Marines


News
Base Logo
Official U.S. Marine Corps Website
Crossroads of the Marine Corps

Leaders push Marines to make summer fun safe

6 Jun 2013 | Mike DiCicco Marine Corps Base Quantico

“In the last three months, the only [nonjudicial punishments] I’ve done have been DUIs, from lance corporals to master sergeants,” Col. James Brennan, commanding officer of Headquarters and Service Battalion, told his Marines.

The 101 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day have already started counting down, and one of Marine Corps leaderships’ biggest safety concerns during the summer is alcohol, especially when combined with vehicles or aquatic recreation.

“There are only two types of people who drink and drive — those who get caught and those who kill people,” Brennan said during the H&S Bn.’s annual safety stand-down May 23,2013,  just before Memorial Day weekend.

“This is an opportunity to spend time with your families, but be smart,” Brennan said, adding that Marines between the ages of 18 and 24 are especially at risk because they tend to feel invincible. “We’re all human. We all break just as easily.”

“Our biggest thing is people going out for recreational activities and drinking and not having a buddy with them in case something happens,” said Wayne “Robbie” Robertson, deputy director of the base Safety Division, in a separate interview.

He said motorcycle safety is also a major concern, adding that a number of last year’s motorcycle fatalities were Marines ranked between E5 and E7. “So it’s not just the lower-ranking guys. It’s noncommissioned officers doing the same things.”

“No matter how you slice it, you are more exposed on a motorcycle than you are in a car,” Brennan said, adding that the rider often is not the party at fault.

According to a brief from the Naval Safety Center, 20 sailors and 13 Marines died during the “101 critical days of summer” in 2012. Twenty of those deaths resulted from motorcycle accidents, and seven were from other vehicle mishaps. Two service members drowned, one was hit while riding a bicycle, one died in a water vehicle mishap, and two were struck as pedestrians. The report didn’t specify how many of the fatalities were alcohol-related.

None of the deaths were among service members based at Quantico.

“This base has been pretty fortunate the last couple of years in the summertime,” Robertson said.

He emphasized the importance of staying current in motorcycle safety training, which the base offers for free and requires of all service members who ride motorcycles, as well as all civilians who ride on base.

Boat training is also important, Robertson said, noting that as of July 1, 2013, Virginia will require all operators of personal watercraft ages 40 and younger to take a boating safety course.

A brief from the Headquarters Marine Corps Safety Division notes that the sun, wind, glare, vibration and water motion that boaters are exposed to can produce a dangerous state of “boater’s hypnosis,” a condition that is aggravated by alcohol consumption.

One of last year’s drowning deaths was the result of a riptide, and the brief from headquarters advised swimming parallel to the shore to escape one of these dangerous currents. The brief also noted the danger of swimming under the influence of alcohol.

Another concern Brennan brought up is that Marines use leave time during summer to take trips that sometimes involve too much driving in a short time span, resulting in fatigue that is dangerous behind the wheel.

Robertson recommended that anyone planning a trip use the Travel Risk Planning System, available online, which produces a risk assessment for any planned trip based on the traveler’s age, the vehicle type, the distance to be traveled and other factors. The system also provides a pre-trip safety checklist.

“The Marine Corps does a heck of a job of getting these tools out to folks; it’s just a matter of folks using them,” he said.

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com


Marine Corps Base Quantico