First off, none of this is policy yet. Did the last duty section you mustered have to blow into a breathalyzer? I didn't think so. Does your command own a breathalyzer? I also, didn't think so. Everybody cool out for a minute. Long story short, I'll believe it when I see it.
Field tested throughout PACOM. Have also seen them handed out to liberty buddies leaving the ship.
From a former (just) Wing Safety Officer, I can tell you that the majority of those people were fucking up. The vast majority of the injuries and mishaps occurred to people riding under the table, riding without required safety equipment, shattering traffic laws (by that I mean riding a stand-up at 100...) or not complying with the current program.
From a former airwing safety officer (if those things matter for anything
) I can tell you that leadership recognizes that there are stupid people out there and all the training in the world isn't going to save some of them. What matters is whether the command had a program in place to assist those riders who chose to responsibly follow the rules and regulations established. Your quote above kinda helps this point along.
The reason that we are hearing about this is because we (I say we as a collective "at the command level") have failed to execute the motorcycle program we have...so yeah, the top down solution is to make it harder to ride. Don't like it? Fix it. Stop guys you know who aren't current with training. Talk to people who you know who act like morons on motorcycles. Why? 1) Because its your f#$%ing job as an Officer and 2) Because there ass-clownery makes it harder for you to ride. You say we can't fix stupid? That's true...but commands sure as shit can say to the identified stupid "Stay off a motorcycle or go to NJP."
Some good points here, but it all boils down to individuals making decisions. Its the same thing with DUIs - you can have all the training in the world, have free ride cards, have buddies out with each other, have safety stand downs with gory pictures, tell 'em about the fines - yadda yada yadda until you're blue in the face. Some dickhead is still going to go out and drive drunk. Do you see a DUI as an indicator of a program that has failed to execute well - like you do with the motorcycle statement above?
A local command just returned to CONUS after being attached FDNF for next to forever. They recognized that their folks were at a higher risk for DUIs as many of them had not driven in years, or simply were scared off by Japan's .00 BAC laws. So they spent more than three hours at a SSD late last week where all they talked about were DUIs. You see what's coming here right? They had a dude get a DUI this weekend (might have been that night). Why am I to believe that he wouldn't have done some equally stupid with a motorcycle - and how have I failed if he does?
I'll even add that the more training you provide to people (within reason), the easier it is to crush them when they do F it away on a bike or with boozing at the wheel. We have made so many options available to the Sailors at my command that a DUI at this point is just natural selection at work. Last one (which thankfully was several months ago) was a civilian within two weeks - there were some other circumstances at play, but my point is that it makes the decision making process a lot easier when you accept that sometimes you just can't help stupid.
