The purpose of the briefing was to inform safety officers of common WSMR safety issues that have occurred over the past year, and to highlight focus areas to work on to improve WSMR’s overall safety posture.
Materiel Test Directorate holds safety stand down brief
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. (May 19, 2022) White Sands Test Commander Col. Shawanta Smart, Executive Director and Deputy to the Commander Robert Stone, and Peter Grelle Chief of White Sands Test Center (WSTC) Safety Office held a safety stand down briefing on May 17, 2022. The purpose of the briefing was to inform safety officers of common WSMR safety issues that have occurred over the past year, and to highlight focus areas to work on to improve WSMR’s overall safety posture.
“The Materiel Test Directorate plays a key role in safety with their personnel, especially Test Officers and Test Conductors, in ensuring operations are performed safely. They generate Standing Operating Procedures for their respective test activities and interface with customers who are visiting the range, often for the first time. They provide information to those visitors on the hazards that are present when conducting tests,” said Grelle. “The Army's top priority is people and ensuring the safety of our workforce is critical to supporting the Army People Strategy.”
“A few focus areas were on Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), risk management plans, timely SOPs submission and GOV/POV trends. We took this occasion to reinforce organizational policies regarding safety in general. The safety stand down was also a great opportunity for employees to cite any safety concerns they may have,” said Smart.
WSMR plans on holding similar events for other directorates and personnel throughout WSTC in the near future.