Fatigue, not something to ignore

  • Published
  • By Bill Morrow
  • 501st Combat Support Wing Safety Office
RAF ALCONBURY, United Kingdom --  Push and push until you fall over, then, it's too late. So what's this about... fatigue.

We all get tired; too late a night, improper diet, stress at home or at work, you might be amazed what depletes your physical well being. So where does the "push" come in? The push to continue pressing our stamina levels comes from different sources, but mainly we do it to ourselves.

Mission and manpower are always in conflict, not enough people to do what needs getting done; PCS's, deployments, structure re-alignment, right sizing, pending inspections. How long is your duty day and has it gotten longer over the years to make up for the difference. We as a body of personnel sacrifice ourselves for the unit, the mission, whatever it takes to get the job done. How often have you heard that, or we sacrifice ourselves for the good time, the night out, the long drive back to base from across country, the physical labor we undertake. There is always a cost.

In the past eighteen years, there have been 244 mishaps in the Air Force with "fatigue" a significant figure in the mishap at some point. Eighty three of the mishaps being a Class A mishap, just about a third. A Class A mishap generally means a fatality or big buck financial loss of a resource. Of course it's, all those off duty mishaps, isn't it..., not so.

When sorting through the Class A , 63 were on duty, while only 20 were related to off duty. As for on duty Class A mishaps, most resulted in aircraft damage, eighteen of which occurred on base. Every one of the off duty Class A's were off base and 13 involved motor vehicles, you can see where that's going. At the end of the day we're talking of tens of millions of dollars and loss of war fighting capability because someone in each of these 244 mishaps was not well rested. That lack of rest, the impact of fatigue on them was such that it influenced their physical ability to self rescue, to make coherent decisions, or simply keep awake behind the wheel.

Awareness is a key, for the supervisors and leadership of organizations. Who is putting in the extra hours and why? Who is there early or staying late, again why? Supervision and leadership often remind personnel to take their leave. They say to get away from work and recharge their batteries for the ongoing challenges of the work place or in their lives. Then as the end of the year rolls around we see the rush to use and not lose. But is the problem somewhat deeper than that? Supervision and leadership need to have a feel for the pulse of their organization to understand the operational tempo of both the unit and individuals as they may not be the same.

There is a huge passion and feeling of loyalty among our community to the mission in all variety and forms that it may take. With that passion and loyalty comes a desire to see to the successful completion of the mission, the passing of an inspection, the completion of a challenge, whatever the positive outcome and what it takes to get there. Our service personnel do what it takes and they will sacrifice their sleep and rest to get there. Our obligation to them is to protect them from themselves.