FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Fort Leonard Wood’s Maneuver Support Center of Excellence demonstrated its commitment to safety excellence during fiscal year 2023, earning eight U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command safety awards, officials announced.

Fort Leonard Wood winners included:

  • the U.S. Army Engineer School, in the Exceptional Organization Safety – One Star category;
  • the 1st Engineer Brigade, in the Exceptional Organization Safety – Brigade category;
  • Maj. Abbey Pedersen, 3rd Chemical Brigade, in the Individual Award of Excellence – Field Grade category;
  • Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua Hickman, 3rd Chemical Brigade, in the Individual Award of Excellence – Warrant Officer category;
  • Staff Sgt. Brandon Joffrion, 14th Military Police Brigade, in the Individual Award of Excellence – Junior Enlisted category;
  • William Rase, U.S. Army Military Police School, in the Individual Award of Excellence – Senior Civilian category;
  • the Horizontal Skills Division, 554th Engineer Battalion, in the Army Excellence in Industrial Safety category; and
  • the Installation Explosive Safety Program, in the Army Excellence in Explosives Safety Award category.

According to Oscar Powers, MSCoE Safety director, Fort Leonard Wood’s safety program is strong due to “everyone’s commitment to this team.”

“The people – the service members, civilians, retirees, family members and the community – are what make this program work so well,” Powers said. “Fort Leonard Wood is the best place to live and serve in the military, and our results speak for themselves year after year.”

As a school that “continues to set the standard for safety and risk management strategies,” USAES finds solutions to keeping complacency out of the training environment, wrote Col. Mark Glaspell, MSCoE chief of staff, in his nomination letter for the Engineer School’s award.

“USAES has infused a safety culture into every aspect and mission assigned or taken on by the school,” Glaspell wrote. “It embraces the important task of developing Soldiers, willingly mentored subordinates, and incorporating risk management and safe practices with every Soldier.”

The 1st En. Bde., which has “one of the most diverse and challenging training missions within TRADOC … prides itself on maintaining a high standard of safety,” wrote Col. Aaron Bohrer, 1st En. Bde. commander, in the nomination letter for his brigade’s award.

“Our Soldiers know that whenever they are asked to perform potentially hazardous tasks, whether it be priming live demolitions, re-grading washed out roads, or helocasting into a lake, their leaders have planned and implemented safety measures at every step of the process,” Bohrer wrote.

While she now serves as the brigade executive officer, Pedersen spent much of the fiscal year as the 3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment executive officer. There, she “performed admirably, and was committed every day to the safety and well-being of all her staff, company leadership and trainees,” wrote Col. Hector Montemayor, 3rd Chem. Bde. commander, in his nomination letter for Pedersen’s award.

Pedersen greatly exceeded the standard in overall safety and demonstrated leader involvement, Montemayor wrote, enhancing the organization’s ability to safely execute challenging and realistic training for the Army’s newest Soldiers.

This included ensuring no hot-weather injuries or class A, B, C or D accidents occurred while training. Pedersen also singlehandedly rebooted the battalion’s safety and transportation standard operating procedures, outlining expectations of safety while preforming training.

Hickman, who is in charge of the U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School’s Hazardous Materials/Dismounted Reconnaissance Division training classes, leads “the most diverse and technically advanced training within the (USACBRNS),” Montemayor wrote in his nomination letter for Hickman’s award.

Montemayor noted under Hickman’s leadership, the HDR trained more than 3,200 Soldiers, Airmen and Marines during the fiscal year, with no major training incidents.

As a senior drill sergeant with Company B, 787th Military Police Battalion, Joffrion prioritized mitigating risk while maintaining training intensity and Army standards during the fiscal year, as he helped the unit transform more than 700 civilians into MP Soldiers while incurring no class A, B, C or D accidents, wrote Col. John Copeland, 14th MP Bde. commander, in his nomination letter for Joffrion’s award.

Additionally, Joffrion trained all new drill sergeants within the company on safety procedures, standards and equipment, Copeland wrote, and he also ensured cadre and trainees followed a physical fitness plan that prevented injuries and maximized efficiency – the company had a 100% pass rate on the Army Combat Fitness Test, as a result.

“His attention to detail and approach to safety has been ingrained into an entire generation of new Military Police Soldiers, who will carry these practices forward,” Copeland wrote.

Rase led the USAMPS’s Advanced Law Enforcement Training Division during the fiscal year, which conducted more than 37,000 high-risk training hours in specialties, including evasive driving techniques and weapons training, with no injuries to students or instructors, Glaspell wrote in his nomination letter for Rase’s award.

The ALETD’s statistics from the fiscal year, “are a testament to (Rase’s) ability to manage risk in a high-risk environment,” Glaspell wrote.

The 554th En. Bn.’s HSD executes and supports the inter-service training of horizontal construction engineers and was accident and incident free during the fiscal year, “due to a comprehensive risk-management program with a safety culture implemented across all teams involved with the heavy equipment training mission,” wrote Lt. Col. David Cox, 554th En. Bn. commander, in his nomination letter for the award.

Cox noted in his letter some of the standard procedures in place to maintain a safety culture, including job hazard analyses conducted on each duty position that evaluated the workload, its environments and how these conditions create hazards, an annual occupational health exam, and an incentives and awards program, to “promote excellence in mission readiness by accident and hazard reduction.”

Explosive safety at Fort Leonard Wood is “a way of life,” Glaspell wrote in his award nomination letter for the installation’s Explosive Safety Program, noting explosives are regularly used at locations across the installation to train and familiarize new Soldiers, including the multitude of Army Engineers trained on Fort Leonard Wood.

Despite this, the installation “maintained paramount standards in safety and risk mitigation” again this fiscal year, Glaspell wrote.

“There are no documented explosive-related accidents at any range or within the numerous training areas,” he wrote. “This accident-free status extends at least 10 years into the past; this feat is a testament to Fort Leonard Wood’s commitment to risk and training management.”

The TRADOC winners are now in the running for Army wide recognition in their respective categories. Army level winners are expected to be announced in the spring, Powers said.