AMC Safety Office of the Year, 6th Air Refueling Wing Safety Office, MacDill Air Force Base, FL

The 6th Air Refueling Wing Safety Office (6 ARW/SE) at MacDill Air Force Base (AFB), FL, has been honored as the Air Mobility Command (AMC) 2024 Safety Office of the Year. Under the leadership of 6 ARW Commander Col Edward V. Szczepanik, the 6 ARW racked up a host of achievements in safety in the past year. The following are just a few examples.

The AMC Commander chose the 6 ARW/SE to support a $2.9 million Class A Safety Investigation Board (SIB) for a C-130J engine confined mishap. Not only did the team get the mishap downgraded to a Class D, saving twenty-seven thousand dollars in temporary duty funds, but they did it in five days—fifty-five days fewer than the average time to resolve an SIB.

During Hurricane Helene, the 6 ARW/SE provided key oversight of the emergency response. The team helped evacuate 21,000 people and assessed 113 critical facilities, restoring those facilities to mission-essential condition within two days after the hurricane had passed.

The 6 ARW Occupational Safety Office (SEG) led the 6th Communications Squadron in becoming knowledgeable about Air Force-level confined-space requirements. SEG helped them create their first unit extraction exercise, which took less than two weeks, and certified team member responsibilities for a zero-mishap exercise.

During the three days of AirFest 2024, the 6 ARW/SE identified and remediated eleven hazards. At MacDill AFB’s largest air show to date, 175,000 observers and eighteen hundred military personnel viewed twelve hours of entertaining, collision-free aerobatics. The Weapons Safety Office (SEW) managed the planning for pyrotechnics at AirFest, including conducting a risk assessment and writing the resulting safety guidelines. With a twenty-three thousand dollar contract, SEW oversaw thirteen personnel members and ninety-four pounds of explosives. The contractor subsequently declared, “Best support in twenty-plus years!”

With the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the 6 ARW Flight Safety Office removed fifty-five thousand birds, three coyotes, two alligators, and one manatee from the airfield. Those actions cut the number of wildlife strikes in half and resulted in 2,200 mishap-free KC-135 sorties.