Leader's Guide to Crew Endurance

This leader's guide is about enabling soldiers to perform at their best by controlling stress, fatigue, sleep deprivation, and problems resulting from jet lag and shift lag. It also is about controlling the hazards associated with these stressors when they cannot be completely eliminated. Key users include mission planners who must design missions in ways that optimize soldier performance, Army and unit trainers who must teach leaders about the deleterious effects of these stressors on soldier performance and how to use risk management to prevent and control the hazards they cause, and safety managers who must design and maintain the programs. Crew endurance impacts everything soldiers do. In nearly every case, the stressor reduces the soldier's mental or physical performance. For aviators, this means a larger part of their mental resources must be committed to operating the aircraft, leaving fewer resources to fight the enemy. For the planner and maintainer, it means fewer resources available for dealing with the important details of their critical tasks. Controlling these decrements in performance is critical to mission effectiveness. Today's aviation equipment requires more alertness and concentration of aviators and maintainers than ever before. The demand on mental resources, coupled with the Army's We own the night philosophy, increases the potential for crew endurance-related problems. Sections I and II provide guidance to help leaders recognize the detrimental effects of stress, fatigue, and sleep deprivation on soldier performance and the need to control these hazards. Section III provides guidance on controls that are available to leaders for reducing risk and optimizing performance. Section IV provides tools for commanders and planners to use in developing individual crew endurance plans for their units. The principles in Sections III and IV have been tested by aviation units in developing unit crew endurance plans. The original document contains color images.