Originally Posted by dgolding
I certainly never said that civilians could be called upon to react or react appopriately 100% of the time. Cops certainly do not. There's no way civilians could.
Could be I misunderstood your comments. My point is that depending on the reaction of passengers to a crisis situation is an unknown quantity. I neither rely on it nor dismiss it; I merely point out that it can go either way. It would appear that you agree to some extent. There's always one way to find out; hope we don't have to.
Originally Posted by dgolding
On the other hand, I seem to have much more faith in the civilian population than some on this forum. As to your concern about my military status and fitness - I'm in reasonable shape, and I'd be happy to fax you a DD214. I wasn't a super-airborne anti-terrorist commando of some sort (were you? if so, I'm impressed with your intestinal fortitude, if nothing else), but I'm refering a bit more to the attitude of taking action rather than pathetically accepting one's fate in a bad situation. Enough reasonably agressive people of a sufficient level of fitness can resolve a situation, one way or another. Well, so long as the population isn't conditioned to do nothing and wait for rescue that may never come.
Nah. Nothing like that, although I did voluntarily jump out of perfectly good airplanes, not realizing that only bird sh*t and fools fall from the sky. As if that wasn't enough, I also volunteered to let the good-natured, fun-loving and goodwilled folks at RANGER school use and abuse me in exchange for a little black and gold tab.
However, it doesn't matter what we did in our past as much as it matters how we are in the present. To that end, what we did in our past does matter if it contributes to how we are in the present. On the other hand, if we do nothing to enhance or hone those skills, then they are but mere memories of perhaps better days. I mean this with no disrespect towards any former or retired military or other endeavor. I only mean that it takes more than "ex-military" to get my attention.
Crisis situations require ordinary people to do extraordinary things to survive. To a certain degree, you can rely on those who have been trained to respond although there is always a possibility that someone who has been trained may freeze up. Untrained people who are not expected to respond can, at times, surprise everyone by responding in a particularly aggressive and effective manner. Some people are instinctive warriors. However, I would venture to say that in a society and culture that discourages physically aggressive behavior and naively believes that all problems can be solved intellectually, those instinctive warriors are a rare breed.
The real b*tch of it is that these are matters that are decided in a matter of seconds (when the opportunity presents itself), with the odds of survival decreasing with each minute that elapses. And under those conditions, even highly-trained professionals have the odds stacked against them.