When you think 'the money', you're probably counting sunk costs. What do Thai Navy divers do? If there's no war on, they're probably training. What better tra

When you think 'the money', you're probably counting sunk costs. What do Thai Navy divers do? If there's no war on, they're probably training. What better training than a live rescue mission? I.e. the wages for those highly skilled Thai teams have probably been paid down already. Similarly international forces benefit from co-operation because it's something they would want to do anyway: good will, training in co-operation, skills training. As for volunteers their time is hardly a cost in the same way. But if you're a cave diving medic, the expected utility of using your time to save people in a cave is probably better than working and donating to a charity.