Don't want to derail the thread too much so I'll keep it short. I did technical "things" that correlate to my current civilian career. Lessons: biggest one was to eat humble pie and realize past performance =/= future success when different domains are involved (mil vs civ). Useful things: I'm generally pretty chill when things are going wrong. I.e. client meeting goes horribly -> "Hey at least we're not in X country getting shot at / how do we optimize for next time / etc."
I also don't get stressed after my military time. This has sometimes come across as me not appearing concerned enough when things are perceived as bad.
My time/training has helped greatly with attention to detail and focus. Being able to complete a mental task while completely exhausted is something which is definitely trained.
I'm not trying to speak for the parent of your post. To put combat in perspective, it's hard to even convey what is "normal" to the military.
Some things which would be (more than) dangerous on a civilian level: helicopter dunk tank, boxing, climbing from a boat to a ship on a cargo net, working with a squad full of 19 year olds with live ammo, a lt with a map.
Going to the grenade range, pulling the pin and you're now holding a live grenade. The only safety at this point is an individual's ability to not freak out and remember what to do.
That's mostly infantry related dangers. The other branches and sections all have large machinery/vehicles ready to run people over or blast them off the flight deck. I know of a sailor who was flown out after a table slid across the mess deck and pinned him to the wall.
The list could just go on and on -- heat exhaustion, hunger, exposure, blisters, bites, infections in the field. All of this is the normal and doesn't even begin to touch on combat where someone is actively interested in doing you harm.
edit -- the point of the above is that first you have to calibrate from civ normal to mil normal before considering combat. Even military normal is so far removed from IT related stress it is laughable.
I imagine after being in that kind of environment most "crises" at your civilian work seem quite mundane. I appreciate your response and if you ever feel like sharing more I'm sure most here wouldn't mind the occasional derailed thread.
This has certainly been my experience (from a slightly different background). I work full time as a developer, but part time as a firefighter/paramedic.
