“This is real, it is not a drill,” said Kurt Vimont, deputy director of Base Safety, about the Voluntary Protection Program that the base committed to in November.

“What’s next? Get involved,” he added. “Ask yourself, ‘What can I do to look out for myself, my co-workers and my supervisor?’ If everyone gets involved we will get a positive return on investment.”

The Marine Corps currently has two VPP star status bases, with Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia, being the most recent addition.

“While we have a long way to go to get star status, we would like to be the third or fourth, not the last,” Vimont said.

One of the requirements of being star status is to be a mentor to those companies or government entities that are coming up in VPP.

In this direction, select members of the Steering Committee and Base Commander Col. David W. Maxwell toured Raytheon in Norfolk on Dec. 2 to see what a star site looks like and to meet with their counterparts within the company to ask them what challenges and successes they had.

The Steering Committee is then scheduled to have their first meeting in January during which one of the key discussions will involve the VPP Passports for employees and supervisors. The passports will include several items that each person must complete in an effort to ensure everyone’s involvement, said Vimont. 

While initially there will only be two passports, one for employees and one for supervisors, down the road there are plans to have four: industrial employees, industrial supervisors, administrative employees and administrative supervisors.

Vimont emphasized that “Getting involved doesn’t mean being on the Steering Committee.”

Base employees can get involved through shop committees, workplace inspections, etc., he added.

“This is everyone’s program, not safety’s program,” Vimont said.