Photo By Chad Eller | Capt. Nathan Myers shakes safety specialist Dale Beaty's hand while on deployment for...... read more read more
FORT WORTH, Texas — For Dale Beaty, safety isn’t just a job — it’s a calling forged over three decades of service and sharpened in some of the world’s most demanding environments.
Beaty, a safety and occupational health specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth District, brings more than 30 years of field-tested safety experience to every mission he supports.
“I joined the Air Force in 1990 in San Antonio as an aerospace medical specialist,” Beaty said. “Four years turned into eight, and before I knew it, I was retiring after 21 and a half.”
Beaty spent thirteen years of his Air Force career in flight medicine. In this role he responded to aircraft emergencies as a first responder and EMT. Later, he was attached to a bomb squadron’s medical element, flying alongside a flight surgeon to support missions across the globe.
After retiring from active-duty service, Beaty spent the next five years as a safety specialist in the airline industry before returning to the Air Force as a civilian in public health. By then he had amassed 31 years of safety experience. A friend at the Corps of Engineers encouraged Beaty to apply for a position with the Fort Worth District Safety Office, recognizing the wealth of knowledge he could bring to the organization’s robust operations and military construction programs.
He’s now been with the Fort Worth District for six years , volunteering to serve on several emergency operations — from restoring power in Puerto Rico and Japan in the aftermath of hurricanes and typhoons, to navigating the complex and demanding debris removal missions in Maui and Southern California following the wildfires.
“Debris missions are a whole different level,” Beaty said. “We’re talking 12-and-a-half-hour days, seven days a week, sometimes for over a month straight. I’m getting a little older and these missions do take a toll on you. My last deployment to the Southern California Wildfire Response was 48 days.”
As lead safety officer on the ground, Beaty’s role is multifaceted: reviewing accident prevention plans, inspecting contractor sites, and ensuring USACE quality assurance staff stay safe. With California’s steep cliffs posing fall hazards and a workforce of over 100 crews, his vigilance proved vital with no serious USACE injuries recorded during his deployment.
“You can’t lay awake at night and dream the stuff I’ve seen,” Beaty said, describing a contractor who tried to use a backhoe as an improvised jackhammer — a potentially deadly shortcut quickly shut down by alert quality assurance specialists.
Beaty knows that every deployment or mission will bring new challenges, and possibly include team members that might not have experience working in complex construction environments.
“Some of these guys , our team included, don’t have the experience,” Beaty said. That’s when an approved safety plan pays off. If you are following your plan, wearing the correct personal protective equipment, know your scope of work, you will have a better chance at keeping yourself and your team safe.”
Through it all, he remains mission-focused and people-driven as he knows cutting corners and not adhering to the plan is when people get hurt.
“These operations hone your craft,” Beaty said. “You know, it’s kind of like the slogan for the Peace Corps , ‘the toughest job you’ll ever love’, because that’s what it is. You are out here helping people who have lost everything. Even after 30 years, he still enjoys the mission and the satisfaction that comes from the challenge of being a safety officer.
“I’m still learning,” Beaty said. “When you have a thousand moving parts, and everyone gets home safe at the end of the day — that’s when you know what you do matters.”
| Date Taken: | 07.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2025 14:43 |
| Story ID: | 542733 |
| Location: | FORT WORTH, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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