MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The Marine Corps is on a pace to have its best safety record since 2000 — news that came this week as the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps was visiting Camp Pendleton to make a pitch for safety. "It breaks your heart to hear another Marine has wrapped himself around a telephone pole," Gen. William L. Nyland said Tuesday at the San Luis Rey Officers Club in an address to the Marine Corps' Executive Safety Board.
The board, composed of commanding generals from major commands and supporting organizations around the Corps, met to assess Marine Corps safety and brainstorm ways to improve the record.
So far this fiscal year, Marine death tolls are shrinking compared with the five-year average, according to statistics provided by the Naval Safety Center.
Through March 10, 24 Marines had died in off-duty mishaps or incidents, many of which are deemed preventable.
Twelve others had died in operational or duty-related mishaps.
Over the previous five years, the Corps averaged 61 off-duty deaths per year.
Operationally, the news so far is even better.
The 12 mishap deaths Corps-wide midway through the year compares with an average of 39 deaths over the previous five years.
Even excluding FY 2003 — when 48 operational mishaps causing 60 deaths occurred with the nation at war — the Corps has averaged 33.5 operational mishap deaths per year since FY 99.
But this year's toll of 12 deaths is on track to finish the year well below that average.
Those deaths resulted from 13 operational mishaps through March 10 — the lowest comparative total since 2000, when 23 operational mishaps occurred Corps-wide.
The next lowest total was 32 in FY '99, according to Naval Safety Center numbers.
Camp Pendleton has contributed to recent success on the safety front. Four-day holidays — or "96s" — are notorious for off-duty accidents that claim Marines.
But three of the last four 96s — including the Christmas and New Years holiday periods — resulted in no Marine off-duty deaths.
Safety stand-downs — or official pleas from Marine Corps leaders to play it safe and exercise good judgment known as operational risk management — can't be discounted as safety boosters, says Master Sgt. John J. Darlak, staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the Base Safety Center here.
Recently, those stand-downs have shifted in emphasis from centralized messages to pitches delivered by small-unit commanders.
"Safety stand-downs are changing behavior," Darlak said. "It is a cultural change. You can't stop Marines from participating in dangerous activities, but you can educate them on the hazards and operational risk management."
Darlak also cited the Marine Corps' Click It or Ticket program — periodic, systematic military police stops of motorists to ensure they're buckling up.
At Camp Pendleton, the campaign has increased seat-belt compliance.
Previously, 10 percent of drivers weren't buckling up; now, only 2 percent are unbuckled, he said.
Marines' penchant for adventure, coupled with the Corps' large contingent of young men in their late teens and early 20s, has plenty to do with the Marine Corps' safety problem, Nyland said.
Every year the Marine Corps gets 40,000 new joins and discharges 30,000 others, he said.
"A big factor in our safety numbers is the youth of our organization," Nyland said.
"They (Marines) didn't sign up to have slide rules and pencil protectors — they signed up looking for a challenge."
Consequently, Marine leaders should never stop underscoring safety, even though preventable accidents will never become a thing of the past, he said.
"We should never lose sight of accomplishing our mission," Nyland said.
"It (safety) is something we really, truly have to focus on."
E-mail Lance Cpl. Paulsgrove at PaulsgroveGA@pendleton.usmc.mil.