120AW hosts safety class

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Eric Peterson
  • 120th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office
GREAT FALLS, Mont. --  The 120th Airlift Wing hosted a four-day ground safety orientation course at the wing's dining facility for 43 members of the Air National Guard in May.

The course is designed to provide current safety information to Guard commanders, supervisors and safety representatives.

Guard members traveled from bases located as far away as Georgia and Arkansas to attend the class.

Master Sgt. Jason Ramsey serves full-time as a member of the safety office with the 172nd Airlift Wing in Jackson, Mississippi, and was one of four instructors for the class.

"It's a good thing because it actually changes the culture, it really does," Ramsey said. "There's a lot of good training and the training goes a long way."

120th AW Safety Manager Senior Master Sgt. Ronny Grina is nationally recognized as an instructor of the Air National Guard safety course and helped teach the material presented in the local class.  
   
"The course material covered the safety culture, how to manage an effective safety program and industrial topics like lock-out, tag-out, confined spaces, what to do when there's a mishap and job safety training," Grina said. "I think it's been received really well."

The training also used slide presentations and safety videos to cover additional safety topics as aircraft and motor vehicle mishaps and electrical and fire hazards.

Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Harris works with hazardous materials in his position with the 120th AW and appreciated the safety information that was presented during the class. The class showed him how Air Force instructions needed to match the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards to meet safety requirements.

"We need to make sure that we're doing what OSHA wants and then more," Harris said. "That way if you can't find it in the AFIs you can go to the OSHA standards and find it there."

According to Ramsey, the National Guard Bureau schedules up to 10 courses taught throughout the nation annually.

"I want to bring it here at least every four years," Grina said. "We're going through a conversion and we have new supervisors and safety representatives. This is just key to keeping the culture positive and proactive."    
                           
On the final day of class the instructors planned to send the students armed with their newfound safety knowledge to conduct mock inspections on the Montana Air National Guard base.

"We'll break out into four or five groups and we'll use everything that we've taken in," Ramsey said. "And then once we've done our inspection we'll come back and do our reports and everyone will get their certificate."