Risk situations happen all the time in the army and, therefore, risk is absolutely pervasive, and the only remedy includes proper management to ensure that no personnel become a victim of it. The situation is synonymous with the legendary falling of trees in the forest where when there is no human presence to hear the fall, it is deemed as non-existent. Many people including leaders and soldiers seem to think that if they do not witness the occurrence, the situation is not happening.
While guiding the masses, especially in the army, leaders have the role of reaching out to indiscipline behavior they witness and correcting it before it causes serious impacts. Risk are pervasive and cannot be totally eliminated in daily life’s. However, army leaders have a role of instructing the soldiers to make smart risk decisions. If accidents occur, they should out of control scenarios, but no one has to be a victim of negligence. Through discipline, training and standards, soldiers will serve better if there is better operation procedural mechanisms in place.
Situation awareness is a collaborative exercise in the army that seeks to find, collect, analyze and communicate actionable information to leaders and other parties concerning the state of Army resources and imminent threats. Organizations such as USACR/SC and Threat Awareness and Reporting Program are involved in high level maintenance of a centralized information systems that control the reporting, analyzes and counterintelligence follow up of incidences. The centers analyze the incidences and allocate resources and personnel for counterintelligence as well as determine the level of threats before any action is taken. Such analysis is crucial for a leader in order to understand the level of engagement while neutralizing the incident and also to prevent further damage. This is applicable to espionage, terrorist and insider threats. A high degree of awareness impacts significantly on the success of the mission through resource allocation and minimizing human casualties while mitigating the threat.
Flagging fellow soldiers with a loaded weapon implies lack of weapons safety procedures on the part of the soldier and this could result to accidents and deaths. Weapons safety procedures include rules and recommendations applied to the possession, storage and handling of firearms. The purpose of the safety procedures is to eliminate or reduce the risks of unintentional deaths, damage or injury that might be caused by reckless handling, possession and storage. For instance, gun safety procedures have a four rule principle developed by Colonel Jeff Cooper among other players that stipulate the handling, possession and storage of guns. It assumes that all guns are always loaded and are dangerous. The second rule states that the muzzle cover should not be directed at anything that is not supposed to be destroyed, and thus, a loaded gun should not be used to flag fellow soldiers as this may result in unintentional shooting. The third rule points out that the finger should be kept off the trigger until the target is on sight. Finally, the fourth rule stipulates that firearm should be ensured with prove that it is unloaded. The target and what is beyond it should be known well. The dangers of flagging soldiers with a loaded weapon are realistic and in most scenarios leads to unintentional and highly regretful deaths.
Soldiers who flag someone with a loaded weapon at my range should be disarmed immediately, and disciplinary action should be taken against them. This is because such actions could lead to injury and deaths if not corrected at the slightest instance of occurrence.
Reference
Lowry, R. (2008). The Gulf War Chronicles:A Military History of the First War with Iraq. iUniverse.
