Senior operational personnel are appropriately concerned with mission accomplishment. Although safety is never ignored, the main objective is mission accomplishment. If more hours need to be flown in order to accomplish a mission, those hours will be flown. Aviators themselves are not always in a good position to evaluate operational fatigue. A flight surgeon, because he is in a unique position to judge the general fitness of an aviation unit with some objectivity, bears certain responsibilities to that unit.
Proper rest can do much to stave off the cumulative effects of operational fatigue.
Although sleep schedules are of lower priority than mission assignments, a flight surgeon still can do much to help the situation by bringing the need for appropriate rest schedules to the attention of command personnel. In addition, there are many stressors in the aviation environment which can add to operational fatigue in the sense of allowing an aviator to be less able to handle operational fatigue than should be the case. Some of these issues are inadequate diet and irregular meal schedules, uncomfortable or improperly sized equipment, personal difficulties, and poor physical condition. To the extent that these or similar problems are observed, a flight surgeon has a responsibility to begin a corrective program and to be even more alert than usual to be able to detect the onset of operational fatigue. Operational units that participate in sustained operations must be closely monitored.