By ADAM SIKES TACOM Public Affairs
DETROIT ARSENAL, Mich. –Building andmaintainingthe range of systems that Soldiers use to protect Americans worldwide is one of theArmy’s top priorities. For every Soldier driving a Bradley Fighting Vehicle or firing an Abrams tank, there are Civilians working day and night on factory floors throughout theArmy’s Organic Industrial Baseoperating blast furnacesand 3D printers. Theirgoal?Ensuringthat those Soldiers have the parts they need to keep the tanks running and the guns firing.
As manufacturing focuses and methods change and modernize over time, standards for safety and occupational health practices have evolved to ensuremaximumworker safety for theOIB workforce.At the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, this has led to the implementation of new measures to help protect the vital workers and artisans that make the mission of Soldier sustainment possible.
This commitment to safety was recently highlighted as three TACOM installations – Anniston Army Depot, Red River ArmyDepotand Sierra Army Depot – were recognized under thefiscal year 2025 Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff Safety Awards Program. The Army Safety Awards Program is designed to recognize, promote and motivate success in accident prevention through risk management by recognizing the accomplishments in the field of safety by individuals and units.
Finding out how to integrate safety can be a complex and lengthy process that requires organization and dedicated support.That’swhere individuals like TACOM Safety and Occupational Health Director Erik Gustafsoncomein.
"The Army Safety and Occupational Health program across TACOM is designed to guideour leaders at all levels on howwe can reducehazards and risks.One of the ways we do that is by setting and implementing standards,” Gustafson said. “The SOHinitiative is particularlyimportant in ourindustrial environments, which often involveinherently hazardousprocesses and tasks.”
In simpler terms, he says, is a workplace that produces – and keeps employee safety at the forefront.
“What matters to us is fosteringthe kind of safer working environment that improves the lives and safety of our workers. The SOH program does that by empowering the employeetoidentifyhazards and provide input for improvements to workplace safety,” said Gustafson.
Thiscollaborativeapproachimplemented throughout TACOM’s industrial siteshas resulted inaculture that proactivelyworks to mitigate potential issues. This, in turn, has created an award-winning andsafer work environmentacross the command. TACOM and its depots and arsenals have received the highest level of recognition from the Secretary of the Army several times over the past decade.
Anniston Army Depot: Settingrecordsfor safety
Anniston Army Depotwas awardedthe 2025 U.S. Army Materiel CommandIndustrial Operations Safety Award for“exceptional achievement in the administration of its SOH program.”The official citation, signed by AMC Commanding General Lt. Gen. Christopher O. Mohan, notes thatthe depot’s safety team wentabove and beyondsafetystandards“by using innovative ways to protect against hazards, which is a testament to their overall commitment to workplace safety.”
ANAD Commander Col. Charles Moore emphasized that this recognition was the result ofthe entire ANAD workforce’s joint effort to foster safety while producing for the warfighter.
"Our team earned this award by implementing innovative, proactive measures to identify and mitigate hazards across our industrial operations,” Moore said. “Their ingenuity has set the standard across Army Materiel Command. Every employee plays a role in safety and together,as the ‘Pit Crew of the American Warfighter,’ANADwill continue to lead the way in industrial safety and mission readiness."
According to ANAD Safety Chief Rob Cunningham, this successwas attributed toimplementingseveral best practices, including havingsafety specialists conduct periodic inspections of production and shop areas. But as an example of how ANADattemptedtomore fully integrate safety, those specialistsdidn’tjust conduct inspections – they also worked to “develop relationships with supervisors to assistthem and usidentify and correct hazards." The result?
“Record-low injury incidents,” said Cunningham,“driven by support from employees, supervisors, management along with TACOM Safety."
Red River Army Depot:Measurable results for a safer workforce
Red River Army Depot earned the U.S. Army Materiel Command Exceptional Organization Safety Award at the brigade level.Similarly to ANAD, the depot's citation praised its "innovative ways to protect against hazards,"which resulted in injury rates measurably lower than industry averages.
Thesafety record speaks for itself. Between 2021 and 2024, the depot earned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Super Star Award, an honor for worksites with injury rates at least 75% below industry averages. During that period, RRAD’s Total Case Incident Rate and Lost Time Case Rate were 81% and 85% lower, respectively, than comparable private-industry benchmarks. In fiscal year 2025, the depot reported an impressive TCIR of 1.2 while completing more than 2.5 million work hours with zero Class A or Class B accidents.
RRAD CommanderCol. Denis Fajardoattributedthis performance to employees taking safety to heart.
"Our safety performance is a direct result of our team's dedication to doing the job safely every single day,” Fajardo said. “Achieving injury rates far below industry averages isn't luck; it is the product of a culture built on caring for our people, safeguarding our mission and delivering world-class production for the Soldier."
Sierra Army Depot: Individual and organizationalrecognition
Sierra Army Depotwas recognized with not just one, but twoseparatehonorsfor the FY25 competition. Thecommandreceived theTACOMExceptional Organization Safety Award at the battalion level, while Rachel Lapp, aSIADsupply technician, was awarded the AMC Individual Award for Excellence in Safety - Junior Department of the Army Civilian.
The award specifically recognizedLapp’s contributionsto worksite safetyduring a voluntarydetail with the Safety Office. In just four months, she conducteda highly detailedJob Hazard Analysis audit of more than 35 work centers, single-handedly reviewing over 246 such audits, assigning 172 corrective actions andsubmitting190 tracking reports. Her meticulous work alsoidentifiedover a dozen processes not previously captured by JHAs.
"Astrong safety culture is not a program managed from an office,” Lapp said, “but conversations that live on the front lines.…It'sthe daily habit of looking out for one another, where 'watch your back' becomes ‘I've got your back.’”
The depotas a whole wasrecognized for cultivating a culture where operational success and employee well-being are intrinsically linked.SIAD Commander Lt. Col.ShivneshKumar praised the workforce's focuson driving safety and massively reducing combined injury incidents over the past few years.
“I am proud to serve in an organization that is safety-focused,” Kumar said. “Efforts led by employees like Ms. Rachel Lapp... show a 75% overall reduction in combined injury and incidents since February 2023.
“In addition,employeesand supervisors like her,depot-wide,have prioritized the safety of our workforce,demonstratinga continuously improving safety culture that has resulted in a 25.5% reduction in injury and incidents over the past three years.”
Notably,SIAD’s achievements arepushed not only from the top-down, but by engaged local employees themselves.The SIADemployee-led Safety Committeeinjectsinvaluable "boots-on-the-ground" experienceinto the command’s dialog on safety. The development of an Executive Corrective Action Review Board dashboard led to a 161% increase in the closure of safety tasks last year. This commitment to safety enabled teams like theDefense Logistics Agency-Disposition ServicesAJ1 Receiving team to handle materials valued at over $233 million in 2025 without a singleincident.
For leaders at every level, these awardsreflecta validation ofTACOM’scontinuousfocus on safety. As Gustafson noted, the ultimateobjectiveis tomarry safety with producing for Soldiers in a way that maximizes employee health and gets needed parts into the hands of Soldiers across the world.
"We shouldn’t see safety asa constraint to performance,” he said, “rather, focusing on safetygivesleaders and the workforce the confidence towork on the edge of performance safely, and do their best for our Soldiers."