VPP makes its way to Vance

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Katherine Roling
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The Voluntary Protection Program, designed to promote effective safety and health habits in the work area, will have its official start at Vance this month.

The VPP is a partnership between the Air Force and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. While it may be new to Vance, the VPP is not a new program. In fact, it made its start in 1982 with OSHA. The Secretary of the Air Force directed its implementation for the Air Force in March 2006.

"Since 9/11 we've lost over 500 of our fellow Airmen to preventable mishaps while during the same time losing 60 in combat," said Gen. Stephen Lorenz, commander of Air Education and Training Command. "In other words, you are eight times more likely to be involved in a fatal mishap at home base than when you're deployed. Often we are our own worst enemy."

The VPP will incorporate key principles from Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century and act as an extension to the wingman concept. It will also blend into the Air Force's Operational Risk Management program to improve every Airman's fundamental safety situational awareness. Decreasing illnesses and injuries in the workplace is the aim of the program for AETC.

As a result of the partnership with OSHA, Air Education Training Command has made a goal for all of its bases to have this program underway by 2010.

"The entire Department of Defense has been mandated to take on the VPP," said Lt. Col. Theodore Weibel, chief of wing safety. "Due to its intricate involvement, it has to be phased in by the bases. Vance's turn to implement it has come up."

According to Maj. Ben Merritt, the base's point of contact for the VPP, the program aims to preserve combat power by decreasing injuries and illnesses, lost days and worker's compensation costs. Ensuring the VPP becomes a world-class safety and health program will depend on voluntary participation and ownership. With the right amount of participation, complete implementation of the program will take six phases, spanning from 18 months to two years.

Mr. Vance E. Lineberger, Deputy for Safety from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary (Energy, Environment, Safety & Occupational Health) will be making an engagement visit to Vance July 13. The goal of the visit is to raise Team Vance's  understanding of the VPP.

"Fence-to-fence VPP implementation will involve intense partnership between Vance and its contractors," said Major Merritt. "The bottom-line goal of it is to look at illness rates and injury rates of any given business or Air Force installation, in this case, and look at the national averages. We are aiming to be below those averages."