Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
I've learned a lot, but I think the biggest thing I learned was how I reacted to the fear. It was hard to snap myself out of the disbelief and take action rather than just stand their like an idiot.
That is not an uncommon response. Probably related to some deep primal "Freeze and the lion won't see me!" urge I think.
As someone already mentioned, stress innoculation is very difficult to acquire in a training environment but well worth the time. I know some of the Force-on-Force I've done with Simunitions probably ranks as some of the most valuable training I've ever done. I still think about the lessons I learned there and I did some STUPID things.
You handled yourself well in a real world situation with real world consequences - and you were interested in handling the situation better after achieving one of the best possible outcomes in that scenario. So you deserve a lot of credit for all that... but in terms of risk management, you can do better. One of the great things about these forums is the ability to discuss actual scenarios and how they might have been handled better and form mental patterns to use so that you aren't deep in the middle of a tough situation and desperately digging through your brain to find some kind of answer that might help you.