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    Lifelong Seabee Takes on Army Safety with 1st TSC in Kuwait

    Lifelong Seabee Takes on Army Safety With 1st TSC in Kuwait

    Photo By Natalie Cole | Robert Kidd combs through wires and outlets inside a building where Soldiers and...... read more read more

    KUWAIT

    09.02.2010

    Story by Natalie Cole 

    1st Theater Sustainment Command

    CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT – When Robert Kidd walks through a hallway, he notices things others take for granted: the placement fire extinguishers, the width of the hallway down to the inch, the cleanliness and orderliness of electrical cords. He is the type who takes pride in is his ability to calculate room dimensions using ceiling tiles and other materials as points of reference.

    Kidd’s eye for dimensions and safety hazards has come in part from 37 years of combined active and reserve duty with the Navy Construction Battalion. While most people kick up their heels and relax after a long career, Kidd has done the exact opposite: He has donned an Army uniform (with the Seabee patch on his left shoulder, of course) and embarked on a career as a civilian construction safety specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

    And, in the spirit of continued self-improvement, Kidd deployed from his home station at Fort Bragg, N.C. to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait this past spring to complete a special assignment for the Leadership Development Program. The two-year program exposes employees to new aspects of the engineering profession. It is sponsored by the Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.

    Kidd has spent the last six months working with the 1st TSC Safety Section, a small team that strives to lessen the risks Soldiers face while living, working and driving in Kuwait. “My goal was to meet their requirements of doing something different, but also I wanted to go somewhere different. I didn’t want to stay and do this development thing in my own back yard,” said Kidd, a Master Chief in the Navy Reserve.

    Kidd’s path to becoming an Army construction safety expert began when he joined the Navy Seabees right out of high school in Stevens Point, Wis. “I’ve been in ever since … and I’m still rollin’,” he said. In his Navy career, Kidd has deployed to both Bosnia and Iraq, in addition to his regular rotations.

    In 2004, the Seabee became a woodworking instructor at a technical college in Wisconsin. It was at this point that he decided to turn his construction and safety skills into a career as a Department of Defense civilian. After completing a safety internship with the Army, Kidd began working as a construction safety specialist at Fort Bragg, N.C., under the South Atlantic Division of the Corps of Engineers.

    While working at Fort Bragg, Kidd has refined his eye for Army-specific safety codes. “We do a lot of site visits; I climb scaffolding, go down in trenches, look at things.” Other parts of Kidd’s job at Fort Bragg include educating people and helping contractors adhere to Army expectations. “We’re not a law enforcement type. We try to work with them and bring them up to speed and keep a nice, smooth, safe working environment for the people,” he said. “The bottom line is – and I’m not trying to be too cliché here - if you can eliminate one hazard, you might not ever see the result, but you have to realize that you’re potentially allowing that worker to go home at night.”

    Using his experiences from Fort Bragg, Kidd has helped the 1st TSC Safety Section in Kuwait enforce Life Safety Codes, monitor trends and gather data on accidents. The team’s findings are used to inform training standards and policy decisions regarding safety practices.

    Kidd said, in addition to learning more about Army safety, the Leadership Development Program has allowed him to draw from his lifetime of construction expertise to improve the safety of facilities on Camp Arifjan. “For me, I wanted to compliment their mission and contribute something. I didn’t want to come here just to learn, but I also wanted to give something back because that’s part of the design of the developmental side of the program - to contribute here.”

    Chief Warrant Officer Jeffery Rhoades, 1st TSC Safety Section supervisor, said Kidd helped expand the team’s reach. “He’s one of the few construction safety assets, and because of his specialty we decided to take on building codes,” Rhoades said.

    In fact, the wiring in the temporary facilities in Kuwait was something Kidd has seen before. “It related very closely to the temporary power we had set up on our construction sites. [Here] they have the same thing. We’re running a lot of extension cords, were plugging a lot of things in, and it has to be done properly in order to be safe,” he said.

    The electrical and fire inspections and resulting policies Kidd helped create have set the scene for real change, Rhoades emphasized. “We’re not ready to do just another inspection. We’re actually ready to go fix things.” Kidd said improving electrical safety has been an especially meaningful part of his assignment. “It was something where I was able to step up and help the team out.”

    When asked to share anything unexpected about his time in Kuwait, Kidd said he was most surprised by the scope of the 1st TSC mission. “It’s just amazing what this unit does, considering that their mission is to oversee everything moving in and out of the country. There’s all the logistics. There are the convoys, the ammunition missions, all the facilities that we own, all the warehousing, all the different units and the nature of their subordinate commands,” he said. With all the moving parts and the heat, Kidd said “there’s always something coming out of one operation or another that needs safety’s interaction.”

    Kidd has learned much on his journey from Navy Seabee to Army Safety civilian. For example, he has acquired a new vernacular. “I went on a web site and printed up acronyms. There’s just so many out there. And, you don’t like stopping whoever’s talking every time and asking them to explain the acronym, so I just try to capture it and figure out later what it means,” he said with a smile.

    Other lessons from the assignment include the necessity of patience and persistence, Kidd said. “As much as you want things to happen continuously, it just doesn’t work that way, not in the real world, especially when we’re working in a foreign country and having all the different key players.” As a result, he’ll take with him more experience in negotiating. “Something that you learn, a lot of it through frustrations, is negotiation. That’s what a lot of leadership and management is: Trying to take in all the factors and do the best things.”

    Kidd leaves Kuwait in mid-September, when his assignment comes to an end. However, before getting back to work at Fort Bragg, he has a vacation in mind. “First thing, I’m going to spend two weeks in central Europe doing some hiking. I’m really looking forward to that in Germany and Switzerland.”

    Kidd said the Leadership Development Program has made it possible for him to keep pushing himself professionally. “I don’t know how else I would have done it,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 09.02.2010
    Date Posted: 09.02.2010 01:50
    Story ID: 55584
    Location: KW

    Web Views: 146
    Downloads: 8

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