3rd BCT Soldiers ‘roll over’ for safety course

Spec. Rogelio Alonso Jr., HHC, 3rd BSTB, braces himself as he is turned 360 degrees as part of humvee egress training. Photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Rik Cox

Drivers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team have been given a special opportunity to “roll a humvee” during Humvee Egress Assistance training, which is in progress from Jan. 9 to Feb. 15 at 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion motor pool.

The average Soldier most likely would not mark rolling a humvee high on his to-do list. But for the next few weeks, Soldiers of 3rd BCT will get an opportunity to do just that, in the name of safety.

U.S. Army Forces Command, through studies of accident reports during Operation Iraqi Freedom, took notice of a developing trend: a high number of Soldier fatalities due to vehicle rollovers. The training focuses on the proper reactionary steps Soldiers should take in such an event. The program goes along with the basic GTA guidelines provided for a rollover, but is broken down into fine detail. An innovative feature of the program is a simulator that takes students on an actual humvee roll.

“You can tell a Soldier over and over how to react to an emergency situation like a humvee roll,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Rik Cox, personnel officer for the Army Safety Augmentation Detachment and officer in charge of HEA training. “Showing a Soldier is another thing.”

The program focuses on three main things, the first of which is to teach students what it feels like to reach what the GTA refers to as the “critical angle” – the angle at which the average humvee will roll.
“What we want to do is not just tell the Soldiers that 30 degrees is the critical angle, but let them feel 30 degrees,” Cox said.

Cox and the FORSCOM staff illustrate this with the simulator, which consists of a suspended humvee cab that rotates completely around. The rotation is powered by a hydraulic motor. Cox allows students to strap into the vehicle, and he suspends them at a 30-degree angle. If students feel this downrange while driving, they will know they are in a dangerous position.

The second point of instruction is seatbelt confidence. Many driving fatalities occur because Soldiers do not wear their seatbelt. The course teaches the importance of wearing a seatbelt and shows students how much a seatbelt can assist in saving a life, especially during a rollover.

“The best way to illustrate how well a seatbelt works is to rotate the students 360 degrees,” Cox said. “That way they can see just how well this device holds them stationary if an accident occurs.”
The third stage of surviving a rollover is safely “egressing” or exiting the vehicle after it has overturned. This is an important block of instruction, because this is most likely the time panic might set in.

“You never know where you’ll be or what kind of situation you’ll be in when the vehicle comes to a standstill,” Cox said. “You may not only be upside down, but underwater, under fire or on fire. This is the worst time to try and think. If you’ve been through the motions of what to do, the chances of a panic attack are less likely.”

There are various things Soldiers should keep in mind when egressing a vehicle, such as muzzle awareness and bracing themselves before they unlock their safety belt. Above all else is staying calm and thinking through the situation.

The program is geared to teach master drivers in a “Train the Trainers” course. Their crews will have a chance to come and begin simulation training as well.
“A well trained crew can egress an overturned trainer, all boots on the ground, in six seconds,” Cox said.

Students said this the most complete driver’s training they have received thus far. The simulation is the key to carrying the message home.

“Safe driving is something a lot of Soldiers take for granted until something happens,” said Sgt. Eric Cunningham, an ambulance driver with 710th Brigade Support Battalion. “An ambulance is a very ‘rollable’ vehicle. It’s good to have the exact knowledge of what to do.”

Humvee egress training is not new to the Army, but the ability to simulate a rollover is. The 3rd BCT is the first divisional unit to actually incorporate the simulator into a formalized course for Soldiers. Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Carl Christian, former FORSCOM command sergeant major, envisions Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer devices as a brigade-level standard. FORSCOM also envisions this training becoming much more widespread.

“This training is being pushed out for use worldwide,” said Tim McLaughlin, 3rd BCT safety officer. “This is an inexpensive training tool that can reap great dividends throughout the armed services.”
Simulation has always been a highly effective tool in raising the bar in any training scenario.

“When the Navy instituted dunker training, the survivability rates rose from 49 percent to 93 percent,” Cox said. “About 50 percent of the time a humvee overturns, someone dies. We are looking to turn those statistics around.”