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Nellis staff sergeant wins ACC Ground Safety Award

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Mike Richmond
  • 99ABW/PA

To bail out or not to bail out. It’s a life-or-death decision that pilots face from time to time, but it’s not something a forklift operator typically ponders.

Yet that was the decision faced by Staff Sgt. Erich Mansfield last September when he found himself behind the wheel of a 30,000-pound, out-of-control forklift, barreling in the dark toward people and live munitions in Area 2.

For deciding to risk his own life and stay with the vehicle, Sergeant Mansfield was presented an Air Combat Command Ground Safety Award last week by Brig. Gen. William Rew, commander of the 57th Wing.

Sergeant Mansfield, who is assigned to the 57th Equipment Maintenance Squadron as a big bombs crew chief, had just begun descending a hill – backwards – when his forklift lost power at around 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22. He was able to restart the forklift once, but it immediately failed a second time, disabling the brakes and making steering almost impossible.

He tried the emergency brake, but that failed, too… as did an attempt to shift the vehicle into a forward gear.

Meanwhile, the forklift picked up speed with every passing second and headed toward two coworkers and 33 fused Mark-84 bombs at the bottom of the 200-yard, 20-degree incline.

Sergeant Mansfield said it took about a second to weigh his two options – bail out or attempt steering the forklift around the people and bombs.

“When you’re on a moving object that you can’t control, the first thing you think is that you’ve got to get off it or you’re going to get hurt,” the sergeant said. “But I knew what was down there, and I if I bailed out, for sure it would have hit something, either a person or a load of bombs. But if I stayed with it, there was at least Forklift drivers earns safety award a possibility that I could steer it just enough to avoid things.”

Accelerating to a top speed he estimated to be 30 to 35 mph, Sergeant Mansfield gripped the steering wheel as hard as he could and veered the forklift around objects. Squinting into the darkness, his only visual cues were faint highlights coming from reflective strips on equipment and a bomb-loaded flatbed.

As the forklift careened toward – then past – people and palletized bombs, he shouted, “No brakes! No brakes!” Moments later, the forklift smashed into a thick, wooden lightning-protection system pole.

“It completely splintered the pole and took down another pole that was attached to it,” Sergeant Mansfield said.

A moment later, he saw an unavoidable ditch, faced himself forward, and braced for an abrupt stop.

The forklift slammed to a halt in the ditch, and his coworkers came running to his aid. An ambulance took him to the emergency room at the hospital, where he stayed until his blood pressure went down to normal – which took about 30 minutes. The only external physical manifestations from the ordeal were calluses on his hands and fingers from having to grip the steering wheel tightly enough to move it.

Capt. Joshua Parsons, commander of the munitions flight at the time, submitted Sergeant Mansfield for the ACC award. The captain had been working late in his office that night and responded to the scene shortly after Sergeant Mansfield had been taken to the hospital.

“After hearing the details of what happened, I couldn’t believe that he had the presence of mind to stay with the forklift,” Captain Parsons said. “That really impressed me.”

The captain was further impressed when Sergeant Mansfield showed up at the worksite later to finish his shift after being released from the hospital.

“I told him, ‘I appreciate that, but no.’ I said, ‘Even my head’s not in the right place after all of this, so there’s no way yours can be. Just go home,’” Captain Parsons said.

Before Sergeant Mansfield left, however, Captain Parsons asked him why he didn’t jump off the forklift, and the NCO shared his second’s worth of decision-making.

“It amazed me that a person could stay calm enough to do that,” the captain said. “I don’t think I’d have had the foresight in that situation to think the way he did.”

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