The military loses a lot of productivity to death, illness, or injury. Senior leadership understandably tries to keep a lot of this under control, so we endure briefings and slideshows and more briefings concerning vehicle safety or pedestrian safety or sports safety or even food safety.
Back when I was in AIT, there was a bit of an epidemic of some crazy virus. The response by command was to have us all carry bottles of hand sanitizer. Well, the disease came and went, and we hadn't seen any infections in months. From what I hear, they're still required to carry hand sanitizer on them at all times. I guess they'll be required to do so until mankind stops acquiring communicable diseases.
Also at AIT, the local Air Force training unit required that all airmen wear reflective belts while walking around. So basically, airmen wear uniforms that are camouflaged, designed to make the wearer difficult to see, then put a neon colored reflective belt so that they are easy to see. From a car at night, it looks like floating strips of neon colors crossing the street.
The funniest part about the safety obsession is the signs we see. Shown here is a 20 lb candy vending machine, which has the low tech device that takes quarters and dispenses a fixed amount of candy. Or disgusting candy-coated peanuts from 1994, if you prefer.
Look closer. That's right -
Our safety overlords have decided to warn us that this 20 lb machine, which weighs less than some of my larger loads of laundry, can fall over and cause serious injury or death. Also, I'm pretty sure that the vending machine will certainly "dispense free product" if I break the plastic case. Or I could just pick it up and take it home.
I could probably keep this blog updated on a regular basis with just ridiculous signs alone.
