Idaho Airman receives Air Force safety award for innovation

  • Published
  • By Joshua C. Allmaras
  • 124th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
GOWEN FIELD, Idaho (April 17, 2015) --  An armament systems specialist with the 124th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Weapons Load Shop here was presented with a Ground Safety Well Done award April 12 for researching and developing a storage system for the squadron's Triple Ejection Racks.

Master Sgt. Marshall J. Daniell's TERs storage system has resulted in a decrease in injuries and the required storage footprint for the weapons warehouse.

"It was a great honor for me to be here to present an Air Force level award to one of the 124th Fighter Wing Airmen," said Col. Edward Vaughan, director of safety for the Air National Guard. "Air National Guard Airmen, on a daily basis, are innovating to get the mission done and to make the mission move forward. Sergeant Daniell is just the tip of the iceberg for this."

Receiving an award can be a humbling experience.

"This was a national safety award, which was kind of surprising," said Daniell. "It's embarrassing to get an award for something that a lot of other people were involved with. It was a real honor to be recognized."

Daniell's rack system is helping reduce injuries and saving coveted warehouse floor space.

"Sergeant Daniell not only solved the problem with an occupational, health and safety hazard, but he went one step further to actually reduce the footprint and floor space requirement at the same time," said Vaughn.

"He saved the wing 423 lost work hours resulting in 113,000 dollars in savings. What's not actually quantified is that he went from 160 square feet to 39 square feet of floor space."

"Leading innovation out in front of everybody is one of the core competencies of the Air National Guard," said Vaughn. "We've got people out there that bring an amazing amount of talent, experience, education and skills to the joint fight that you absolutely need to be successful in today's national security environment."

"It is one of the things that the Air National Guard does well and Sergeant Daniell's award and innovation is a perfect example of that."

Daniell understands how important every Airman's ideas are.

"Don't minimize your own ideas or efforts because it might impact a lot more people than you think," said Daniell.