Complacency - often an ignored threat Published July 6, 2006 By Lt. Col. John T. Rausch 436th Airlift Wing Aerial Port Squadron DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- As we enter the three-year point since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and will soon be seeing the fifth year since 9/11, a big and growing danger is complacency. Naturally, people get into routines which can desensitize them to force protection measures and operational safety risks. They stop noticing things that are not right and fail to correct them. They start taking shortcuts to speedup support for the war effort. They fail to see the dangers due to the repetition of our daily mission that will damage the mission or themselves. They may have not yet had a problem or incident, but eventually the odds will catch up with them. The end result is damaged facilities, equipment, loss of critical materials, someone getting hurt or killed and degradation of our ability to get our mission done. You should ask yourself every day, what am I not seeing in my work center? If you are a supervisor, you should have a developed checklist of those items that are force protection or safety issues. Use that checklist when you are observing your work center's operations and during shift change roll calls. Many times you may end up feeling that your subordinates are tired of hearing about the subject, but don't give into this temptation. This battle must be fought every day and cannot be overstated. Your work center's direct contribution to the Global War on Terror is, in many cases, hard to define, but not having your work center's fullest capabilities available due to an incident or accident may have life or death impacts for someone down range. In these days of tight budgets and reduced manning, we cannot afford to lose anything or anybody to a preventable incident or accident. The war is being fought here, too, and everyone needs to stay focused on that. Commanders can do several things to combat the slide down the complacency slope. One of the most effective ways to prevent complacency is to periodically move people around within the unit. It refreshes them and keeps them from becoming dulled to extended daily routines. Commanders can also implement programs within their units to re-sensitize personnel to work center dangers and get them actively watching again for those situations. Award and incentive programs are also a great way to keep people on alert and reward them at the same time for fixing a situation before it goes bad. The Wingman Program is also a great way for peers to keep each other out of harm's way. Hopefully, you and your wingman discuss on-the-job hazards and have a good enough relationship that you respect each other enough to listen and heed any suggestions or warnings they send your way. It's also great training for the day you deploy and will be relying on others to watch out for you in a combat zone. Your effectiveness depends on the teamwork and synergy you and your wingman perform together. Failure will occur when you stop looking out for each other and get complacent with the job and associated hazards. I challenge all of you to report and/or correct that next situation you see that's not right, no matter how minor, as you never know what failing to correct it could lead to. Getting complacent with the small stuff will only lead to bigger problems and that's what Team Dover and the deployed operations we are supporting do not need. Follow this simple idea and you'll be amazed at how successful we all will be. Stay focused with the right attitude and complacency will stay away were it belongs!