diver 85:
threads, I see people referring to a 'buddy team'....Now don't get me wrong, I have a good idea but someone in the know, please give me the exact skinny on a 'team'...Is it something 'they're' teaching these days in OWC classes???(haven't been around any formal classes since '93 when our yougest was cert)..If it's what I'm thinking of, I hope not..........I'll hang up for now & listen.......thanks..........
An analogy...
Consider an infantry squad setting out on a combat patrol. Each member of the squad has an assigned role to play in the activity. Each member of the squad is similarly equipped and uniformed - each knows what the others carry: where the spare radio batteries are, who has extra claymore mines or 40mm ammunition. Each is familiar with the route, the rally points, the area of operations, the withdrawal route, and ancillary navigational requirements. Each knows the supporting arms fire plans, who to call on in case of compromise. In the event that the squad is ambushed, they react as one team - they have rehearsed their response activities to provide the highest probability of survival for all members of the squad together. In the event that a squad member is hit, the med evac process is well known by all members and well rehearsed. They are cross-trained such that if one member goes down, other members can use the gear being carried by the stricken member to provide for the safety of the entire squad. This is a group of individuals who function as one entity because they have pre-planned and rehearsed actions to a point where each knows what to do when foreseeable emergencies might occur. As each member has the same training and equipment, same capabilities, same ability to communicate and react, they all provide security for one another simultaneously.
Contrast that to a group of 4 or 5 guys who set out on a backpacking trip. Each packed different stuff. Some were prepared, while others packed candy, wine, or an espresso maker. No one knows exactly what the others have with them. No one brought a satellite phone or GPS. No one thought that their cell phones may not work everywhere along the trail. There is only one map. Perhaps one has used a compass, but if he falls off the trail and breaks a leg, no one else knows how to use the compass. If a rockslide occurs, or a bear attacks, or a blizzard strikes, no one particularly has thought about carrying the two or three wounded guys out, or has made preparations for leaving them behind to seek help. So when issues arise they must be solved on an ad hoc basis, using whatever may be at hand because there was no concerted effort before the trip to try to sit down as a group and plan for responding to challenges. They didn't train together. They don't know the same techniques or skills. There was no effort to obtain first aid training, CPR, or other skills collectively. As no effort was made to ensure any consistent or cohesive planning, capabilities, communications, or equipment, they are not a team, merely a group of individuals running around reacting in different ways with different means.
If you were going to go on a series of extremely challenging efforts, in an extremely hostile and challenging environment, which of these two groups would you prefer to go with?
The first group, that has trained and pre-planned to think, behave, and react as a team?
Or the second group, who simply find themselves together at a place and time, but who are basically comprised of an ad hoc collection of individuals who each will react by thinking only of and for themselves?
Which group stands the better chance of bringing the entire group back successfully?
Thats the difference between a dive team and a gaggle of individuals.
YMMV...
