KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Maj. Gen. Greg Feest took charge of the Air Force Safety Center in a Sept. 1 ceremony.

During a recent interview, General Feest looked to the future of AFSC and spoke of his goals for the organization.

"Our vision here in the Safety Center is to have a world-class safety organization, protecting and preserving Air Force combat capabilities through mishap prevention," he said. "We want to minimize preventable mishaps. That's my goal while I'm here and that's the goal of the Air Force Safety Center."

The Safety Center will have a number of focus areas. Some were given by the Secretary of the Air Force and others by the Air Force Chief of Staff. General Feest also has some personal focus areas for safety.

"Nuclear surety is our primary focus area -- that's number one," said General Feest. "Following that is to leverage technology in today's world to improve our safety programs."

The two leading causes of death for Airmen are suicides and motor vehicle accidents.

The Safety Center is working with the Air Force Surgeon General's office to help reduce suicides.

"We are losing too many Airmen to suicide," said General Feest. "We have to spend a lot of time in this area. We have a lot of smart people in Air Force Safety and across the DOD who can assist in that area.

General Feest said that flight safety trends from the last 10 to 20 years are looking much better than before; however, ground safety trends need some work, because the trend lines there are not coming down as fast.

"We're doing well, but I'd like to put some emphasis in the ground programs," said General Feest. "For example, motorcycle and automobile safety programs that are available to our Airmen. There are a lot of initiatives out there and a lot of programs we can use in the Air Force and I think we could get a lot of bang for our buck."

There are also problems with injuries occurring during on- and off-duty recreation. Those injuries, mostly to the ankles and knees, occur while Airmen play sports.

"I think there are ways to mitigate those injuries," said General Feest. "We could use ankle braces or different equipment to help in these areas."

The Safety Center measures success through various metrics.

"We have a great team of professionals," said General Feest. "We have a lot of metrics that we can use and those are ways of scoring ourselves and the service overall. We also get input from Airmen. The youngest Airman can have the greatest idea and we just need to get that idea out."

"We can control things on-base," said General Feest. "Once the Airmen leave the base, they are not being watched, they're on their own. My goal is to minimize the accidents that happen off-duty. There are plenty of programs and plenty of training that we can give the Airmen that will help in that area."

The Air Force needs everyone to minimize risk and be safe, said General Feest. Active-duty Airmen, civilians, reservists and guardsmen can learn from each other to help make the Air Force a safer place.

"I want to thank the people of Albuquerque and Kirtland AFB for taking care of the families of the people of the Air Force Safety Center," said General Feest. "We rely on them every day, and without them, we couldn't do our job."