RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
There have been no confirmed alcohol-related, non-DWI mishaps reported from the Air Force for fiscal year 2009 yet and the 12th Flying Training Wing's safety office wants it to stay that way.
Linda Howlett, 12th FTW ground safety officer, said one of the ways to do that is to educate Airmen about what occurs when alcohol use impairs judgment.
"Sometimes, sharing stories of alcohol-related mishaps makes Airmen think about what can happen to them if they drink too much," Ms. Howlett added.
The archives of service-related safety websites are replete with timeless examples of alcohol-related mishaps, Ms. Howlett said.
According to the Naval Safety Center's Web site, in May of 2000, it was reported that after a long night of drinking, a Marine lance corporal, with 0.25 blood alcohol content, decided he needed a cigarette. So, he opened -- and sat on -- the ledge of a window of the room of the sailors he was visiting.
After five minutes of smoking, he stubbed out his butt, stood up on the ledge, pitched forward, and crashed to the ground two floors below.
Doctors treating the Marine were unsure if he would ever walk right again. It took five pegs and two pins to get the several pieces of his fractured leg into some semblance of a straight line.
In May of 1995, the Naval Safety Center said that a pile of mattresses stacked alongside a barracks proved too great a temptation to a group of Marines. A Marine and some buddies were on the third-floor balcony drinking and observing Marines jump from the first-floor balcony onto the mattresses. The first-floor Marines cordially invited the third-floor Marines to join the fun.
Seizing the opportunity, a lance corporal leapt from the third-floor's railing, plummeted through the air and landed on his feet and buttocks right in the center of the mattresses.
His back was broken.
Worse than broken backs and fractured legs, some alcohol-fueled evenings go fatally awry when judgment is impaired, the Naval Safety Center reported.
A couple hours before midnight, a lance corporal got an early start on celebrating his twenty-first birthday with three of his buddies. They drank for a while, and then headed over to a local bar just a few minutes from camp, where the Marine drank himself into a stupor.
At about 3 a.m., his buddies carried the unconscious Marine back to the barracks. Five hours later, his blood alcohol content would be 0.357.
At 9 a.m., the Marine's roommate tried to wake him and couldn't. The duty NCO called 911. Emergency medical technicians tried CPR while transporting the inert Marine to the base hospital, where another hour of resuscitation was futile.
Eight hours and seven minutes into the lance corporal's twenty-first year, the clock of his life stopped forever.
"The tragic, common factor in these mishaps was alcohol abuse," Ms. Howlett concluded. "It's important to have a sober wingman with you when drinking and to remember 0-0-1-3 ; zero underage drinks, zero DWIs, one drink per hour and no more than three drinks in one setting."
For more information on avoiding alcohol-related mishaps, call the 12th FTW ground safety office at 652-1842.