I'm invincible.

Today, was a motorcycle safety awareness day on the post where I work. It was a half day of safety briefings, local laws, and some practical training about being a road captain. That's the guys in a large group of bikers that have the C-17 lollypop signs that protect the group by stopping traffic at roundabouts and unprotected intersections, for example, until the group has passed. Not a bad way to spend a morning, and there was some good information. Nothing new for an experienced rider, but still, not a complete waste of time, either.

Before we broke up, one of the US chaplains was there to bless the bikes and bikers for the upcoming riding season.

I'm invincible now. I feel just like I did after being blessed by the pope once at the vatican.

Here was this US Army captain, appealing to the skydaddy to protect us from the unseen dangers and give us the skills to survive yet another year of near certain death on the roads.

Fuck that shit, I say. If I were in any kind of position of responsibility for subordinates' safety, I would see to it they were properly equipped and trained in practical skills that may save their asses. It pained me to see this entire group of riders, some fifteen people, all bowing their heads thinking their groupthink prayer is going to do a fucking thing for them. Never mind evaluating your own skills to see where you can improve, or learning how to anticipate things that may happen around you in the driving environment. No, these people honestly thought they were doing themselves some practical good with this "blessing".

To his credit, this chaplain did actually ask if he could offer a christian prayer. Although his question wasn't entirely an honest one, I think. I am certain he was not prepared for anyone to object, nor did he expect it. I didn't bother to ask him if he minded if I ignored his prayer. Which or course, I did. Except to remember the high points for this post.

Nothing to do with theism, really, but it chaps my ass that all this effort and training is spent to largely teach bikers to dodge cars, but I've never seen any sort of recurring training for car drivers to be taught to look more closely for the motorcycles.

Nice looking machine.

Shoulda asked the chapstick... sorry, chaplain, if he'd sacrifice a bullock to appease the great bugger in the sky.

I agree with your assessment, though. Specifically this:

If I were in any kind of position of responsibility for subordinates' safety, I would see to it they were properly equipped and trained in practical skills that may save their asses.

That's a sexy bike!

Thanks for the compliments on my motorcycle selection skills. I, of course, agree with you about its style.

Another question I asked today was about the details of local fatalities. An NCO was killed in a crash last year here, and we never heard a thing about the specifics. All the command tends to do is use a fatality to illustrate how insanely deadly riding a motorcycle is, and see, you should attend safety training every year, and the forcefield around you from the reflective belt they make you wear will protect you.

It turns out this guy was on a machine that was way beyond his skills. He failed to negotiate a curve and bought it. Sudden deceleration trauma. Dear Mom and Dad, your son is dead because he was stupid. Certainly, a pity. But, with those details, we other riders can assign meaning to the crash and perhaps actually learn something practical from it.

I have a hunch they don't get those details out immediately to the riding community because the rest of the community is too uncomfortable with dealing with death. Too busy extolling the virtues of the recently deceased to risk tarnishing their memory with the mistakes they may have made. The truth is, that NCO was probably a good enough guy. It seems to me if no one learns from his mistake, the pointlessness of his death will be complete.

Well said.