Skill sets

Now I'm new to the forum and haven't read through all the posts yet so some of what I may list may be found in greater detail on another post, also some of what I'm going to talk about may not be as useful to those operating in a purely urban environment.  For a little more background I'm in Columbia, MO pop. 100,000+ people I live on the edge of the city in a more rural area, and because this is a hypothetical for me at the moment I'm basing these opinions from training and experience in the military, adjusting them as I see them being used as a civilian.  Having never performed these types of operations as a civilian any and all input or corrections are welcome especially as to how to modify my way of thinking or my methods to suit the possible transition to civilian super hero.

Basic Computer skills and data analyzing:  So much data is out there that being able to run a proper search is crucial.  I'm not saying you have to be able to build your own crime fighting super computer but you should be able to read flow charts so that you can interpret the raw data that is available to the public on crime statistics.  Finding and Interpreting it yourself is a good idea because not all of those data points are entered into the the pre made crime statistics.  It's boring and it's tedious but mapping out points of data on your city map really helps with the interpretation of patterns and trends.  In Iraq we used the same technique to track down bomb makers.  We compiled the data mapped out the spread and frequency of use for the new type of IED and following the pattern we were able to narrow down were the IEDs were coming from and focus our efforts there and caught the bad guys.

Patience: You can't flit here and there just because your info hasn't paid off yet.  Impatience leads to an agitated unobservant mind set.  Practice breathing exercises, go over the mission parameters in your head anything that keeps you focused on what is going on around you during the here and now.  When I was on overwatch I would take notes so that on future missions I would be able to better recognize normal patterns in the area so I would be able to determine when something was going to go down because of the interruption of those patterns.

First Aid:  not going to go over this heavily because it's very obvious.  I feel that you should at least be CPR certified and have your first aid certification, you can usually get them both through the same organizations.  More advanced training is out there and is great and I would see what is available a lot of organizations host free certification events so check your local areas.

Map reading and Navigation: Now if your stomping grounds are only a couple city blocks this isn't as big a deal because you can become intimately familiar with your area but knowing which way north is, is always important.   For my situation it's a bit different I have participated in several search and rescue operations for lost hikers and children in heavily forested areas and an good grasp of map reading and search patterns are invaluable.  Knowing how to perform a proper and efficient search is just as useful in a city as it is in the woods.

Now I'm a bit of a prepper as well...so bear with me for this one:  Food production and storage.  This may not seem like a skill you would need for what you have chosen to do but proper resource management is essential to help others during a crisis.  This is a very important thing to me and I will elaborate on my thoughts on this in a separate topic at some point.

Situational awareness:  Cannot be stressed enough how important paying attention to your surroundings is.  A lot of people take it for granted but it is something you have to train yourself to do.  I mentioned earlier about taking notes, that is one way to train your mind to notice and process more information, even puzzles in your down time will help things like find the difference in picture puzzles or hidden object puzzles, time yourself doing them and you will notice you become steadily faster and more accurate at them.  That is your brain getting warmed up and trained.

Well that's enough out of me for now, I know there are many many non combat skills out there that are very important I'm just not going to talk about all of them I look forward to your comments.

Wow, amazing post, thanks for sharing! I agree 100% as I too am in a dangerous line of work; in the summers I work for the government as a Wildland FFT2, but am more active with the Volunteer Fire Department during the winter months. I'm currently getting promoted into Fire Investigation, Monday at oh nine hundred. At least that's what I hope and am being led to believe, I'm slightly unsure because there's been some weird stuff going on between my partner, my bosses, and an arsonist who used to be my best friend but may be an enemy and my partner warned me not to go, so I could be walking right into a trap.....but I really want this job for a couple weeks or so now, not gonna let it stop me, if it's a trap I'll tell him how it is and deal with it from there. I hope it goes well and I'm just being anxious.

Welcome to the community.

Are these all your skill sets?

thanks I've read a little about your situation on the forum and I agree with you, if it's a trap then so what, knowing it might be means you can be prepared thus lessening the effectiveness of it, take it straight on and hold to your innocence.   And no I've got a very extensive skill set but I'm not so sure Mountain warfare training or Jungle warfare training, though interesting, would be a pertinent skill set for most of you   I've been trained in search and rescue, escape and evasion, demolitions, anti-armor, combat marksmanship (of course), hunting (rifle, pistol, shotgun, and bows), trapping, gardening, wilderness survival, canning and food preservation, gunsmithing, milling and lathe operation (I fabricate a lot of the parts I use when restoring firearms)...just to name a few I was really lucky while in the Marines in that I was attached out to a lot of different units and got to have a wide array of training.

You may be able to help me and the future of humanity with something, I'll send you a Private Message if you're interested.

by all means I'm here to help

hacking, drunken fists fighting skills, shooting (with my airsoft. im just a 14 y/o kid and cant have a gun yet) punching skills, running, reflexes, agility

meduc, weapon expertise, automotive battery expert, silent comms expert (i dont talk too much since im a big fan of halo if you get my meaning) climbing (we filipinos are good at this) strength and intelligence (not in school)

*medic

electrokinesis and thermoregulation, i forgot to add

Nice post keep it up

looking back to this, seeing themarine's post definitely has good points for me to learn about as a Philippine Marine Rifleman. I'm familiar with some of it, but I definitely need to rethink about it every time I lose focus.