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Air National Guard Director speaks to Guard personnel at Safety Summit

  • Published
  • By Air Force Master Sgt. Christopher Gillis
  • National Guard Bureau
MISSOURI --  Three featured aviation speakers; Mr. Bud Redmond, Deputy Chief of Safety and Executive Director of the Air Force Safety Center, Mr. Greg Feith, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Senior Accident Investigator and Captain Denny Fitch, UAL B-777 Capt. (Retired), and a host of professional safety spokesmen joined Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt, III, Director of the Air National Guard (ANG), to discuss safety issues with senior Air Guard personnel on the first day of the annual ANG Executive Safety Summit held in St. Louis, Missouri on August 4, 2009.

This year's conference welcomed over 370 senior Guard members in variety of career fields from every state and air wing to the Renaissance St. Louis Grand; Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Danner, The Adjutant General, greeted the safety community and then introduced Lt. Gen. Wyatt.

Lt. Gen. Wyatt kicked off the summit focusing the group on their mission for attending.

"We've purposefully brought together senior leaders from various career fields across the Air Guard for this conference. As iron sharpens iron, we will all make one another more focused when it comes to safety at every level," said Wyatt.

The overall key message and theme of this summit, "Back to Basics/Break the Chain" was highlighted by each guest speaker, as issues, aspects, challenges and a specific discussion on the proper balance between aviation, maintenance, ground safety, mission tasks and operational discipline were re-identified and addressed.

The first day of the summit was highlighted by the Air Force (AF) and ANG Safety Awards presentations. They included; the AF "Chief of Staff Individual Safety Award" to Lt. Col. John D. Slocum, 162nd Fighter Wing (FW), the "Koren Kolligian Trophy" to Lt. Col. Booth M. Johnston, 147th Rescue Wing, the "Flight Safety Plaque" to the 122nd FW, Fort Wayne IN, 132nd FW, Des Moines IA, 148th FW, Duluth MN and 189th Airlift Wing, Little Rock AR, the "Aviation Well Done Award" to Maj. David Shevchik, 134th Fighter Squadron, Burlington VT, Capt. Derrick Erikson, 134th Fighter Squadron, Burlington VT and Lt. Col. Brian Kamp, 110th Fighter Squadron, St Louis MO, the "ANG Director of Safety Outstanding Achievement Award" to Lt. Col. Timothy W. Butcher,115th FW, Madison WI, the "Air National Guard Outstanding Individual Flight Safety Awards" to Lt. Col. Gary R. Stefanich,128th Air Refueling Wing, Milwaukee WI, and Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Klein,108th Air Refueling Wing, McGuire AFB NJ, the "ANG Outstanding Individual Ground Safety Awards" to SMSgt. Gary L. Ash,189th Airlift Wing, Little Rock AFB AR. and MSgt. Shannon M. Huard,104th FW, Barnes ANGB MA, the "ANG Outstanding Individual Weapons Safety Award" to SMSgt. Carl V. Scrivani and the "ANG Safety Office of the Year Award" to the 123th Airlift Wing Safety Office.

Lt. Col. Dan Polanosky, acting Air National Guard Readiness Center (ANGRC) Safety Chief, briefly explained the impact of this year's summit.

"A record number of The State's Adjutant Generals and Wing Commanders participated, which is a key indicator that our leaders believe in and support safety. We had several mishaps this year that cost-wise" seemed minor, but were on the fringe of major disasters with many lessons learned. Safety is a universal message no matter what organization you're affiliated with...The National Guard Bureau Safety staff is innovative, proactive and creative in their approach to safety which is saving lives and resources."

Other related topics addressed were Suicide prevention and awareness with presentations by a combined leadership from the National Guard's Chaplain's office and the ANGRC medical A-Staff, with Col (Father) Robert Marciano and Col William S. Riggins.

The second day of the summit began with an FAA Safety perspective from guest speaker, Mr. Alan Feinberg, a Senior Safety Engineer with the FAA Office of Terminal Services. The day was highlighted by two internal ANG aviation "lessons-learned" outbriefs, followed by numerous afternoon breakout sessions. The summit reconvened for a general session with an overall question and answer (Q&A) session by Col. Mike McDonald, the newly appointed ANGRC Commander.

In closing, Col. McDonald emphasized, "I am very proud of the commitment of our safety professionals. Day in and day out, at every level, they continue to do an outstanding job!"