Benelux Safety Office boosts readiness through unit training

CHIÈVRES AIR BASE, Belgium - The U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Benelux Safety Office recently hosted a Unit Safety Officer (USO) course that brought together military and civilian personnel from across the theater, strengthening safety through collaboration.

Around 22 students learned about the Army Safety Program, program requirements, risk management principles, accident reporting procedures, workplace inspections, hazard identification techniques, and leader responsibilities in maintaining a safe and healthy work environment.

"We've been learning how to identify different risks to our environment - how to identify the risk and how we mitigate the risk on behalf of the commander," said Sgt. 1st Class Zachary Williams, USAG Benelux Religious Support Office (RSO) non-commissioned officer in charge. "We've learned how to complete inspections, fill out the Deliberate Risk Assessment Worksheets (DRAW) and what the reporting chain looks like if we were to have an incident."

The attendees all serve as Unit Safety Officers, a commander's principal advisor on safety concerns at the unit level. Their role is to identify hazards, conduct risk assessments, promote accident prevention programs, investigate incidents and ensure unit compliance with Army safety regulations.

The USAG Benelux Safety Office invited instructors from U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) Safety Office to facilitate the course.

"We're facilitating the Unit Safety Officer Course, which develops civilians and Soldiers to become advisors to their commands in terms of safety and to run the safety program more efficiently," said Stefanie Diaz, HQ USAREUR-AF safety and occupational health manager. "Throughout the year, we have nine permanent scheduled classes that are done in at the schoolhouse in Vilseck and then throughout the year we send out Mobile Training Teams (MTT), as requested throughout the theater."

By bringing critical training directly to the local workforce, the Garrison Benelux Safety Office continues to support readiness, accident prevention, and the well-being of the Benelux community. As operational environments grow increasingly complex, trained Unit Safety Officers remain essential to fostering a proactive safety culture that protects personnel, preserves resources, and enhances mission effectiveness.