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GCN Home > 10/09/06 issue

Engineering a safety net

GCN Agency Award | The Army's Combat Readiness Center provides ways for soldiers to reduce risky behavior

By Mark Tarallo, Special to GCN

Protecting the Army’s most valuable assets—America’s sons and daughters—means good warfighting training, and the use of effective equipment. But it also means reducing off-duty risk—when a soldier rides a motorcycle for pleasure, for instance, or takes a long trip on leave to a potentially hazardous destination.

That’s where the Combat Readiness Center comes in. A field-operated agency based at Fort Rucker, Ala., CRC’s IT directorate, or G6, uses state-of-the-art information systems and online applications to deploy a range of programs that track situations that could result in possible accidents or deaths.

Basic idea

Formerly known as the Army Safety Center, CRC continues to follow a simple but important philosophy—readiness through safety. Fewer accidents off-duty mean a better on-duty combat force, officials said.

“When a soldier is hurt, even off-duty, he or she is taken out of the fight,” said Melissa Johnson, director of CRC’s IT division. “We want to drive the arrow of loss down, and reduce risk.”

And the arrow is falling. As of Sept. 19, Army accident fatalities were down 20 percent compared with the same date in the last fiscal year, Johnson said.

CRC’s Risk Management Information System (RMIS) serves as an umbrella repository of knowledge for commanders, soldiers and employees, containing extensive accident data, lessons learned and Army safety messages.

Knowledge from RMIS can be leveraged in various ways. The Army Safety Management Information Systems (ASMIS) 1 and 2, for example, aim to reduce accident occurrence in three areas—ground, aviation and driving.

One particularly effective program has been the ASMIS-2 POV—privately owned vehicles—which targets those driving cars, motorcycles and trucks. After soldiers input their vehicle type and trip information, ASMIS-2 offers graphics, accident data, safety messages and other information that gives soldiers a heads-up about potential risks, including such matters as vehicle vulnerabilities or road problems.

“It’s about raising their awareness,” Johnson said.

The program has a particular focus on motorcycles, which have been identified in the past as a high-risk endeavor, she added.

More news on related topics: Business Process Management, Defense IT, Management, IT Management



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