to answer, 'what did the chain of command do right and what was not right?' We are also developing communication skills with our leadership by pulling out the dialogue. They have to be comfortable speaking to their leaders, peers and subordinates. They are learning to be forthright and have courage when they speak."

Tiemeyer's team spoke at the motorpool where earlier in the year a contractor lost his finger due to negligence on the part of many. Tiemeyer explained how the finger was lost but also described how the victim said there was not a standard when, in fact, there was one.

"If everyone had been doing their part and paid attention this could have been avoided but people became complacent," said Tiemeyer. "They felt comfortable. They'd done it this way eight or nine times before so it wasn't a big deal. But just because you've done it so many times doesn't mean the next time it won't be catastrophic. There was a correct way but it didn't make its way down to the lowest level and if the training isn't making it's way down, then it's all for nothing."

Payne joined in the conversation encouraging leaders to not "sit on their high horse" and think it could not happen to them. He said the standard operating procedures handbook was 50 pages long and asked if those present had read it.

"Do not let yourself become complacent," he said. "It can happen to us, too. It only takes one time, one day, one check for something to happen. Just because we've always done it the same way doesn't mean that's the correct way to do it."

This was the first safety staff ride the brigade has done in this manner, said Chen. The feedback from the event was positive as many commented on not ever being part of a safety ride with this degree of interaction. Tiemeyer said she has plans to take what was done and mimic it on a small scale within her own unit.

"Every Friday I give a safety brief to my privates," said Tiemeyer. "I will be telling them about today, about what happened at each stop. I want to have a dialogue with them and make it real so they know it can happen to anyone."