Let's heat from the corps!

Being "the new aviation guy" in the Naval Safety Center came with a lot of questions. Several were standard. "What was your last command?" "Are you married?" "Do you have children?"

I was asked my views on the Safety Center from a Fleet perspective. I'm guessing I gave the standard answer: "I think it's important for the Safety Center to conduct surveys." But that was only part of the answer that they were looking for.

One of the many products and services produced by the Naval Safety Center is the collection of safety-related magazines: Mech, Approach, Sea Compass, Decisions, and Safe Ride. The command wanted to know if the Marines in the fleet actually read them, and how often. Well, most of the guys know that you can always find the latest copy of Mech or Approach in a head stall. And that's what I told them. While this isn't a bad answer because at least they're being read, it became clearer that what everyone wanted to know was: If Marines know about the magazines, why don't they submit stories?

I started to think about this, and flipping through four past issues of Mech I found only one article sent in by a Major. At this point, what I couldn't figure out was out of all the stories we hear and tell each other, why have none of them ever been put on paper?

So what I ask of you in the Fleet is to submit your stories. We all have a story to share about something a "friend" has done that was not necessarily the most intelligent course of action. The point of these is to give the next generation a building block for smarter decisions. We don't necessarily care if you change the names to protect the dumb. We just want to share what's going on in the fleet to help the next person. So send them in.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Analyst's Note Analyst's Note: Aviation maintenance - related topics would be considered for Mech magazine. Off-duty and recreational stories appear in Decisions. And flight-related tales are submitted for Approach.