REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Leading into National Safety Month, the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville hosted its 2025 Fuels Safety Symposium, bringing together leaders, safety professionals and safety managers to share lessons learned and promote accountability.
The two-day symposium followed the theme “Listen, Learn, Participate, Share, Grow and Go,” and opened with remarks from key Huntsville Center program leaders, including Dennis Bacon, Fuels Branch chief; Jeremy McCranie, Safety and Occupational Health chief; and Jesus Ramirez-Rodriguez, Fuels Program manager.
Huntsville Center provides maintenance, inspections, repairs and emergency response actions for Department of Defense, the Defense Logistics Agency and other federal petroleum facilities on military installations worldwide, in compliance with federal, state and local code, criteria and regulations.
“Safety is a very perishable skill,” Bacon said in his address to the more than 35 attendees from businesses contracted to support the Fuels program. “These meetings—whether it’s with two people or a dozen—play a critical role in helping keep our folks safe.”
Throughout his remarks, Bacon emphasized the importance of continuous attentiveness and peer accountability.
“Please help me continually build the safety culture, because we cannot keep our people safe without all of you and your dedication,” he said. “We can’t function without you, and you can’t function without your people.”
The symposium included discussion on topics such as updates to Engineering Manual 385-1-1 safety standards, confined space procedures, fatigue management, mishap reporting and lessons learned from the field. Ben Bailey, Huntsville Center safety manager, and Charlie Harris, Huntsville Center safety specialist, coordinated the event and were main speakers throughout the symposium.
Bailey, who led several break-out sessions, urged attendees to focus on engagement and information sharing.
“Please share what you learn here with your teammates downstream and let’s improve what we can do better as one team.”
The agenda allowed for group discussion and feedback opportunities, with many of the speakers encouraging open dialogue among the participants. Bailey elaborated on the importance of collaboration at events such as this one.
“Having an event like this allows us to share program expectations and lessons learned across the field of fuels safety professionals,” Bailey explained. “Meeting in-person gives us the opportunity to further develop professional working relationships.”
Many participants provided the Huntsville Center Fuels team with feedback over the course of the two-day symposium with what they thought was helpful.
James Davis, Pond and Company’s Environmental, Health and Safety vice president, expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to collaborate and network with professionals in the field.
“Thank you for taking the time to host and facilitate a world-class safety training and networking event focused on the Huntsville Center safety requirements and expectations,” Davis said. “Pond is grateful for the opportunity to support our country’s war fighters’ mission partnering with Huntsville Center’s Fuels team.”
As the event concluded, leadership stressed that safety must remain at the center of daily operations whether in planning, job hazard analyses or meetings.
“Don’t assume we have shared safety knowledge; we must continuously build it every day,” Bacon said. “The second we start resting, someone could get hurt.”
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