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New Air Force chief of safety takes charge

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KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) --  Kirtland Air Force Base officials welcomed the service's new top safety officer in a Jan. 13 change-of-command ceremony here.

Maj. Gen. Frederick F. Roggero became the Air Force chief of safety and commander of the Air Force Safety Center at Kirtland AFB, replacing Maj. Gen. Wendell L. Griffin, who retired Jan. 1.

The presiding officer was Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force chief of staff.

General Roggero said his goal in the job is simple: "To save Airmen's lives and to preserve the combat capability of the Air Force. That's my combined goal No. 1."

The general said he has three immediate priorities.

"The first one involves nuclear surety," he said. "That's the key to the Air Force nuclear enterprise, and safety is in charge of the policy and programs for nuclear surety. Safe, secure and reliable nuclear weapons are absolutely essential to our nation's nuclear deterrent. The policy and guidance put out by safety has to be perfect.

"Our second priority is to take a look across the Air Force to save Airmen's lives," General Roggero said. "I'm very concerned about our accident rate with automobiles off duty. About one Airman is killed every week off duty in a car accident. We need everybody's help, particularly commanders' help, to attack that issue.

"Our third priority is to look at our unmanned aircraft systems," he said. "We need to enhance our combat capability in that area and have a mishap-prevention program that identifies the risks and prevents mishaps. If they do happen, we need to have a swift and accurate investigation process so that we can get in, find the root causes, and get those assets back into the fight as soon as possible."

Talking about the Air Force's flying safety program, he said, "Fiscal 2008 was a tough year for the Air Force. We lost 13 Airmen in aviation accidents. We lost one of each of our bombers: the B-52 (Stratofortress), the B-2 (Spirit) and the B-1B (Lancer). So far, in fiscal 2009, our rate is good."

What is helping, he said, is "the commanders have taken a strong interest and they understand that safety is not a program; safety is an attitude. Safety takes leadership. You need to be along the sidelines exhorting your team and sparking them on in order to get a safety culture throughout the Air Force. That's what we need our commanders to do. We're going to take last year's results and make them even better."

General Roggero said he wants commanders to remember that "safety is an attitude. It is a leadership issue. It is not a program. We need the commanders to be out there on the front lines, and we need supervisors at every level to be out there emphasizing safety. It's their responsibility and it's my responsibility to preserve Airmen's lives. We all need to do that. We all need to work together, understanding that this is about saving Airmen's lives."