Photo By Sgt. Russell Midori | Maj. Gen. William "Rock" Collins, 4th Marine Air Wing commanding general (right)...... read more read more
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NEW JERSEY - The Order of Daedalians, a fraternal organization of commissioned military pilots, presented its highest safety award to 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Saturday.
Marines from Marine Aircraft Group 49 here accepted the Admiral James S. Russell Naval Aviation Flight Safety Award as representatives of 4th MAW, which went the entire 2013 calendar year without a single major flight-related or aviation-ground mishap.
The national commander of the Order of Daedalians, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Nick Kehoe, presented the award to 4th MAW commanding general Maj. Gen. William “Rock” Collins.
“Each year we present this award, we go to the chief of Naval operations and ask ‘Who’s your best safety unit in the Department of the Navy?’” Kehoe said. "The 4th MAW has won this last year also and won it 13 times since it was originated in 1978.”
Collins said the air wing was engaged in multiple deployments across various areas of operation last year and presently continues to maintain its outstanding safety record.
“We just came in off a big exercise,” Collins said. “There were 5,500 Marines out in the field at Twentynine Palms, and we had over 40 airplanes flying out there. Simultaneously, the wing was doing an exercise down in Belize, we have been doing an exercise up in Alaska, and we have multiple units deployed world wide.”
Collins said it bore a special significance to receive the safety award at the headquarters of MAG-49, standing in directly front of the Marines who helped make it happen.
“With all the MAW is involved in, they continue to function on all cylinders. I couldn’t be more proud and I will tell you that in my mind there is nobody that has deserved this more than these people that are in this room, wearing these uniforms.”
Col. Joseph Bricklemeyer, 4th MAW assistant wing commander, said the success of the MAW was not about running a great “safety program,” but about integrating safety into every aspect of every mission.
“Safety is not a separate thing, its part of how you operate a good, tactical, efficient operation.”
In a sense, an award for safety is an award for effective overall mission accomplishment. He added that having a command consisting of both reservists and active duty personnel is an advantage in operating safely.
“When we’re talking about maintaining an aircraft or maintaining equipment, it becomes a repetitive task over time and you might get a sense of complacency,” Bricklemeyer said. “Our reservist who come in bring a different perspective because they come in with a little bit of the outsiders view. Those are the Marines who are willing to say, ‘hey this just doesn’t seem right’ instead of just doing something repetitively.”
Perhaps this balance of experience and “fresh eyes” explains why 4th MAW has won this award more times than any command throughout the Navy and Marine Corps…knock on wood.
| Date Taken: | 07.02.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.02.2014 23:56 |
| Story ID: | 135201 |
| Location: | NJ, US |
| Web Views: | 189 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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