2020 Critical Days of Summer Wrap-Up

It is over. The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which Air Mobility Command (AMC) recognizes as the Critical Days of Summer, has come to pass for 2020. This annual campaign highlighted the risks that summer and warm weather activities bring to our Airmen. Increased highway travel, high-risk recreational sports, and myriad other activities all pose a heightened impact for increasing mishap potential during summer. Due to the ever-present risks along with social distancing measures of COVID-19, outdoor risk management was all the more necessary for this year’s campaign.

Tragically, AMC suffered one off-duty private motor vehicle fatality, and the Air Force lost a total of 16 Airman this summer. Private motor vehicle operations continue to be the leading cause of death this year, resulting in 11 of the 16 off-duty fatalities, with more than one-half involving motorcycles. Personal risk management and sound decision-making are critical to reducing and eliminating these motor vehicle mishaps.

This year’s campaign theme was Hindsight in 2020, in which we encouraged our leaders to bring forth lessons learned from the past by our Airmen. We found it imperative to look back on past mishaps and/or near-misses and share with others in order to prevent similar occurrences with our Wingmen. In doing so, we hope that the messaging from their stories resonated with our Airmen and played a part in preventing mishaps.

Alcohol continues to be a factor in the majority of fatalities. It can make people feel confident, less inhibited, and more euphoric. Alcohol has an especially high and often negative impact on those who display unnecessary risk-taking and poor choice management.

We kicked off the campaign with small group discussions and guidelines, which were provided to our units in order to promote engaging conversations between supervisors and work-center personnel. These discussions got Airmen thinking about risk management in terms of their actions, and in the end provided them with the tools for adequate decision-making based on Deliberate and Real-Time Risk Management.

Finally, to complement the small group discussions, leadership teams were provided an avenue for story time during their Commander Calls in order to spread lessons learned from past personal experiences.

Alcohol continues to be a factor in the majority of fatalities. It can make people feel confident, less inhibited, and more euphoric. Alcohol has an especially high and often negative impact on those who display unnecessary risk-taking and poor choice management. Although it can be a great way to socialize or relax when used responsibly, alcohol can be an insidious enemy to our world-class Airmen and society at large when misused.

Now that the summer campaign has ended, we look forward to preparing our Airmen for the fall and winter seasons. This year has been unlike any other, so we need all Airmen to be aware of their surroundings, stay vigilant, and be focused to execute our global mission. Sound risk management in your decision-making process can lead to better choices and be the difference between life and death. Anyone, regardless of rank, can be a leader in safety, and right now we need as many leaders as possible to ensure effective mishap prevention both on- and off-duty.