MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Marine Aircraft Group 12, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade’s air element during Exercise Talisman Saber 2007 last month, reduced safety risks with the assistance of a Marine Corps Bases Japan and III Marine Expeditionary Force tactical safety specialist for the duration of the group’s deployment at Royal Australian Air Force Base Townsville, Australia.
According to safety and command officials, the group normally brings a Marine safety officer along on deployments, and when it is determined necessary, uses a tactical safety specialist to assist him. But, because of other operational requirements and the safety needs they identified in the planning stages of the exercise, the group decided to call in the help of a specialist.
“It’s great to have an outside observer whose single focus is on safety,” said Lt. Col. Michael P. Antonio, MAG-12 Detachment officer-in-charge during the exercise and Coral Springs, Fla., native. “He’s formally school trained. He’s a subject matter expert.”
Joseph Pinkowski, the retired gunnery sergeant they brought in from Okinawa, Japan, is the supervisory tactical safety specialist for the Marines on the island and also assists Iwakuni, Japan-based units when necessary.
The Valatie, N.Y., native is quick to inform anyone who asks that his purpose is not to replace the safety Marines in the units, but to be a caveat for them, their commander, and their personnel.
The “tactical” in the specialist’s title indicates their ability to deploy with the units they are charged with keeping safe. The position has only been integrated into the Japan-based Marine units over the last couple of years.
TSS’s are usually hired as former or retired service members, making up a new division of installation safety offices that provide units with extra sets of eyes focused on safety during training in garrison or during deployment, according to safety officials. The TSS’s expertise comes from about a year’s worth of specialty training in all areas of tactical safety such as ground, aviation, electrical and ordnance.
“No mishaps with personnel allow you to focus on mission accomplishment,” Antonio said. “(The TSS) reduces that risk.”
According to Antonio, everything went so smoothly during the exercise because people were actively engaged in the safety program.
In the field is the most important place to apply the safety precautions the Marines are taught, according to Cpl. Shana L. Dubois, MAG-12’s ground safety manager and Farmington Hills, Mich., native, who was unable to participate in the exercise because of operational requirements at the group’s headquarters here. Dubois welcomes the expertise and wealth of knowledge the specialists bring to the safety side of operations because she always has a subject matter expert in all areas of safety.
Marines in Townsville agreed with the commands safety policies and welcomed Pinkowski’s suggestions for improved safety in their work environments.
According to Pinkowski, the safety specialists are not here to stop operations because of safety “violations.” They are here to provide some extra common sense on how to go about certain tasks more safely, while still accomplishing the mission.
One example he gave from past experience was of some Marines setting up a generator without a grounding rod. He had them find some wire and run that into the ground because it was safer and they could still accomplish the mission.
There were no recorded operational safety incidents during the exercise due in part to the safety precautions implemented by Pinkowski and the Marines taking operational risk management into account during their day-to-day routines, according to safety officials.