Safety Speaker John Remembers American Heroes – A Safety Message

This evening, Friday, January 27, 2017, at 6:00 PM, I will be attending the 50th Anniversary Memorial Service for the Apollo One astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Fifty years ago, these three American heroes perished in a fire aboard their Apollo spacecraft. In our race to the moon, safety issues were missed, which resulted in the loss of the crew. As with most safety incidents, when analyzed, it is discovered the incident was preventable.

Failure of Imagination

In the HBO documentary, “From the Earth to the Moon”, astronaut Frank Borman was quoted as saying the fire was caused by a failure of imagination. How often do we fail to imagine a hazard or consequences of an action, which could result in a serious injury? As a safety speaker I teach safety team members to imagine all the consequences ahead of time. It is critical we do everything possible to imagine how our employees could be injured so we develop a process, procedure or device which would prevent such an injury.

Families Are Counting On Us

Two days before the memorial, I was being shown another memorial to the Challenger and Columbia shuttle astronauts who perished in two separate disasters. Each crew member was pictured with personal items. Several had Boy Scout uniforms pointing out the importance of this organization to their growth and character. My marketing director and fellow scouter, Diane Weiss, was pointing the uniforms out to me but I was already at a point of tears.

The reason was I was looking at the display honoring Greg Jarvis. Greg was the second civilian on board Challenger. What brought me to tears was seeing the Hughes patch on his flight suit. He worked for Hughes Aircraft Corporation’s Space and Communications Group of which my dad was manager. I don’t recall seeing my dad cry much in his life, however, I was told by people for the weeks following the Challenger disaster he would break down at any meeting, which Greg would normally have attended. Thinking of dad and how the loss of a friend and colleague impacted him brought tears to my eyes. I looked up and a friend and NASA employee who was in the display with me was also in tears. He was remembering these brave astronauts he knew and with whom he worked.

I can’t even imagine how much pain the families went through when they lost the ones they loved.

Action As a Tribute

Perhaps the best tribute we can make to these fallen heroes is to do whatever it takes to make sure the families of our employees never experience the loss of a loved one. Every time I visit Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, I journey out to Pad 34 where the fire occurred and sit and contemplate the importance of safety as a value. All that remains today is a concrete structure with the words, Abandon In Place stenciled on its side. It is a powerful safety reminder for me as a safety speaker, and an inspiration to imagine more ways in which I can help people work safely.

A wonderful tribute to the life of Gus Grissom is posted on YouTube. To watch it go to: https://youtu.be/sI8t2SE80jo

Until next week,
I’ll be, “Watching Out For Everyone’s Safety™”
John
© 2017 John Drebinger Presentations
Permission to use granted when credited and contact information included. www.drebinger.com +1 209.745.9419