Enhancing Arsenal Readiness Through Comprehensive Safety Insights

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. – U.S. Army Garrison Picatinny Arsenal officials received the Army Safety Excellence Streamer for the fifth consecutive year on Tuesday, highlighting the unit’s unwavering dedication to the safety and well-being of its employees.

“This accomplishment is not only a testament to leadership and vigilance, but also to a safety-first culture embraced from the top down,” said Al Morrissey, Installation Safety Director.

Command Sgt. Maj. Tamisha Love, U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) Directorate-Sustainment (ID-S) presented the award to Morrissey and Lt. Col. Craig A. Bonham II, Picatinny Arsenal Garrison Commander while touring the garrison’s new headquarters facility.

Love, along with Scott M. Halter, Acting ID-S Director, visited the northern New Jersey miliary installation from their home base at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Army Safety Excellence Streamer is part of the Army Safety and Occupational Health Program, outlined in AR 385-10. The streamer is displayed for one year, serving as a reminder of the garrison’s achievements and its ongoing commitment to protecting its community. To maintain this honor, the garrison will continue to prioritize safety, reassess practices, and encourage a culture prioritizing safety.

To earn the distinction, a unit must meet stringent safety criteria, including operating for a continuous 12-month period without any Class A mishaps (fatalities or permanent total disabilities) or Class B mishaps (permanent partial disabilities). Additionally, all employees assigned to the unit must have completed risk management training within the last 24 months prior to submission.

Class A mishaps involve fatalities, permanent total disabilities, or damages exceeding $2.5 million, according to AR 385-10. Class B mishaps include injuries resulting in permanent partial disabilities, hospitalizations of three or more personnel, or damages between $600,000 and $2.5 million.

Safety officials attribute the garrison’s success history of exceeding safety standards to rolling up lessons learned in the organization’s annual Army Readiness Assessment Program (ARAP) survey and putting them into practice.

This year, U.S. Army Garrison Picatinny Arsenal employees submitted more than 800 comments to the ARAP, providing valuable qualitative data, marking a significant achievement in the unit’s commitment to mission success and safety.

The Army launched the powerful web-based tool known as ARAP in 2005. It was designed to provide battalion-level commanders with a detailed snapshot of their unit’s safety culture by leveraging data across seven key categories to include organizational processes, command climate, resources, supervision, and safety programs, among others.

ARAP enables leaders to identify strengths and areas for improvement in their formation’s safety climate and operational effectiveness.

Following the survey, leaders are provided with a candid look at their organization’s safety culture and risk management processes. The commander receives one-on-one feedback on key issues regarding command climate, safety culture, resource availability, workload, estimated success of certain safety intervention programs, and other factors relating to their unit's overall readiness.

ARAP is one of the few assessments that delivers immediate, actionable feedback directly to commanders and senior leaders — empowering them to address concerns in real time. It offers personnel a safe and anonymous way to share honest input without fear of retribution.

“The survey is important for us as safety specialists because if employees do not tell us their concerns, we do not know there is a problem. If we are not made aware of an issue, we are unable to address the problem. The ARAP helps solve that problem,” said John Cann, U.S. Army Garrison Picatinny Arsenal Safety Specialist.

ARAP’s historical data reveals a clear trend across the Army. Units scoring in the bottom quartile are twice as likely to experience a mishap compared to those in the top quartile. This underscores the critical link between safety culture and operational outcomes.

Although it seems rudimentary for leaders to remind their workforce to do something as simple as putting on safety glasses or bending at the knees when lifting, the data does not lie.

Picatinny Arsenal is one of the top three employers in Morris County, New Jersey, according to the Morris County Office of Planning and Preservation, and supports the Army priorities of People, Readiness and Modernization. The installation’s capabilities are unique and vital to the Nation, as the workforce leads the advancement of armament technologies and engineering innovation for the U.S. military.

The Picatinny Arsenal garrison supports mission partners that use unique laboratories, special facilities, and various performance measures to evaluate prototype designs, thus reducing development cycle time. Improvised explosive device (IED) defeat technologies, drones, small, medium, and large caliber conventional ammunition, precision-guided munitions, mortars, fire control systems, small-arms weapon systems, howitzers, gunner protection armor, warheads, fuzes, and insensitive munitions, are all part of Picatinny’s scope of work.