Additional Duty Safety Officer class

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Mullett | Personnel who work for ECS–124 were on hand to answer questions and to assist in teaching shop personnel about proper safety practices on Army Facilities  

FORT JACKSON, SC, UNITED STATES

02.14.2019

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Mullett 

81st Readiness Division

Fort Jackson, S.C. ---Walking through the bays at an Equipment Concentration Site (ECS) can be pretty impressive. There are large amounts of equipment and machinery stored and available for use throughout the Reserve system as well as for the active Army.
The primary reason for the existence of these facilities centers on storage and movement of that equipment, as well as keeping it at “10/20” standard, or ready for deployment. The thing that must happen in order to manage ECS and Area Maintenance and Supply Area (AMSA) facilities properly is safety, and the implementation of safety procedures.
The 81st Readiness Division (RD) Safety Office conducts classes annually in order to certify personnel at those facilities. The classes for personnel assigned as Additional Duty Safety Officer (ADSO) are a week long and cover comprehensive safety topics as well as new procedures and processes designed to keep personnel, equipment and the environment safe.
“We are all ADSOs and each year they [the 81st RD Safety Office] give the class. We come out here to learn new things to take back to our shops and implement them,” said Donald McLean, a Heavy Maintenance Equipment Repairer (HMER) who works at AMSA 47G in Miami, Fla.
The 81st RD hosted this week’s classes at the ECS on Fort Jackson for shop employees from across the Division’s nine states. They traveled to learn things like; how to properly dispose of hazardous spills, or oil leaks, how to identify safety violations and whether to report them or act to correct them.
“It’s one of the better courses I’ve been to,” stated Aaron Jacobowski (WL-9), who works at AMSA 145 located in Huntsville, Ala., this class allowed for the personnel attending to go out to the ECS storage yards and go over the equipment, “it’s interesting being able to identify the faults and stuff.”
Many of the participants have been to more than a few of these classis, however there are a few who are new to the process. Norberto Velasquez (WG-9) works at ECS 126 in Juana Diaz Puerto Rico and came to Fort Jackson to attend his first training, “It’s my first class”, he said, “Some of the things you thought were right, but they were wrong.”
The bottom line is readiness, and Safety is instrumental in readiness.

• Date Taken: 02.14.2019
• Date Posted: 03.25.2019 16:32
• Story ID: 310804
• Location: FORT JACKSON, SC, US