Contusions to the Cranium

  • Published
  • By Col. "Tip" Stinnette
  • 39th Air Base Wing commander
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Certain land animals have evolved over the millennia to use speed in the pursuit of prey or avoidance of predators. The cheetah (Acinonyx Jubatus) can run as fast as 60 mph over the plains of Africa, and the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra Americana) can reach 55 mph over the plains of North America. Humans (Homo sapiens) are not among these animals built for speed. The very fastest human can achieve a maximum sprint of 16 mph for short distances. 

So, things were bound to go wrong when a 19-year-old male, driving on the freeway, sought to impress his two passengers by putting his car on cruise control at 20 mph, getting out of the car, and attempting to run alongside it. He planned to jump back in and drive on, but the moment his feet hit the ground, he fell over and slammed headfirst into the asphalt. He was admitted to the hospital with a severe contusion to his cranium. 

So here we are, closing in on the finish-line of our inspection. Compliance is not a sprint kind of thing, but rather a long distance event. It's been a little less than three years since our last compliance inspection and it took us upward of eight months to prepare for this inspection. Just think how long it would have taken to prepare if we had gone greater than three years between compliance inspections. 

We are one month out from our next inspection which is a Health Services Inspection. This inspection will focus on how we maintain our medical health as a community. Following this inspection we will have about four months to prepare for our surety staff assistance visit followed another four months later by our surety inspection. Here's my point, our preparation for the next inspection begins now. If we integrate compliance into our everyday activities, then we can avoid contusions to the cranium caused by a last minute sprint. 

The idea of trying to keep up with a car on cruise control by running like a cheetah or pronghorn antelope seems a little extreme to me ... I kind of like being an intelligent homo sapien who looks ahead while ensuring freedom's future.