During my 19 plus years in the Army, I can honestly say that I have seen my fair share of accidents. The environments that the military operates in can be some of the most dangerous, even for some of the most seasoned veterans. The combination of limited visibility and harsh weather conditions and add to the fact that the military operates 24 hours a day. This opens up the door to overload one of the three factors in the Human Factor Theory. One of the most gruesome accidents that I witnessed during my years in the military happened in Hohenfels, Germany. My unit was conducting its bi-annual training at the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC). It was in the 18 of November 1998 and all of the line unit were put conducting screen line throughout …show more content…
First I will cover the non-human factors. The environment in which we were operating were extremely wet, due to the torrential rain and if you have ever been to CMTC its nothing but mud. So the played a factor, but not the only one that caused the accident. If we use the Human Factor Theory to break down this accident. Overload, the support platoon had set-up and had been operating that resupply point for over eight straight hours. They were working on about 2 hours of continuous sleep over the last 24 hours. They were also being tested on their ability to effectively move units through the resupply points. So, there was the added stress of doing their job to the Army’s standard. Inappropriate Response, the second factor. The soldier failed to maintain three points of contact while walking on top of the HEMTT, while checking the fuel level. So he ignored the safety standard that was set by the Army in order to prevent falls from slippery surfaces. Not only did he ignore the standard, but so did his supervisor, by not correcting the soldier preforming the unsafe act. The third and final factor would be inappropriate activities. The support platoon received over half of it personnel before arriving at CMTC. This gave a very short period of time for the platoon sergeant to train and evaluate each one and ensure that they had the appropriate