The Safety Briefing

[Longshot231]

Okay I'll admit that the subject title was a bit of click-bait but I couldn't think of anything else to call this thread.

I'm all about safety as yours truly has been severely injured before and it's no fun. Also had a friend die in a work place accident.

So I thought it would be interesting to share stories or information that we can all take with us in our everyday lives.

Question for veterans out there: what was the least wanted job/additional duty that you could ever get other than PLO (Permanent Latrine Orderly)? Was it the organization's Safety Officer/NCO or planning the Commander's Christmas party?

Now I don't want this to be so serious that we get bored or turned off on the subject matter. With that said, I will humbly submit this trauma surgeon's analysis of the injuries Harry and Marv sustained in the "Home Alone" movies.

A 6:00 she mentions the "hangman's fracture." Yours truly experienced this. It was no fun and almost killed me but I enjoyed seeing Marv get his. The first atta-boy goes to the person who can submit the best safety briefing.

EDIT: I would nominate Kevin for a wide-area munitions specialist job in the Army.

 

[Short-bus]

I wouldn't say this necessarily applies as a permanent latrine orderly, but it does involve the latrine.

First Sergeant for whatever reason decides to use the 2nd floor barraks latrine, and happens to use the one stall that apparently somebody decided to rub one out in, and bust their nut on the inside of the door, and not clean it up. How the stars manage to align for this to occur is beyond me, but it was an infantry unit, so far weirder shit had occurred....daily. This upset the 'ol 1sg, and he was on the hunt for the "mad whacker", and ended up having a rotating 24hr watch, on a 4 day weekend, in each latrine in the building, to assure that nobody went in there to rub one out the whole weekend. 2hr shift....could be worse, but when you have to sit there and listen/smell the products of some of these guys, I would rather have to sweep out the gas chamber w/o a gas mask than sit in the latrine. This was before cell phones, wireless internet, and internet porn, so you can imagine the limited list of things to occupy yourself on guard duty.

Branden

 

[Maggot]

As a timber cutter for a native American gypo operator in nw Montana, the only safety briefing we got was "We got no ins and no workman's comp. Youre on your own.

 

[Longshot231]

I wouldn't say this necessarily applies as a permanent latrine orderly, but it does involve the latrine.

First Sergeant for whatever reason decides to use the 2nd floor barraks latrine, and happens to use the one stall that apparently somebody decided to rub one out in, and bust their nut on the inside of the door, and not clean it up. How the stars manage to align for this to occur is beyond me, but it was an infantry unit, so far weirder shit had occurred....daily. This upset the 'ol 1sg, and he was on the hunt for the "mad whacker", and ended up having a rotating 24hr watch, on a 4 day weekend, in each latrine in the building, to assure that nobody went in there to rub one out the whole weekend. 2hr shift....could be worse, but when you have to sit there and listen/smell the products of some of these guys, I would rather have to sweep out the gas chamber w/o a gas mask than sit in the latrine. This was before cell phones, wireless internet, and internet porn, so you can imagine the limited list of things to occupy yourself on guard duty.

Branden

When I got off active duty and had to go for a piss test for the National Guard the guy handing me the cup and filling out the paper work had to watch.

I asked him who he upset to get stuck with that duty. He told me that he was trying to figure that out himself.

He went on to say that he had to attend a class to get trained on taking urine samples. That would be something I think most people would want to leave off their Résumé.

Anyway that was also the number one question in the group of new urine sample processors. They were asking each other who they ticked off.

One person in the class proudly said, "I volunteered for this job."

He told me that you could have heard a pin drop in the classroom.

You never said anything in your story about the poor soldier that had to clean up the mess. Did the 1SG find someone he didn't like?

 

[MK20]

I wouldn't say this necessarily applies as a permanent latrine orderly, but it does involve the latrine.

First Sergeant for whatever reason decides to use the 2nd floor barraks latrine, and happens to use the one stall that apparently somebody decided to rub one out in, and bust their nut on the inside of the door, and not clean it up. How the stars manage to align for this to occur is beyond me, but it was an infantry unit, so far weirder shit had occurred....daily. This upset the 'ol 1sg, and he was on the hunt for the "mad whacker", and ended up having a rotating 24hr watch, on a 4 day weekend, in each latrine in the building, to assure that nobody went in there to rub one out the whole weekend. 2hr shift....could be worse, but when you have to sit there and listen/smell the products of some of these guys, I would rather have to sweep out the gas chamber w/o a gas mask than sit in the latrine. This was before cell phones, wireless internet, and internet porn, so you can imagine the limited list of things to occupy yourself on guard duty.

Branden

Ironically, this probably led to more occurances of exactly what the 1st Sgt was trying to avoid.

 

[Short-bus]

You never said anything in your story about the poor soldier that had to clean up the mess. Did the 1SG find someone he didn't like?

I don't recall anyone owning up to it, we all had our suspicions, but that's as far as it went. There was a private....well recently busted down to private, that was quite popular with the NCO's and command for shitty duties at the time, i'm sure he was the poor sap that had to clean up after the mad whacker.

I always managed to keep myself out of trouble. I was a good soldier where it mattered, so I got away with being a smart ass generally. Never really got into trouble, although i'm amazed I didn't with some of the dumb shit I did. There was one night I went out with the squad (minus squad leader), and the team leaders got rather shit faced and decided to get stupid with some Subway employees, pretty sure I recall them just being racist cunts, so I ducked out not wanting any part of that BS. Employees didn't care for it, and took the bait of the two main guys who just wanted to get in a fight. They started their little brawl in the parking lot, and the police showed up and arrested the team leaders. I wanted no part in it, sat back and watched, one of the other guys was trying to find my tire iron to hit the guys with, I wanted to get them into the car (I was DD) so we could get out of there. It was like 1am or so by the time I got back on base and had to call the squad leader and wake him up to tell them the two guys were in jail. The fact that I didn't join in the shit show got me out of favor with a couple other guys in the company, who's plan was to at 2 or 3 am to bang on my door, express their disapproval, and then beat my ass. The 2nd one mostly just wanted to scare me I think, because guy #1 was slapping me around, and I finally had enough and swung and connected, so he came in to tackle, and I wrapped wrapped my arm around his neck (I think that's a rear naked choke, i'm no MMA fighter) and started to squeeze. He couldn't land any effective hits on me like that, and all I could do was beat on his side with my right hand, and finally my room mate, and guy #2, pulled him off and they left. So I had a busted lip, and a hurt pride, but I don't think I really lost. Monday morning comes, and I show up for first formation, didn't say shit to anyone, but apparently others heard what happened, and did the snitching on my behalf. He got his punishment, and we were friends after that, lol.

That story doesn't really have any purpose, nor is it really on topic with the thread, but it was an army story I wanted to tell. Not entirely sure i've told it to anyone else.

Branden

 

[Clob McStrunk]

Safety meeting you say? It's 4:20 somewhere

 

[Short-bus]

Ironically, this probably led to more occurances of exactly what the 1st Sgt was trying to avoid.

Wouldn't surprise me. Teen boys are just horny little fuckers, and once they learn how to beat their meat, they'll tug on that thing as often as they can until their mid 20's.

I have daughters, and there's a small part of me that's really happy I didn't have boys, because nothing would be as ackward as walking in on my son beatin' his meat. And neither of my daughters have dated a boy seriously enough to where I had to worry about them gettin' frisky in the house, and my oldest turns 18 next week.

Branden

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

We had a guy that thought he'd be the next Tuff Hedeman bull riding champ. He usually ended up in the hospital with some kind of injury. As the safety NCO I had to go through all the safety reports for accidents and injuries. After the fourth or tenth time this guy hit the report the colonel commented that he should be riding lame bulls. IIRC he was put on some bullshit weekend duty picking up trash for several weeks. Which interfered with the rodeo schedule for the rest of the season.

 

[Longshot231]

I had a trainee show up on Monday morning. He had 1st and 2nd degree burns on his face along with some bruising.

I looked at him and said, "It looks like your face caught fire and someone put it out with a shovel."

One of the other trainees replied, "that's about what happened."

I asked for details. He was at the EM club on either a Friday or Saturday night. He wanted to show that he could qualify for a secondary MOS as a human flame thrower.

Someone produced a bottle of Everclear. WARNING: Boys and girls do not try this at home.

He got a mouthful and tried to atomize it through his lips enough to see the flame reach the ceiling whilst holding a Zippo in front of the fuel/air mixture.

He couldn't produce enough pressure to get the fuel to a sufficient velocity to flame out at altitude. The droplets were still on fire when they came back down on his face.

The bruising was from people slapping the crap out of his face to put the fire out. If YouTube was around back then, this could have gone viral and I might have had to answer for my trainee when I wasn't even there!

If any discussions, above my pay grade, took place about making the E-1 give a safety briefing I didn't hear about it.

I wasn't going to make him give one as he had suffered enough.

 

[Mike Casselton]

We had a guy that thought he'd be the next Tuff Hedeman bull riding champ. He usually ended up in the hospital with some kind of injury. As the safety NCO I had to go through all the safety reports for accidents and injuries. After the fourth or tenth time this guy hit the report the colonel commented that he should be riding lame bulls. IIRC he was put on some bullshit weekend duty picking up trash for several weeks. Which interfered with the rodeo schedule for the rest of the season.

His name didn't happen to be Brian, did it?

 

[Thumper580]

I spent 31 years as a safety professional for a fortune 50 corporation. Investigated way too many injuries over the years, some small and some big, even some fatalities. Sad to see a 26 year old guy laying on the floor dead in a pool of his own blood. Even after proper training, the best equipment and oversight he still managed to kill himself. If humans are involved....something is going to fuck up. Just hope it's small and you can laugh about it later.

 

[Longshot231]

I spent 31 years as a safety professional for a fortune 50 corporation. Investigated way too many injuries over the years, some small and some big, even some fatalities. Sad to see a 26 year old guy laying on the floor dead in a pool of his own blood. Even after proper training, the best equipment and oversight he still managed to kill himself. If humans are involved....something is going to fuck up. Just hope it's small and you can laugh about it later.

Sad to hear that. I hope I didn't open up any old wounds and sincerely apologize if I did.

 

[n2ishun]

Safety meeting you say? It's 4:20 somewhere

That about sums up every safety meeting I attended from 1970's thru 2000's.

Hell. I think I have one to attend right now.

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

I haven't thought about that guy in thirty years. Camp Pendleton around 89 or so. I remember his last name but his first name I am blank on.

His name didn't happen to be Brian, did it?

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

Went to a school at NAS Millington and I was pulling a shift on barracks duty. Some boot checks in and I give him the speech and the off limits areas of Memphis. Dude took it as a road map for a good time. Turns out he was a white guy that was interested in black women. A couple weeks later on my shift I get a call from the hospital that they have private dumbass there. He's beet to a pulp and needs a ride back to base because his car was stolen. A couple guys thought it would be fun to give him shit and went to pick him up. I reported that incident up the chain and I think he was used as a where not to go for a while. At least until his face recovered.

 

[acudaowner]

best safty briefing I ever had was a guy reminding us the workers that we were the easiest things on the job to squish so don't get squished . there demo on a water Mellons being crushed between two 90 ton rail cars was per found and motivating .

 

[Mike Casselton]

I haven't thought about that guy in thirty years. Camp Pendleton around 89 or so. I remember his last name but his first name I am blank on.

My Brian was a skinny kid from Montana.
By the third or fourth bull riding injury he had to be told to make a career choice.
He found out the next week that his GF was pregnant so he decided to stay where the pay was consistent and the medical coverage was free.

I bet she got fat as hell and stayed that way...

 

[Sandhog308]

Went to a school at NAS Millington and I was pulling a shift on barracks duty. Some boot checks in and I give him the speech and the off limits areas of Memphis. Dude took it as a road map for a good time. Turns out he was a white guy that was interested in black women. A couple weeks later on my shift I get a call from the hospital that they have private dumbass there. He's beet to a pulp and needs a ride back to base because his car was stolen. A couple guys thought it would be fun to give him shit and went to pick him up. I reported that incident up the chain and I think he was used as a where not to go for a while. At least until his face recovered.

I did time at NAS Millington back in the early 70’s. Had a Black dude I was in boot camp with me that looked like one muscle. 6’1” - 225 lbs ripped ! We got the spiel about where to avoid in Memphis. Sleepy ( muscle head) didn’t listen. He rolled up in a cab the next morning , all he had on was his stenciled boot camp skivies , beat to a pulp. They took his $$ , watch , clothes , shoes , then beat him down. Memphis ain’t no joke.

 

[Maggot]

I did time at NAS Millington back in the early 70’s. Had a Black dude I was in boot camp with me that looked like one muscle. 6’1” - 225 lbs ripped ! We got the spiel about where to avoid in Memphis. Sleepy ( muscle head) didn’t listen. He rolled up in a cab the next morning , all he had on was his stenciled boot camp skivies , beat to a pulp. They took his $$ , watch , clothes , shoes , then beat him down. Memphis ain’t no joke.

Welcome to the soon to be Mogadishu of America

 

[Sandhog308]

Welcome to the soon to be Mogadishu of America

Pretty close already

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

When I was there the mall was off limits. Seems like there were shootings there every couple days.

 

[EddieNFL]

Went to a school at NAS Millington and I was pulling a shift on barracks duty. Some boot checks in and I give him the speech and the off limits areas of Memphis. Dude took it as a road map for a good time. Turns out he was a white guy that was interested in black women. A couple weeks later on my shift I get a call from the hospital that they have private dumbass there. He's beet to a pulp and needs a ride back to base because his car was stolen. A couple guys thought it would be fun to give him shit and went to pick him up. I reported that incident up the chain and I think he was used as a where not to go for a while. At least until his face recovered.

We called it Charge of Quarters duty. Many years ago I was on a 1900-0700 Fri/Sat shift. Around 0600 a kid staggered in drunker than Cooter Brown. I found his ID, took him to his room and woke his bunkmate. We laid him across his bunk and put a trashcan under his head. Told bunkie to keep an eye on him.

When my relief showed, I briefed him and went home to crash. Found out Monday he went to check on them next rounds and found bunkie packing drunk guys shit.

I am eternally grateful I drew the overnight shift.

PS: No safety brief, but I always wonder if it would have been titled, "Watch Your Ass When Drinking to Excess."

 

[TheBigCountry]

SNCO gave a brief about not messing with the wildlife; who then proceeded to mess with a Pygmy rattler and got nailed by said rattler.

 

[Maggot]

When I was there the mall was off limits. Seems like there were shootings there every couple days.

There is one mall on the SE side of town that was so dangerous they closed it and tore it completely down.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

 

[The D]

Probably the most pertinent thing I can come up with

 

[Fig]

I fucking hate safety Nazis with a passion. Go fuck yourself you pog safety bitches with your dyna-breakers to stand on a stepstool and change a lightbulb. You're only good for reading manuals, but you're worthless in any kind of actual life threatening situation. I've seen a half dozen "Safety Officers" go totally tharn when the shit hits the fan. Being a megalomaniac deusch/pussy seems to be a requirement for the job.

 

[gigamortis]

I fucking hate safety Nazis with a passion. Go fuck yourself you pog safety bitches with your dyna-breakers to stand on a stepstool and change a lightbulb. You're only good for reading manuals, but you're worthless in any kind of actual life threatening situation. I've seen a half dozen "Safety Officers" go totally tharn when the shit hits the fan. Being a megalomaniac deusch/pussy seems to be a requirement for the job.

During my industrial maintenance career, I've seen both extremes of the safety spectrum.

On one hand, the safety nazis that adamantly espouse what they interpret from a manual are only interested in justifying their paychecks. They are just the next step of evolution past a grade school hall monitor. Safety to them is just another industry unto itself to provide a paycheck to those that couldn't make it on the front lines with real tradesmen. You usually find safety nazis employed at companies whose working staff is made up of some of the lowest paid workers they could find with no industrial common sense. These companies and their hand picked safety nazis actually believe that they can be 100% accident free if they just write safety policies that legislate against the stupidity of the low buck workers they hire.

On the other extreme, I have seen some very risky things done just to meet an arbitrary production deadline.

In order for a safety culture in the workforce to be effective, it has to be real world based. Industrial safety starts with a competent workforce with real skills, not some safety nazi spouting edict after edict at a low pay / low intelligence workforce. Hire people that know what they are doing and safety will mostly take care of itself.

 

[Longshot231]

The best safety device is between the ears.

 

[EddieNFL]

The best safety device is between the ears.

Unfortunately, not everyone engages the safety and constantly have their finger on the trigger.

 

[Fig]

I'm no dare devil. I'm half a fucking coward. I don't heal fast anymore and don't want to get hurt. My wife thinks it's dangerous as hell when I go on the roof when needed. Needless to say, it's perfectly safe (or I wouldn't do it). She couldn't understand why I wouldn't go to trampoline parks...till she blew her knee out at one... Fucking with electric? Tag it out, period. Shit you can't see will bite you. Using the table saw, push with some scrap. A lot of the other shit is so very small men can feel big.

One time I was at a big music festival and they had built a 20' tee-pee bonfire out of 6" lodge poles. The fucking idiots were sitting around it about 5' from the base. I saw it going good, with 50' flames, from about 100 yards away and ran as fast as I could yelling the whole way, and then dragging away the few who did not immediately listen and get back. I was confronting about ten angry hippies yelling at me for about sixty seconds when the whole thing collapsed and the burning circle tripled with huge burning logs. The ensuing silence was deafening and extremely satisfying. It would have been a mass casualty situation and it was avoided by a single minute.

It's not that I don't believe in safety. It's that I don't believe in putting the dumbest person in charge of it, and at least in the military it seems to be a job requirement.

There are a ton of common-sense safety measures and procedures that any sane person would follow, and there are also a ton that are retarded and implemented by tiny dick assholes who think because it's "SAFETY" they are the alpha and omega of life. More often than not they've never even done the task, and simply are the ultimate rule followers as if every situation and possibility is in their manual. Honestly, I get angry just thinking about it.

I've safely done many dangerous things in my life like rock climbing, sailing passage, motorcycles, sky diving, technical diving, shooting, etc. If I ever felt there was a safety issue I never been shy to addressed it directly. I also don't mind a reminder if I've gotten too comfortable and lax about it. I believe in being "safe" even when doing something dangerous. It's safety officers I don't like.

 

[Longshot231]

I don't like to be a safety Nazi but when I see something that isn't safe I like to politely say something. So when I see someone at the range with a spring powered air rifle I caution them on why they should hold the barrel while inserting the pellet in the chamber. 99& of airgun owners do not know this.



I use to load a break open airgun without holding the barrel down for many years until I saw a video of a man who explained how he lost the end of his thumb. I cannot locate that video now.

Anyway, the kids that I've taught to shoot with an airgun pick up the habit right away. I watch them and every time that I catch them neglecting to hold onto the barrel, I say something. It doesn't take long for them to develop the habit of holding the barrel.

Adults, on the other hand, are extremely difficult to convince. Nevertheless, I politely explain to them the hazard of not keeping the barrel in hand. So far, everybody, save one was very appreciative and receptive to my advice.

I was at the range when another shooter was trying his air rifle out for the first time. He wasn't holding the barrel. So when I got the chance, I approached him and said, "I don't like to give advice unless someone asks for it but do you mind if I give you a safety tip?"

He agreed and was very receptive. So I showed him how he could possibly lose his finger or thumb if the safety gave way and the trigger released the sear, allowing the spring to de-compress and sending the barrel back on his finger.

For about the next two or three shots he held the barrel down. Then I saw him load the next pellet without holding the barrel.

I tried to give him another gentle reminder but he looked at me as if to say "fuck off."

So I said, "suit yourself" and walked away. I don't like to see anyone hurt but that day I was hoping to hear a scream from the other side of the range and someone looking for the end of his finger.

Like I said, I cannot find the video which got my attention on holding the barrel. The gentleman producing it had photos of his bloody shortened thumb. If I can find it, I will post it here.

In the meantime here's a discussion on an airgun forum with a member explaining how he lost his fingertip with a spring powered airgun.

Amputated My Fingertip(GRAPHIC PICTURE BEWARE) - Airguns & Guns Forum

Amputated My Fingertip(GRAPHIC PICTURE BEWARE), Air guns, Airgun Forum

www.gatewaytoairguns.org