Podcasts about camp echo

During the late 90's i worked at a Summer Camp called Camp Echo. I had a blast working there and it open my mind up to a world beyond what I knew. I meet a lot of great people and made a lot of great friends and it lead me to living in New for 3 and ½ years. Michael was one of those people I met at the camp and we became friends and with the help of facebook we stayed in touch. He is  also the first person that went and worked at Camp Echo that has been on this podcast.

Welcome to episode 86 of The Hangar Z Podcast Brought to you by Vertical Valor Magazine.How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance in such a high-stress industry like aviation and public safety? Join us as we unpack this crucial topic with flight medic and ECHO affiliate, Jonathan Carolla. He shares insights from his survey on stress and mental health in the workplace, highlighting the importance of addressing these issues, particularly in light of recent tragic events. Grab a beverage and settle in for an engaging conversation with Jonathan as we explore the challenges faced by professionals in our industry.We also discuss Jonathan's journey to becoming a Flight Crew Assistance Support Team (FAST) member and his passion for mental health in EMS. Discover the success of Camp Echo in encompassing all facets of public safety aviation, and the resources provided by the FAST Team for post-accidents and other difficult calls. Jonathan shares his experiences with volunteer fire departments in  West Virginia, and how they shaped his career path.In this timely and informative episode, we explore the challenges and rewards of working in public safety aviation with Jonathan Carolla. We chat about how the work-life balance in our industry affects medics, nurses, and other responders. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from an expert in the field who is dedicated to advancing mental health and addressing the issues of PTSD head-on.I would like to thank our sponsors Metro Aviation SHOTOVER and CNC Technologies as well as our supporters on Patreon. 

is a permanent American detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay that replaced the temporary facilities of Camp X-Ray. Its first facilities were built between 27 February and mid-April 2002 by Navy Seabees Marine Engineers and workers from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown, and Root It is composed of detention camps 1 through Camp 6 Platinum Camp Iguana, the Guantanamo psychiatric ward Camp Echo and Camp No. The prisoners referred to as detainees have uncertain rights due to their location not on American soil. There are allegations of torture and abuse of prisoners 

Use promo code PARDON at Manscaped.com and save 20% and get FREE SHIPPING. Sign up at Patreon.com/IronOnWrestling and get 100's of episodes, EARLY & EXTENDED, plus bonus audio and video, interactive zoom chats and more starting at just $3!   On location from beautiful Camp Echo in Ripley, West Virginia, Gregory Iron & Aaron Bauer chat with "One Legged Wonder" Zach Gowen & "King of the One Night Stands" Jock Samson.   The conversation begins innocently enough about the personal connections that Zach has made while on his motivational speaking tours, then somehow spills over into a convo about the color orange being a turn-on, the year 1996 in wrestling, drugs, partying in Lima, Ohio, an incident involving Jock, a young lady, and a dumpster, more talk of indecent exposure, shady promoters, Chavo Guerrero, Necro Butcher, Buff Bagwell and egg whites.   It gets wild this week on a very special Iron-On Wrestling!   ---   Gregory Iron wrestles with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects the mobility of his right arm, hand and fingers. Trained by WWE NXT Superstar Johnny Gargano in 2006, Iron has conquered his disability and gone on to work with some of the top names in wrestling including "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, CM Punk, The Dudley Boyz, Tommaso Ciampa and many others.   Co-host Aaron Bauer has worked in the professional wrestling industry for over two decades. A jack-of-all-trades, Aaron has worked in the industry as a local promoter for ECW events, a manager, and has provided color commentary over matches for some of the biggest stars in WWE, WCW, ECW, AEW, Impact & ROH.   Follow "Iron-On Wrestling with Gregory Iron" on all social media platforms: facebook.com/irononwrestling twitter.com/irononwrestling Instagram.com/irononwrestling Back us on Patreon, where you can get complete bonus episodes and additional audio and video content for just $3 a month: Patreon.com/IronOnWrestling Follow Gregory Iron: Facebook.com/TheHandicappedHero Twitter.com/GregoryIron Instagram.com/gregory_iron Buy CLASSIC AND EXCLUSIVE Gregory Iron tees here: prowrestlingtees.com/GregoryIron To book Gregory Iron for pro wrestling events, speaking engagements, wrestling seminars, school workshops and more contact Greg on his website: Gregory-Iron.com Please check out our sponsors: Kayfabe News: Unreal news about an unreal sport! KayfabeNews.com Of The Dead Designs: Bringing Artwork To Life! OfTheDead.weebly.com SBS Printing: T-shirt one color prints starting at just $5! Done in 3-5 business days! Contact Jesse Massey: antisepticmaxrock@gmail.com Mystic Gear: If you get your pro wrestling gear from anyone but Mystic, you're making a mistake! Follow @MysticGear on Instagram or contact Tania Martin on Facebook! Special thanks to "Ajax" Alex Cantrell for creating the "Iron-On Wrestling" theme song. Check out Alex and his comedy film team "Aldous Mustache" on social media: YouTube.com/userAldousMustache

Former Cabinmates Steven and Camil go back 15 years a remember the journey Camil took to becoming a counselor, why 1950's basketball would confuse him, a gift of sugar cookies that he believed was a prank, and which favorite Camp guest remembered him when he went on to work at Camp Echo.

Steven and Doug remember the best way to use all those Verb balls left over from the Camp Concert, the cruise call, a dinosaur ripping a car in half and putting a Camp Echo staff member to work for a whole week.

For a couple of summer in the 90s i work at Camp Echo in the Catskills Mountains of New York. Nick work at that that camp as well, this is the first interview i did with a person that i met at that camp. In this episode you will learn all about Nick and how he ended up at Camp Echo, and what he has been up to since.  

Richard "Red" Brion is essentially an American ronin: a samurai without a master. Red has spent years in Navy intelligence, serving in Iraq, and years with Blackwater doing some crazy shit in Japan and Afghanistan. He's done quite a bit in Africa as well. And he's recently made the move over the last couple of years, taking his skills and experience from masterless warrior to hyperlocal, urban agriculture. As founder and CEO of Revolution Agriculture, Red is tackling the Global Food Security Problem through technology-enabled food production and land optimization. They have patented a system that makes it possible to grow virtually any crop, anywhere. Show Notes Revolution Agriculture Follow Red on LinkedIn Theme music by: Ruel Morales Audio Transcript Brian Schoenborn 0:01 Hello, Hello, everyone. Welcome friends. Our guest today is like an American ronin, which is essentially a samurai without a master. Red here has spent a lot of time in the Navy serving in Iraq over there. He has spent years with Blackwater, doing some crazy shit in Japan and Afghanistan and stuff like that. He's done quite a bit in Africa as well. And he's recently made the move, over the last couple of years, he's made the move from masterless warrior into hyperlocal, urban agriculture. Give it up for my friend, Richard Brian. Brian Schoenborn 0:52 My name is Brian Schoenborn. I am an explorer of people, places, and culture. In my travels, spanning over 20 countries across four continents, I've had the pleasure of engaging in authentic conversations with amazingly interesting people. These are their stories, on location and unfiltered. Presented by 8B Media, this is Half the City. Brian Schoenborn 1:21 This is fucking low-fi bro. It's just a couple of microphones in a goddamn recording studio, not even a studio. This is a makeshift this is this is a this is a private couch-filled office in a WeWork. There's nothing more to it. microphones Adobe Audition. I'm not going to tell you any more about that. But that's pretty much it. Richard Brion 1:48 I mean, it could be worse. We could we could be in a coffee shop trying to do this. It does happen. Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 1:53 Let me get that a litte closer. Richard Brion 1:54 Oh, getting up close and personal, now are we? Brian Schoenborn 1:57 Yeah, I mean, you want to keep it about a fist. You know just just like captures, you want to fist it. Brian Schoenborn 2:04 I'm greasing the gears right now. Richard Brion 2:10 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 2:13 So Richard, Red. I'm going to call you Red because we know. Richard Brion 2:18 Yeah make sense. Brian Schoenborn 2:19 We know the siutation. Richard Brion 2:19 I'm a ginger bastard anyway. Brian Schoenborn 2:21 This guy's fucking beard matches his grape. Richard Brion 2:26 Yeah pretty much there's, I was watching this thing the other day where…he's a YouTube star and he was making fun of the fact that he doesn't tan and he's like I just go from white to red and he's like, is tan the color after red because I never seem to get that far. Well, yeah, that's about the size of it when it comes to my head so Brian Schoenborn 2:46 I don't think I've ever seen you not red. Richard Brion 2:48 Yeah. The name fits. What can you What can I say? Brian Schoenborn 2:54 So dude, let's let's get into it a little bit. Um, you you were telling me the other day that you just came back from a couple of backpacking trips right? Richard Brion 3:03 Yeah, here in Washington State. Brian Schoenborn 3:05 Tell me about that. I want to hear about this. And then I want to go into that other stuff. Like, this is the most recent shit. So let's hear about this. Richard Brion 3:11 Yeah. So it was just a, there're backpacking trips in an area and then Alpine lakes wilderness here in Washington, you have to have a permit for, it's a lottery permit. And you get to spend, you know, between a couple of days and up near two weeks out there just kind of packing around seeing these really awesome Alpine lakes that, you know, are pretty much untouched and fairly pristine. The mountain goats are super aggressive up there. Brian Schoenborn 3:37 Really? Richard Brion 3:37 It's actually kind of funny. Yeah, they, they, for whatever reason, there's not a lot of naturally occurring salt and they're addicted to salt. So humans urinate, goats come and try to get the salt out of it. Brian Schoenborn 3:50 So they're drinking pee? Richard Brion 3:51 Yeah, basically. So they asked you to like… Brian Schoenborn 3:54 They're like fucking Bear Grylls! In animal form. Richard Brion 3:58 So basically, they they asked you to, you know, urinate on the rocks because it makes it so when the goats go after it, they don't decimate the plant life and everything else. Brian Schoenborn 4:06 So they encourage you to pee on the rocks? Richard Brion 4:08 Yes, so that it doesn't. So that way the goats don't end up tearing everything up. Brian Schoenborn 4:12 Nice. Richard Brion 4:12 But the funny thing is, is that goats have gotten so used to it that they're actually become a little bit aggressive about it trying to get as close to Brian Schoenborn 4:17 They're like, “Give me your pee!” Richard Brion 4:19 Pretty much Brian Schoenborn 4:21 Like a fucking crackhead, they're like “I will suck your dick for some pee!” Richard Brion 4:25 So basically, there was a there was a couple of there was a couple of girls in the group that kind of actually almost got like chased down for it. It was pretty funny. I in the morning, you just even trying to just go check out one of the lakes and a waterfall just to take pictures, and you look up and there's a goat they're like, “are you gonna pee?” Like, you're like, “wait a minute.” Brian Schoenborn 4:46 They're like giving you the look. Richard Brion 4:48 Yeah, and they follow you down there and they basically like oddly feels like they've got you pinned up against this rock face. Like, either you pee or I knock you off the cliff but I mean, outside of that it was pretty awesome. We got to see a deer right up close, it really didn't care too much that we were around. And then on the way down from the second trip as well, there was a pretty sizable buck that basically was just standing there staring at us, like “what's up people?” Richard Brion 5:18 So they kind of get up there this it's odd, they're still pristine, they still come around, but then they're getting used to humans enough and as we're not being too much of a threat that they kind of just leave you alone. Brian Schoenborn 5:28 Huh, nice. Richard Brion 5:29 And then of course, we had one of my friends that I grew up with since the time we were like 10. He came out with us, and he ended up leaving his tent open just a smidge and a little field mouse came in. And he's not really afraid of much but he screams like a girl when a mouse gets in his tent. And that's not to say a bad thing about screaming like a girl but it when he's got a voice that isn't well suited for that falsetto scream. So when I'm when I'm saying scream like a girl it's more it's this high pitch sound that he makes that isn't within his normal vocal vocal range so it's pretty interesting. Richard Brion 6:10 Woke us up, and, you know, but the the lakes are amazing we got to see some peaks of mountains and stuff or ranges and then we got to see some crazy people actually doing some approaches and some straight up rock climbs on what's called Prusick. So yeah, it was it was a good time lots of cool stuff to see you gotta you know kind of clear out, not have to pay attention and one thing: the water taste better. Even though you have to filter it it really tastes better. Brian Schoenborn 6:38 I bet, man. Richard Brion 6:39 And it's so cold which is so awesome. Brian Schoenborn 6:42 Really. It's that's that fresh mountain water. Richard Brion 6:44 Yeah, it's all most of its all glacier or snow base filled and there's still snow up there. Oddly enough at the tail end or the middle of July in Washington state in the North Cascades. So yeah, we got to do a little snow sliding. Brian Schoenborn 6:58 Nice. Richard Brion 6:58 Yeah. In order to get is a little bit faster and more fun. Brian Schoenborn 7:02 Nice. So so for people listening, we're currently in Seattle. And in case you haven't realized it at this point, this show is pretty fucking mobile. You know, I gotta make sure that you guys know that where we are right now. So we had so you have some reference, right? It's maybe some imagination is to like, Look, you know, Seattle is fucking surrounded by god damn mountains Richard Brion 7:25 and water. Brian Schoenborn 7:26 And water. Exactly. And there's so much water so much mountains the Alpines like you're talking about the Cascades Richard Brion 7:32 and for those of you East coasters you don't know mountains till you've been here. Brian Schoenborn 7:35 Dude. Richard Brion 7:36 The Appalachians are hills. Brian Schoenborn 7:38 I remember when I was in when I was in Boston, people were like, “Oh we're gonna go to Killington in Vermont,” and I like check it out. It's like fucking ice. Like they're they're black diamonds are like bunny hill. Richard Brion 7:49 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 7:51 Like Okay, alright buddy, check out why don't why do you come by Colorado sometime or check out Seattle or Tahoe or you know, Big Bear. Richard Brion 8:00 See some actual…see some actual mountains. Brian Schoenborn 8:03 I only went skiing once, and the one time it was at Breckenridge. And my buddy who is like his big time snowboarder, and his, his brother-in-law's a professional snowboarder and snowboard instructor and shit, and he's like, “Here, have some fucking skis”, and he takes me down the blues first. I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing, dude. Brian Schoenborn 8:22 It was a…it was it was intimidating. Let's put it that way. I mean, I did it. Richard Brion 8:27 I don't know about you. But that's sort of how I learned how to swim. It was just Brian Schoenborn 8:30 Really? They just fucking threw you in there? Richard Brion 8:32 Yeah, here's here's a lake just you're getting tossed out of the boat. You'll figure it out or you don't I mean, sometimes especially the warm things. Sometimes it doesn't work out so well. Brian Schoenborn 8:41 I just remember the first time I went down, like, I got off the ski lift and I didn't know how to stand up. So like, so like, I'm like crouching with my ass is almost touching the fucking snow. And I'm still moving forward, and I'm like, “Oh shit!” Richard Brion 8:54 I'm already moving. I'm not even standing. Brian Schoenborn 8:58 I was going down the hill here. And I'm like not far from the ski live like I'm like I could see it in the distance I can see people like going up, and I fell and my both skis fell off my feet. Right? And like, I tried to stand up to go after the skis and I fucking sunk like waist deep in the god damned snow. Richard Brion 9:17 Post hold on that. That's awesome. Brian Schoenborn 9:19 People are looking at me. from above, they're going, “Hey! You okay?” I'm just like, “Leave me alone in my fucking misery.” Richard Brion 9:25 I'll just slide down. I'll just I'll just get on my stomach and slide down. That's That's hilarious. But no, yes. So the to get into this path. To get up into this part of the mountains though. It's a step you have to earn it. It's about six miles from the trailhead to the top but the last mile, you end up or it's point nine of a mile you end up taking on something in the neighborhood of like 2000 feet of elevation. Brian Schoenborn 9:56 That's pretty intense, dude. Richard Brion 9:58 Yeah, it was it. was definitely pretty interesting. It took us I there's a few different there's three little pockets of our group. The first guy took longer to eat lunch at the bottom than it did to get up, for him to walk up it but. Brian Schoenborn 10:13 Really? Richard Brion 10:13 Then again he's a former Marine. Brian Schoenborn 10:15 So he's like a mountain goat basically. Richard Brion 10:16 Yeah he's a former Marine mountain goat and spend time in Iraq, and yeah he basically did it in if not two hours, or if it took him the full two hours it was somewhere hour 45, two hours. We were a little behind him took us about two hours and 45 and then the the the stragglers in our group still did pretty good. They did it just over three hours. Just for that point nine miles and we're talking point nine of a mile that's not even that far. And it took you know, nearly three hours. Brian Schoenborn 10:45 Three hours, like that's crazy, dude. Richard Brion 10:47 Yeah, it moves up. I forget what the pitch ends up being but you're definitely doing for every foot forward. you're definitely doing some feet up. So and it definitely burns out the quads. Brian Schoenborn 10:58 Oh for sure, dude. That reminds me of… Richard Brion 11:00 …especially carrying 50 pounds. Brian Schoenborn 11:02 Right. I mean that well, that reminds me when I was in Beijing, me and three of my friends. We went camping on the Great Wall. And so so my buddy Yo, shout out to Josef. He's in Hong Kong right now. But he's, he's, uh, yeah, he actually hiked the great wall like 40 something times. He recently scaled. He recently did Mount Everest base camp, and he did it without a fucking Sherpa. Like he mapped it out himself and like, he's, this dude's a fucking hiker, dude, let's put it that way. Brian Schoenborn 11:34 But he mapped out this stretch of the wall because you know, it's technically illegal to camp on the Great Wall. So we found the stretch because, you know, it's 3000 miles long or whatever it is. So there's parts that are like unrestored, you know, not a lot of people go to. Richard Brion 11:48 You get too far out and yeah. Brian Schoenborn 11:50 And he mapped out the stretch, which was crazy. It was like rubble, dude. So for anybody that's if you haven't If you don't know much about the Great Wall if you haven't been there, it's 3000 miles but it's along a mountain spine. It's like a lot like on the ridge. Right? So like, when we get to the stretch not only was there like no parking area, you know, it was just fucking out in the boonies, right. But, you know, we stayed the night so we had our backpacks full of food and water and all that other stuff. And I swear to God, the first 45 minutes was like scrambling like hand and feet up this mountain ridge. Just to get to the wall, dude. Richard Brion 12:32 Yeah, I mean, you'd have to, based on where they are, Geographically where it is. There is a mountain range and between Mongolia and China, so. Brian Schoenborn 12:41 I mean, that's why they built the Wall. To keep the goddamn Mongolians out. Richard Brion 12:44 Yeah. And they worked for a long time. But they figured it out. Brian Schoenborn 12:51 They did. Richard Brion 12:55 Ask the Khans. Brian Schoenborn 12:56 Exactly. Well, I think they built it to keep the Khans out. Richard Brion 13:00 Yeah I'm pretty sure. Brian Schoenborn 13:01 I mean, Gengis and all the you know, I think Kublai Khan might have might have figured it out but Richard Brion 13:06 I can't remember if it was coupla or it might have been cool i'd figured it out but Brian Schoenborn 13:10 but it was you know was an ordeal but it was you know that was kind of cool like as an aside like that was kind of cool to like, you know, be in this area like like the tourist areas of the Great Wall is like full of people. Richard Brion 13:23 Oh, yeah. Brian Schoenborn 13:23 Right? I mean, they were restored in the last like 30 years it's all like new looking brick and shit like that. But just like it's like… Richard Brion 13:29 easy to get to take good photos. Brian Schoenborn 13:32 So like, like in, in Chinese and Chinese slang, they ren shan ren hai, which means people mountain people sea, which is just like fucking people everywhere. Kind of like, Well, you know, when you're when you're at a sports game, or a concert and you're leaving, you know, kind of like that. But like, all day, every day. Richard Brion 13:49 Yeah. Tokyo's pretty much that way all day every day. Brian Schoenborn 13:53 But Tokyo people have this sense of common courtesy. Richard Brion 13:58 Oh, of course. Brian Schoenborn 13:58 So it's a little bit different. Richard Brion 14:00 I mean, there's just a ton of people everywhere. Brian Schoenborn 14:02 I love China. I love Beijing. Don't get me wrong, but there's, you know, there's some they've got some room to grow in terms of stuff like that. Richard Brion 14:11 Yeah, but there's not a culture on the planet that doesn't. Brian Schoenborn 14:13 Of course. Um, but so the point being was that that long winded thing, like the point being is that we found the stretch where we didn't see a single other person for a day and a half, dude. On the Great Wall. Right, like, that's crazy. So yeah, so I can relate, in a sense, and I know, like being in the middle of nowhere, and Richard Brion 14:35 Actually, it's quite nice. It really is. I was talking to another person about it a couple weeks ago that it can be one of those temporary transformative things where the world is getting to you you're looking for a reset on everything. Some people think that you need a near death experience to really kind of set your course or to end up really influencing your life now, something like that. Brian Schoenborn 14:58 Sometimes you just need to be like out in the middle of nowhere, like Like, for example, I like I really enjoy stand up paddleboarding. And I like it, you know, for the workout, of course, but like what I really like about it is I can be 100 yards out from the beach, but I'm miles away from anybody. Richard Brion 15:15 Yeah, Brian Schoenborn 15:16 You know? Richard Brion 15:17 It can be that simple. But yeah, so you don't have to you don't have to go so crazy and do you know, 30 miles and four days in order to really kind of get it, but it can be anything for some people. I mean, I've got a friend that does it in music. He goes out to his garage, and it basically changes his life for a while. Yeah. Until the people creep back. Brian Schoenborn 15:38 Yeah, exactly. That sounds really cool. That's so So tell me a little bit about like, let's go back. I want to go back back back back back. Like, you know, talk about your Navy stuff. Talk about your Blackwater shit, because, you know, even with those backpacking stuff, like there's, there's stuff that's like, I'm sure there's stuff that you took from there that's still relevant to this sort of thing, right. Richard Brion 15:57 Yeah. I mean, moreso the Blackwater days in the post military contractor days, did a lot more trampling around in the mountains, places like Afghanistan, which oddly enough: Afghanistan and New Mexico sorry New Mexico but I mean, you're just the Afghanistan in the United States. Geographically, it's pretty much the same the way the structure… Brian Schoenborn 16:21 Shout out to New Mexico. Richard Brion 16:22 Yeah, the way the the structure of the cities are set up. It's actually oddly similar. You've got the Albuquerque to Santa Fe, which is pretty much your Kabul to Bagram kind of thing. And then you go up into the Taos mountains in New Mexico and that's like heading up towards the Salong Pass of Afghanistan. Looks pretty much the same. Probably a good reason that Jarhead the movie was filmed actually in Albuquerque. Brian Schoenborn 16:44 Was it? Richard Brion 16:44 Yeah, so there, there's a whole lot to it and I guess I shouldn't shout so badly in this microphone before I start creating some feedback. Brian Schoenborn 16:51 Oh, you can shout all you want, dude. It's all good. Richard Brion 16:52 It sounded like I was getting a little bit of reverb. Brian Schoenborn 16:55 If you see it turning red. That's when you know that you're saying too much. Richard Brion 16:58 That I'm saying too much? Or too loud? Brian Schoenborn 17:03 Pack it up. Richard Brion 17:06 It's the Supreme, the Supreme Court light. You're green, you're good yellow starts to run out of time you hit red. Nope. Stop talking. Oh, yeah. So I mean, Afghanistan, I learned quite a bit about being able to carry weight through mountainous terrain and whatnot. And one of the things you learn that's interesting is when you're going downhill, is foot placement can be incredibly important in terms of how you do it and the heel stomp activity that most people don't do…only when they're in snow, it actually helps out quite a bit. Brian Schoenborn 17:38 What is this heel stomp activity? Richard Brion 17:38 So we have a tendency to walk heel, toe, heel toe, or when we're going downhill or runners do they go more to a mid strike toward their foot is. But if you actually kind of lean back, stand straight up when you got weight and you kind of straighten your leg and then drop your heel first, solidly into the loose terrain. Whether that's sand or snow and then you kind of cant, you kind of cant your feet outward almost like you're doing a kind of like a military salute stance. You get that 45 degree angle. You just set your feet… Brian Schoenborn 17:50 Yeah, heels together. Feet slightly apart, toes slightly apart. Richard Brion 18:17 Yeah. And then just kind of step each one at a time that way and it makes for good solid footing when you're not and you can move pretty quick downhill that way. Brian Schoenborn 18:26 That's interesting, like Richard Brion 18:27 I learned it from…oddly enough, I learned it from the Afghans. I grew up around mountains, and it's not something I've ever done. And I see them run down these steep sandy faces and I'm like, “Wait a minute, how did you do that?” They're like, “Oh, you know, we know how to do it.” Brian Schoenborn 18:43 So that reminds me of this. This time I did. I did a three day, two night homestay in northern Vietnam, like Sapa Valley, the foothills of the Himalayas, right? Richard Brion 18:55 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 18:55 Um, I was in good cycling shape at that point. So like my legs were strong or whatever. But like, I my guide was this lady she was like, I don't know, probably 30 something, 30 ish. But like, fucking four feet tall. Brian Schoenborn 19:09 She's tiny you know, minority minority village person, that sort of thing. And she wore these like, these sandals these cheap ass plastic sandals with just that wide band that goes across. It's not a thong, it's anything like that. And holy shit dude, she just boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo up and down up and down, like no no beaten path, right like we're going up and down these Himalayan the foothills, right? Richard Brion 19:37 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 19:37 Just going up and down and stuff like mud path and you know and she's just flying dude. And like so I took it upon myself like, “I gotta keep up at her.” Point of pride. Richard Brion 19:47 Spoken like a true marine. Brian Schoenborn 19:49 Exactly. Richard Brion 19:53 That reminds me I one time in Thailand, you know they they've got the little Muay Thai boxers. Brian Schoenborn 20:00 Oh sure. Yeah. Richard Brion 20:01 They always have to tell the Marines when you come into port don't get in. Don't Don't do it. Don't do it. Sure enough, there's always a marine. It's like, I can try this. And this dude, you know, the funniest ones are when they're like, 14, 15 year old kids and they think that it's they think that Oh, I'm a big bad marine that the Marine Corps trained me and then… Brian Schoenborn 20:19 This guy looks scrawny. Richard Brion 20:20 Yeah, within seconds they get their ass whooped by this little, four foot tall 85 pound Thai kid that yeah, he's just tough as nails, but spoken like a true marine I got taken upon myself to keep up with him. Richard Brion 20:35 The few, the proud All right. Well, unfortunately isn't it isn't an old biblical proverb that says pride cometh before the fall? Brian Schoenborn 20:35 Right? It's a point of pride man. That's how we roll. Brian Schoenborn 20:48 There it is. Spoken like a true squid. Richard Brion 20:57 We, yeah, we some of us, we try to we try to finesse it a little bit rather than just brute force everything. Brian Schoenborn 21:03 Grace, fall gracefully. Richard Brion 21:04 Yes. Brian Schoenborn 21:05 Tell me a little bit more about this Afghanistan stuff. So this was in your in this wasn't we were working with Blackwater or was this the Navy? Richard Brion 21:10 So I was doing I was Brian Schoenborn 21:13 like, what timeframe was this? Richard Brion 21:14 So this is like, when was that? It was like 2004 or five ish. Brian Schoenborn 21:21 Okay, so that's likely the heat of Afghanistan. Richard Brion 21:25 I was at Well, it was in a weird it was in a weird transition like right at the beginning. It was on that transitioning period from still being really hot in everywhere to where then Kabul and some of the other places, Bagram and whatnot. Even parts of Nangahar and whatnot. It kind of settled down to kind of an equilibrium for quite some time. We were able to go… Brian Schoenborn 21:48 Was this before or after they put Karzai in power? Richard Brion 21:52 This was during Karzai. Karzai been in for a couple of years by this point, I think or at least or at least a year. Brian Schoenborn 22:00 I'm just trying to refresh memory cuz, you know, like I was active during 911. Right? I didn't serve obviously. But I mean, I didn't go over there for reasons out of my control. But, you know, my unit was a first to go Iraq, right? Richard Brion 22:07 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 22:11 But it was Afghanistan first so it was 911, Afghanistan, and then for whatever reason, they said, Hey, we gotta go to Iraq too, which was bullshit. But that's a whole nother thing. Richard Brion 22:23 Were you first Marines? Brian Schoenborn 22:24 My my unit was 3/1. Richard Brion 22:26 3/1? Brian Schoenborn 22:27 Third Battalion, First Marines. We were I MEF. We fought in Fallujah. Richard Brion 22:31 Yeah. My uh… Brian Schoenborn 22:32 We were the first battle in Fallujah. Richard Brion 22:33 My buddy that's a border patrol. He was in Afghanistan at the time, before I met him. He was active duty Marine for 3/1. Brian Schoenborn 22:42 No shit? Richard Brion 22:43 Yeah, he was a … Brian Schoenborn 22:44 Do you know what company he was in? Richard Brion 22:46 311. I want to say. Brian Schoenborn 22:48 Well, no, it's no No, no, no, no, no, it's three one and then the. So I was weapons company. Yeah, but it was like Lima, India and Kilo. Richard Brion 22:57 I would have done what I would have to ask him. But Brian Schoenborn 23:00 Lima, India, Kilo and Weapons Company. I was in Weapons Company. Was he rifle man or was he a weapons guy? Richard Brion 23:02 He was. He was infantry straight up grant. He was. He was the Brian Schoenborn 23:06 0311? Richard Brion 23:07 Yeah, he was 0311. He was he was the sergeant for his platoon. The actual, the Soldier of Fortune magazine actually, at one point there was a photo taken. So he was the Marine Sergeant that was actually tasked with doing the Marcus Luttrell recovery after, and the interesting story was we were in the same place basically at the same time didn't know each other yet. So it was with Blackwater. We were in Kabul. Brian Schoenborn 23:34 We might have even been in boot camp together. That's weird. That's fucking me up. Richard Brion 23:38 He's younger Yeah, I think he's younger but um, so he he's closer. But yeah, so anyway, so Brian Schoenborn 23:46 So 3/1 didn't, we were not in Afghanistan. The unit that went to Afghanistan before like the first ones in was 1/5. Richard Brion 23:54 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 23:54 First Battalion, fifth Marines. Richard Brion 23:55 I had them backwards. They were also saying it was 1/5 was Iraq and 3/1 was Afghanistan. Brian Schoenborn 24:00 They were also based in Camp Pendleton. They were near us. So I was in Camp Horno, which is kind of the it's like the coastal kind of North ish area. One five was right at the border of the base. I hope I'm not giving away government secrets, sorry, government. But ish ish, you know, but kind of kind of kind of at the, you know, kind of near the border between, you know, between San Diego and Orange County. Richard Brion 24:26 Yeah. And, but to funny, the interesting thing was is so during the whole Lone Survivor incident, I was in Kabul with Blackwater and a bunch of the Blackwater team were were former SEALs that were actually good friends with a lot of those guys. Brian Schoenborn 24:44 Oh shit, man. Richard Brion 24:45 So when it went down twice, we actually were planning, sending taking a helicopter down and Nangahar and getting out towards that area and jumping into the recovery mission until there was a… at first it we were having the green line and somebody decided was probably not the right idea to have private contractors handling that kind of thing. Richard Brion 25:05 So, so my buddy, because helicopters and air support was off limits because of the two helicopters getting shot down. So he was the sergeant that led the platoon on foot to go in, and they got ambushed. And then during the ambush, I don't know, I still don't know. And I'm not sure even he knows how the photograph was taken. But it ended up becoming one of the Marine Corps coins as well. There's a picture of Marines squatting down behind a rock: one with a with a rifle aimed, the other one making a phone call. And that photo made Soldier of Fortune and it was also made a Marine Corps coin and my buddy's that sergeant, is one of those two guys that are memorialized in that coin. Brian Schoenborn 25:45 That's crazy, dude. Richard Brion 25:46 Then he ended up becoming a contractor, working with me in Blackwater in Japan, then we went to Iraq together with another contracting company and… Brian Schoenborn 25:52 So so for late for so the listeners out there, let me let me let me explain what a private contractor for Blackwater is in terms of you can understand. He's a fucking mercenary. Right? I mean paid, you know you're for-hire security services in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. Does that sound…is that fair? Is that accurate? Richard Brion 26:15 Yeah, pretty much. Brian Schoenborn 26:16 He's just like, “Yeah whatever, you know, it's all in a day's work.” Richard Brion 26:20 Well, I mean it. So it's a perspective thing. Brian Schoenborn 26:23 Yeah, for sure. Of course. Richard Brion 26:24 So I sit down and I watched the show the Deadliest Catch from time to time you know, like, crazy assed crab fisherman and I think that is the craziest… Brian Schoenborn 26:31 That's a crazy fucking job but that also pays well, Richard Brion 26:33 Well, of course it does. and… Brian Schoenborn 26:35 it was like six months and they make like six figures in six like, Richard Brion 26:38 Yeah, of course. But to me, I think that it's crazy. It's a crazy ass job. Now, a good chunk of those guys would think that what I was doing back in the day, as a contractor with Blackwater and all this stuff was crazy stupid. And I mean, when you think about it, there's some there's some dumb things and we called it delayed death a little bit as you're dead being there. It's just a matter of if your card got called what while you're actually in country or not, but It's perspective. Richard Brion 27:01 You know, for me, those those Deadliest Catch people were way crazier than I was doing. But then again, it's because I was doing a job that I was well trained to do and well equipped for. Richard Brion 27:11 And I knew my equipment no different than an electrician knows his pliers and his wire strippers and everything else no different than a crab fisherman knows his nets in gear. For me, I always thought the distinction was is that humans are a lot more predictable than nature. So So when you're out there, even when you're even when you're surprised in an ambush, there's still things that humans do that are predictable on some level. So you can still make plans on some degree and you can still rely on them with some level of reliability, but nature just does whatever the hell it wants. Brian Schoenborn 27:11 Sure. Brian Schoenborn 27:45 There's no stopping nature, dude. Richard Brion 27:45 I mean, even when they're even when there's weather predictions and weather forecasts. I mean, Brian Schoenborn 27:50 Weathermen are never right, man. Richard Brion 27:51 Yeah, especially in these places, right. So, I mean, you were in in China too. The South China Sea? Brian Schoenborn 27:58 Oh, dude, they have typhoons all the time, man. Richard Brion 28:00 I know and it's so unpredictable. So you're going out into this thing with against effectively an opponent or a foe that you can't predict anything. You're just flying by the seat of your pants all of the time hoping for the best. So, I mean, that's, I guess that's what perspective is. So yeah, it was some crazy environments. You know, Afghanistan Kabul, you know, Nangahar, Salong. Up there in Iraq. I was mostly I was in Baghdad proper, but then we were in Diwaniya, which if you want to go look that up that was that was a fun show. It's on. Brian Schoenborn 28:33 Let's look it up right now. I wanna see what you're talking about. Richard Brion 28:36 So yeah, so it was a camp, or that Camp Echo? In Diwania. So this camp, when we first when Yeah, there it is, right there. Diwania, Iraq. So it's a couple hours south. Brian Schoenborn 28:57 I'll post information on this. What do we do when we post The show but yeah… Richard Brion 29:01 Oh l ook at that Polish troops in Iraq, Camp Echo. So so basically it was this little postage stamp of a forward operating base in central Iraq near near the Nijef province. But this thing was so small. I mean, it was literally probably the size of a small school compound. Brian Schoenborn 29:21 The camp or the town? Richard Brion 29:22 The entire camp. Brian Schoenborn 29:24 Wow, that's tiny. Richard Brion 29:24 In the in this town yeah and so they had this tire factory in town and whatnot and so it was first… Brian Schoenborn 29:30 It's the last place you would expect a military encampment to be. That's good shit. Richard Brion 29:36 But it was kind of a key point for the Nijef province for the US Army Corps of Engineers but this so initially post the invasion and us trying to figure out what to do you know, we brought in the coalition. The Spanish took it, and no offense to those Spaniards out there but you kind of you lost it. You got overrun. And it's because the city, I mean, and to be fair, it's not It's not as it wasn't a super large base, the area would go through ebbs and flows where the insurgency would build up and it would dissipate, but eventually they got overrun. Richard Brion 30:11 So then the Polish took over. And they were the ones running the camp when we were there with a small contingent of US Army, Military Police. And so and and basically the it was this kind of school kids playing with each other, where the Polish would completely be out in town, in full force, and then they would slowly start drawing back towards the base. The insurgency would get more and more emboldened by it. And then at some point, we ended up having to drop a MOAB, which is a “mother of all bombs” into the middle of the city, kind of kind of reset the situation. Richard Brion 30:55 The Polish went back out, they kind of held it and then they got drawn back to the base. So Diwaniya was probably the dodgiest place I was it was we were getting rocketed pretty much every night. Brian Schoenborn 31:07 Those are RPGs, right? Richard Brion 31:09 155 Katooshes. Brian Schoenborn 31:12 I'm not familiar with that. Richard Brion 31:14 So usually you know one five fives are your largest you can over the one of the some of the largest there are a lot louder, bigger than standard mortar there, you know. 155 millimeter. Brian Schoenborn 31:25 Mortars are no joke. I know some I remember, I had some mortar men in my CAAT platoon. Yeah, I mean, those guys are pretty hardcore. Richard Brion 31:32 I mean rules of engagement. This was starting to change as well. So we weren't allowed to specifically do straight up counter battery. Which for those that don't know counter battery just means we use sound to triangulate a rough position of where they might have been coming from. And then you just rocket everything back. Brian Schoenborn 31:49 Yeah. Richard Brion 31:49 Which is effective in certain circumstances, but at the same time, Brian Schoenborn 31:54 It's also essentially spray and pray. Richard Brion 31:55 Yeah, there's there can be significant collateral damage, and so we were, we were drawing back on that and the problem was they were putting their their rockets and stuff into mounts in the back of pickup trucks. So basically even by the time you were able to get a 3 pings triangulation for a counter battery, the truck had already moved. So even, you know, and then you're firing even within 30 seconds to a minute, if it took that if it was that fast, truck could still fire and move. So, the likelihood of you actually hitting the target that was rocketing you was small, so then, you know we get rocketed every day and of course, we were contractors. We had Polish. We had a Polish dude that was French, former French Foreign Legion, some British special boat guys, special air guys on the team. Couple of Army Greenie Beanies. l Brian Schoenborn 32:48 When you say special boat and special air, you're talking like Special Forces. Richard Brion 32:51 Yes. So the so the British they have their SS in there. SBS, so their Special Air Service and their special boats, which is kind of basically the SAS would be sort of like our it's a cross somewhere between our Army Special Forces and our US Air Force paratroopers in terms of responsibility. And then special boats are basically like their version of a Navy seal. Brian Schoenborn 32:51 So basically, you're a Motley Crue badass motherfuckers basically. Richard Brion 32:51 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 33:17 Okay, got it. Richard Brion 33:18 And then we had some, also some Royal Marine commandos, so kind of like our recon Marines and whatnot. So we had a hodgepodge of British, American, and European guys that were on this team all well-trained, but also a little bit mad in the head, as they would say. Brian Schoenborn 33:36 You kind of have to be off to go to do some of that stuff. Richard Brion 33:40 A little bit. Yeah. And then it got even more strange. So we lived kind of nearest to where the marine or not where the Marine Corps, where the army military police unit was. So every every evening the rocket… Brian Schoenborn 33:51 I bet they had their hands full. Richard Brion 33:52 Oh, they definitely did. But every every evening, the rockets always came in right around the same time. Everybody else has all hunkered down in places. And where we go, we get our chow, we come back, then we all sit around the proverbial campfire just bullshitting with our, with our gear, our guns, our body armor… Brian Schoenborn 34:11 As these bombs are going off. Richard Brion 34:12 And basically we're having what we called our mortar tea parties. We were drinking tea and biscuits, you know cookies and tea, waiting for the mortars to start and then the gear was all preset because then we'd have to repel borders, which again, for those that don't know what that means. That means that they would use the rockets in order to distract us because we're all hiding, hopefully then they could storm the walls. So basically, it was this kind of tit for tat thing, they'd rocket us then they would try to mount an offensive to come over the wall. So you have to have your gear with you in the mortar shelters to be ready for it. So we just kind of sat around every day just having a chat kind of like we're having right now. Just bullshiting, laughing and just waiting for them. And some of those those army military police guys thought we were batshit crazy. Brian Schoenborn 34:59 Of course! They have every right to think that. Richard Brion 35:03 AAnd maybe we were, but like I said that the those guys that go pick up crab fishing jobs in Alaska, they're crazier than me as far as I'm concerned. Brian Schoenborn 35:10 That's the thing that I'm talking about, right? Like like in the Marines, like my Marine Corps training, even as short as it was, like one of those things you realize it like you can be ,you can experience, you can be in the middle of experiencing fucking hell, dude. But what you realize that if you're with there was somebody, if you're there with somebody else and you can sit there and bullshit about stuff while while this is all happening? It's a completely different thing, dude. It makes it manageable. Richard Brion 35:38 Well, yeah it does. And I mean, Afghanistan was the same way so that circa 2004, 2005 and got to the point where we were allowed to go on town, there were Lebanese restaurants, French restaurants… Brian Schoenborn 35:55 You're allowed to go off base and like, check out the town? Richard Brion 35:57 Yeah. So as Blackwater we lived in our own compound anyway. We also we were running, we were help training counternarcotics police for the government in Afghanistan. We were doing those kinds of things. So we were we weren't doing a lot of things directly with US military. They had, we were getting support from them. So we could access military installations. We got Intel from them, of course, was since we were working in the same sphere, we also had to have crypto to be able to talk back and forth, so that we could deconflict so that in the event that we were out on our own thing, and in the middle of a fight and US military or ISAF forces were in the middle of a fight. We could make sure that we weren't shooting at each other kind of kind of important, you know, blue on blue. Brian Schoenborn 36:43 Crypto meaning encrypted messaging? Richard Brion 36:46 Yeah, encrypted radio, you know, the big old fat, you see them on movies. Brian Schoenborn 36:49 So you're free to talk, but nobody can intercept it. Richard Brion 36:52 Yeah, exactly. So basically, you see them on any of those military movies. You know, the guy standing back there with the little what looks like antique headset phone… Brian Schoenborn 37:02 One of my buddies was a comm guy, man. You look at before you stick it, when you put that little… Richard Brion 37:07 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 37:07 When you put the antenna on you got to like. Richard Brion 37:09 yeah they the old mark one seven you know the different radios and whatnot and and then they came up with some slightly better ones but the range was different so I mean yeah we were we were out there doing, but yeah we could go on the internet they have an Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, no joke, from the Intercontinental Hotel Group it's still there. As of 2018 when I was there last in Kabul, it's a little bit harder to get to in from these days, but back then there was a you could go get a proper massage at the hotel. You could go for lunch or whatever and they had a swimming pool you could take in there. They even had a lake resort in just outside Kabul that had a golf course that we could go on. Brian Schoenborn 37:51 Oh, it's crazy. So, I mean, so it sounds like you were pretty like ingrained into Kabul and the, you know, the local culture a little bit like did you I mean, did you stand out like a sore thumb or like what you know Richard Brion 38:08 For the most part… Brian Schoenborn 38:08 Like your interactions with the Afghans with the Afghans and stuff like that? Richard Brion 38:11 Yeah, I mean for the most part of course we stood out like sore thumbs but then again there was enough Western and I sat forces that there was no real distinguishment between who was who and you know, who was white, I mean, contractors we kind of dress like each other but then again, contractor dress looks like British Special Air Service dress. So you know, and then of course, you have your other governmental groups and they all dress kind of however, and so it was almost impossible to distinguish one set from another. Brian Schoenborn 38:40 Sure. Richard Brion 38:40 You could be at a restaurant having you know, having a meal with these people and they could have been FBI, they could have been, you know, any other lettered soup or they could have been a contractor or they could have been active duty Special Forces. There was really no way to tell unless you got into the weeds with it. Everybody wore beards, but as far as me? Oddly enough, you, you put the right kind of Afghan clothes on and I had my beard grown out and with the blue eyes and I could look like I'm an Afghan from the Panjshir Valley because Russian influence to the Panjshir area. Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 38:57 So did you? I mean, did you interact with, like the Afghan people? Or was it mostly with the other military units? Richard Brion 39:19 Oh, no, we were moreso Afghans and then I my job was intelligence. So I was a lot more interacting with them. But there's a famous street in Kabul. It's called Chicken Street. Basically, it's, every city pretty much has one. That's kind of where you go to get a lot of your tangible goods. So we could go down and get trinkets and rugs and everything else and we used to go down to Chicken Street and you could get a suit fitted. I have I still have them actually in my closet a few of the suits that an Afghan Taylor put together for me. Richard Brion 39:54 There was a barber that I would go in that would use all the old school hand tools, no power, to do trims and stuff and we used to, we used to get kids to come with us, because the Afghans themselves have this “kids are off-limits” in terms of this thing. So, Pakistanis and the Iraqis, unfortunately, don't quite have that same threshold when it comes to kids, but the Afghans do. So you get the kids that are out trying to make a buck or whatever else, and you give them some money and some food and then they would go recruit their friends. And then when you wanted to go into a place, they would then crowd the door, so that it would keep people that could be or are thinking about taking advantage of the situation from doing so because kids were off-limits. Brian Schoenborn 40:39 Yeah. Richard Brion 40:40 And so and then some of the elders in the village in the city and stuff that were around didn't mind it either, because we were giving the kids some sort of value and job, you know, we were giving them food and they were helping us out. And there was a similar thing in Djibouti one at one point and I can't get into the why I was there and with whom… Brian Schoenborn 41:00 Dammit. Richard Brion 41:00 But you pay, Brian Schoenborn 41:03 I wanna hear that styory. I always want to hear the ones that you can't talk about. Richard Brion 41:06 Yeah, I know, right? But the funny part about the story was is, there was there was a kid and you paid 20 bucks he would come he actually had this he had the racket down. He would come and he had this big stick and you'd be like, “I be your bodyguard” all in English. Couple couple of few bucks in English he would tell you he would be the bodyguard. And then he would have liked two of his little friends and they were doing, and I did protection details for years. So I had all these this training on doing the box and the, you know, contact rules, but Brian Schoenborn 41:33 What is it what is the box? Richard Brion 41:35 So the box we did, so depending on there's triangles, there's boxes. It's how you set your people up to do protection. So we always ran a five man box. Brian Schoenborn 41:46 Okay, so basically you had four corners and then one in the middle? Richard Brion 41:49 You have four corners, and then one in the middle standing next to the client that was basically the client director and then so depending on how contact goes you can close the box and basically create a wall. Brian Schoenborn 41:58 Got it. Richard Brion 41:58 But these these three little kids, they had their own little version of a protective detail triangle down with sticks. And then if people got too close, they would kind of, and sometimes even with some of the adults in the area, they even had a little, like playful ruse for the adults would kind of give them a little, a little reason to practice. So, you know, and then the little kid that was in charge was like, you know, “don't worry right now”, and then the adults would kind of come up and play and then they would like beat him back with the sticks and stuff like kind of keep practice. It was kind of interesting, but Brian Schoenborn 42:31 Enterprising entrepreneurial little kids over there. Richard Brion 42:33 Exactly. very entrepreneurial on how they were doing it. And in Kabul, it was that way too. There were stores that you want to go in and the kids would go in first and kind of rush all the other people out. And again, that sounds very privileged of us. We were able to have little kids kind of push the rest of the adults out but at the same time, like I said, it was that weird in between phase of the community where the the adults didn't mind so much because we were spending money in local shops and we were having some, we're having interactions with the kids. So in their own way it allowed it created a sense of security for us and a peace of mind for us that we knew there wasn't someone in the store waiting, gave the kids something to do then we were spending money on the local economy. So we felt that we were giving back a little bit a little bit. Brian Schoenborn 43:17 And you were giving the kids food and other stuff too. Richard Brion 43:19 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 43:19 So they were so they're, they're getting benefits for their services too, right? Richard Brion 43:22 Yeah. And I mean, we've had a lot of the guys thought I was crazy, but we had a little…but, I mean, so I there was a lot that I had to do that was by myself. So I was driving around a lot by myself places and there was a, there was this little rig on a rickety cart that was an engine with a set of wheels and basically you turn it on and you would feed what looked like a sugar cane through it. And then it would come out as a juice or something. Brian Schoenborn 43:53 Oh yeah! Sugarcane juice. Yeah. That's all over the place. Like I've had that in India. Richard Brion 43:58 Yeah, that's what I didn't realize that sugar cane. Something that was really available. Brian Schoenborn 44:01 It's literally just pressed cane liquid right? Richard Brion 44:03 Yeah, and it, but at the time I wasn't completely sure that was sugar cane because I still to this day not hundred percent certainly sugar cane grows naturally in Afghanistan, but in either case it was just it was kind of dirty looking cart but I would pull over for $1 whatever it was at the time I would get one and you know it's not like the United States or you pop in and they give you a bottle you take with you or whatever, it's just a glass. Brian Schoenborn 44:29 It's not the processed stuff. Richard Brion 44:31 Well, yeah, and it's just a glass that you drink it there. Brian Schoenborn 44:33 You drink it on the spot, right? Richard Brion 44:34 They take the glass right? Yep, they take the glass back and they wash it so you know a lot of guys are like, “hey man, you're kinda it's kind of dirty kind of don't know.” I didn't care. I liked it, and the other thing that I really liked to this day is Afghan naan you know? You can get naan everywhere else but the Afghan naan to me is some of the best I've ever had. Brian Schoenborn 44:53 So, like, how is it different from like Indian naan? So naaa, like n-a-a-n, like a flatbread? Richard Brion 44:59 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 44:59 Like Indian food that you would like take and like scoop with the curries and stuff. Richard Brion 45:03 Yeah and so you get Stone Fire here in the US makes it, is a brand that will make it. But it's it's a little bit more I would almost say even though it's unleavened, it's almost a little more leavened than Afghan, it's a little bit a little bit softer, which most people are like bread, you know, soft bread, but for some reason, the way that whatever it is in the recipe, and it's slightly more crispness to it. Brian Schoenborn 45:29 So it's crisp? It's not like a thick chew? Richard Brion 45:31 Not not quite like a thick chew, but it just something about it. You know, I could probably deal less with the fact that the way it was delivered is just a dude on a motorbike, sticks it under his arm after all day. Brian Schoenborn 45:44 That's what I'm talking about, dude. That's the real shit. You know, what I love about traveling, just diving deep and like, you know, there's millions of people that like eat that, you know, eat stuff like that or live a certain way like you don't, you can't really understand or appreciate another culture unless you really dive into it. You know? Richard Brion 45:58 Well yeah, and so this is a good story. Right, so I can I can say the guy's name now because it doesn't matter, but his name was General Aasif. He was the he was the general from the Afghan government. I don't know if he was specifically Afghan National Police or if he was Afghan National Army, but he had a general title general uniform. And he was in charge of the Narcotics Interdiction Unit, which is what we call the, basically, the Afghan version of the DEA. And he's no longer involves anybody that might be listening that thinks that they're getting any intel, he is not. But he used to think that I was so skinny. And so every time I come to his office, I mean, Brian Schoenborn 46:40 You're a slim dude, you're lengthy. Richard Brion 46:41 But I'm heavier than people would think. Right? And so especially then I was working out a couple times a day I was eating quite a bit. You know, when there's nothing else to do. You take your legal supplements and your protein shakes and your nitrus oxide and lift at the gym. You know, do all the bro things, right? Brian Schoenborn 47:01 No, of course. You got nothing else to do, you know, in an area like that. Richard Brion 47:04 And I mean, we had a lot to do, but there's still times when there's downtime, right? Brian Schoenborn 47:08 Sure. Richard Brion 47:08 Between stuff scene workout and you make sure that you're fit to do. Brian Schoenborn 47:12 Yeah, right. I mean, that's what I mean. Richard Brion 47:13 Yeah, it is part of your job. So you're fit to your job, but he would always want to give me food. So it was meatballs and naan and chai and… Brian Schoenborn 47:22 General Aasif always wanted to give you food. Richard Brion 47:23 Yeah. And so it was goat meatballs and lamb meatballs. Brian Schoenborn 47:27 Oh, dude, that sounds so good. Richard Brion 47:28 And I mean, at first I was in, you know, because I was still young, they're still fairly. I mean, I've been to a few places by this point, but I was still a little bit of an isolationist when it came to the local cultures at this point, because this, this happened from the moment I walked into Afghanistan, right into General Aasif's office there is just trying, and so he's feeding me food that I know came off the off of the local economy that wasn't specifically off of the military base that had, you know, all of the, what do they call it the HACCP or whatever. Brian Schoenborn 48:03 The HAACP? Richard Brion 48:04 Yes, sir. Yeah health standard yeah the health standards and servsafe. And, you know, they, they definitely didn't have their authorized food handler's permit. So I was a little bit apprehensive but truthfully I got in I didn't, didn't get sick. The only place that the only time I got food poisoning in Afghanistan was when I went to a Lebanese restaurant, that's an actual restaurant, but owned my Lebanese people, and to this day, I have a hard time with hummus. Because the only thing I ate that night was hummus because it was just there for a quick meeting. And it made me so sick they had a banana bag me for like three or four days. Brian Schoenborn 48:42 I have no idea what that means but it doesn't sound good. Richard Brion 48:44 So banana bags are. There are basically an IV fluid bag and it's very bright yellow, banana in color almost. That's why we call them banana but it's basically hydration bag. Brian Schoenborn 48:55 Oh got ya. Richard Brion 48:56 You know the team medics and stuff, you get way too drunk you know from whatever and they would banana bag you and it's good way to, but I needed a banana back for like 3 or 4 days. Brian Schoenborn 49:06 Good way to get your head right. Richard Brion 49:07 Yeah and it was pretty It was pretty gnarly. Brian Schoenborn 49:09 You know it's funny that you talk about the food poisoning thing, right? Like like, I was in Asia for almost four years. Richard Brion 49:14 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 49:15 Right? I traveled through Southeast Asia. Fucking Beijing all over China, South Korea all over the place. Indonesia, Australia. Everywhere dude, and I dive dive super deep. I get local street food, all that shit. I got food poisoning once in my four time in my four years there. Richard Brion 49:34 American restaurant? Brian Schoenborn 49:35 American barbecue restaurant. Richard Brion 49:37 Doesn't surprise me. Brian Schoenborn 49:38 The pulled pork sandwich dude. Richard Brion 49:39 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 49:40 Fucked me up. I was fucking like, it was literally like hours after I had this dude. I was just like, I could not puke enough. Richard Brion 49:48 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 49:49 Just all night long. Just dry heaving. It was fucking awful, dude. Richard Brion 49:55 Well, no, and I'm like you I got and after that point, I dove in. Iraq. You know, local food everywhere. In Japan I ate on the local economy a lot of the other guys that were there that came later you know, they were like oh there's McDonald's there let's get the McDonald's on the way to work. And me there I was with the… Brian Schoenborn 50:12 Fuck that. Richard Brion 50:13 with that sticky rice it's like a mayo finish like a mayo filling in it or whatever. Brian Schoenborn 50:18 Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Richard Brion 50:19 And then you know, I've got the rice dishes and I I like to go to the yakiniku places which is you know, you cook your own little barbecue, meats… Brian Schoenborn 50:28 Yeah, they do that in China too. They call it chuar. Yeah, it's a Beijing dialect. Brian Schoenborn 50:34 Were they giggling too? Richard Brion 50:34 I'm pretty sure it's yakiniku is what it is, I'm I might be slightly incorrect there. It's been a while but so for those who speak Japanese, you know, you know, I'm sorry for this but but it was it was really I loved it the sushi I mean, it got so local that there was a local family that was involved in running one of the little drinky bars we go to, they invited me and a couple of guys back on to this barbecue out on the coast. And we drove out to the coast. I still remember one of the pictures, actually my buddy that was a marine, he was one of those guys with us. And we took a picture of the cloud that just looked like a phallic symbol one day. One of the Japanese girls pointed it out. So the van had a sunroof… Richard Brion 50:59 And they're looking at the cloud. So what, they had a sunroof in the van we're all riding in so I stood up through the sunroof, because of course I'm the tallest dude in the van. Brian Schoenborn 51:26 And they point at it like, “Penisuh!” Richard Brion 51:27 So well I'm and I took a picture of it. So I still have the picture somewhere. But we get to the coast and we're having barbecued eel and everything, and then also uni, which for those that don't know the Japanese word, it's sea urchin. Brian Schoenborn 51:40 Sea urchin. One of my favorite foods. Richard Brion 51:41 Yeah. And so you can you can get it at your sushi restaurants but the best I ever had was the little kids were going down into the water sticking their hand right in the water grabbing it right out and then we were just popping in straight outta right on this remote beach and way north Honshu, Japan, the Honshu island of Japan. It was awesome. Brian Schoenborn 52:01 So, I mean, so where were you in Japan? I mean, you were there for a while, right? Richard Brion 52:05 Yeah, I was there for just shy of a year. Brian Schoenborn 52:07 Okay. Richard Brion 52:07 So we were we were on the far north end of Honshu. So um, Brian Schoenborn 52:13 And Honshu is what? Richard Brion 52:14 Honshu's the main island in Japan. Brian Schoenborn 52:16 Like Tokyo and stuff? Richard Brion 52:17 Yes, so Tokyo is on the southern. Brian Schoenborn 52:19 Japan like, yeah, primarily that island, right? Yes. Osaka of course. Richard Brion 52:25 Hokkaido in the north, right. Yes. So on to the main about Okinawa, which is right there. So Honshu was the main way up there. Yeah. So Tokyo is way south, almost on the complete opposite end of the contract Brian Schoenborn 52:36 Roughly how long of a train ride would that be or something? Richard Brion 52:39 So bullet train, it was like two hours and 45 minutes by car… Richard Brion 52:42 By car, it's like a 12-hour drive. Brian Schoenborn 52:42 Bullet train's going, like 200 miles a hour. Brian Schoenborn 52:47 Yeah. Okay. Richard Brion 52:47 And that's down the toll road. So that's pretty much nothing else but toll road and freeway and it's 12 hours. So basically, if you were to look on a map and you see where miss our airbase is, and then take a ruler and draw straight line To the other side of the island from them on that same skinny part. Yeah, that's where we were, was called the Aomori prefect or Aomoir prefect would be more more precise. And we were in a little town called Goshuguara. And we had to stay in a Japanese hotel and let me tell you, I mean, this one had a… Brian Schoenborn 53:16 What kind of Japanese hotel was this? I've heard a few. I've heard about a few different types of Japanese hotels. Richard Brion 53:21 It wasn't any of those. But it was…. Brian Schoenborn 53:23 Not a love hotel? Richard Brion 53:24 Well no, it was not a love hotel. And it was done…and it was also not one of the not one of the space pod ones are all bed slides out and stuff. Brian Schoenborn 53:31 I slept in one of those. In Bangkok I think. Or Saigon, one of them. Richard Brion 53:35 Yeah. And so it was still, I mean, it still was a room a desk. It was a queen size mattress, but there wasn't really room for much other. I mean, literally, I had to take the chair out for the desk so that the bed was my chair because that there I mean, there was no point. You couldn't pull the desk out. Brian Schoenborn 53:37 Dude, I slept in a pod that like, literally, like there's a hallway and on the left and on the right It looks like these bunk beds, but they're walled off and it's literally just this like, elongated hole. Richard Brion 54:05 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 54:06 …that you slide into. It's just a bed. And there's a there's a TV at the foot of it. So if you want to watch TV you can there's nothing fucking on there anyway that you could understand. Literally slide in and then you drop down. It's like a curtain almost you just drop it down. There you go. That's my pod. Kinda like on a navy ship. It's a lot like that, you know? Richard Brion 54:25 You know, um, there's a there's a Netflix original that will had Brian Schoenborn 54:31 Shout out to Netflix. Richard Brion 54:32 Yeah, shout out to Netflix. Right? But it had Emma Stone and, wow, Jonah Hill. And it was called… it was about that was the… Brian Schoenborn 54:42 …they were they had a mental problems

On this episode of the Rotor Wash podcast, we take it back to CampECHO WV 2019 with this awesome talk by the legendary Dan Rauh. In Dan's signature style, he presents complex concepts in a brilliantly simple fashion. Sit back, relax, and enlighten yourself with some great education. Also, remember to check out the Sim Competition at ECHO Yacht Club in May! It is a fantastic opportunity to challenge yourself and bond with your peers.

ECHO Rotorwash Host Tony Falzone brings you his talk from CampECHO 2019 in West Virginia. In this talk, Tony uses his signature style of calm, motivating, speech to speak about how to keep the fire strong as we progress through our career. His talk is both insightful and informative for Clinicians everywhere. Take a listen, and let us know what you think!

This week we again head back to wild and wonderful West Virginia and Camp ECHO to hear Joey Loehner of Humboldt General Hospital present on the normalization of deviance and safety in our industry. Joey says he believes that everyone comes out of flight academy 110% focused on safety and for our first few flights we all take the extra 30 seconds, to double and triple-check everything but what do we do after 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years? Joey addresses dealing with the issues of overcoming complacency and developing a safety mindset within your team. CME Collective     If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video        

Today we head back to Camp ECHO for the second half of the Critical Care Panel. The Camp ECHO panel was one of our largest and most diverse to date and we were thrilled to have such amazing panel members join us. In this second installment, the panel discusses how to deal with a hemodynamically unstable trauma patient, fluid resuscitation, airway management and utilizing TXA. After the panel concludes, we continue the discussion over some drinks and bring you with us! A huge thank you to all of the panel members. Dr. Philip Nawrocki of Allegheny LifeFlight Dr. Lewis Rubinson of R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center Dan Rauh, CRNP of University of Cincinnati Aircare Dr. Ben Lawner of Allegheny LifeFlight Dr. Shaun Patterson of Hackensack Meridian Health Dr. Matthew Poremba of Allegheny LifeFlight Dr. Mike Peterson of Healthnet Aeromedical Services       If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video     CME Collective  

Today we once again head back to Camp ECHO for the first half of the Critical Care Panel. The Camp ECHO panel was one of our largest and most diverse to date and we were thrilled to have such amazing panel members join us. In this first installment the panel discusses how to deal with a difficult “sending doc”, is there ever a patient that is too sick for transport, airway management in the hemodynamically unstable patient, goal of resuscitation, and the nuance managing the acutely ill patient. A huge thank you to all of the panel members. Dr. Philip Nawrocki of Allegheny LifeFlight Dr. Lewis Rubinson of R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center Dan Rauh, CRNP of University of Cincinnati Aircare Dr. Ben Lawner of Allegheny LifeFlight Dr. Shaun Patterson of Hackensack Meridian Health Dr. Matthew Poremba of Allegheny LifeFlight Dr. Mike Peterson of Healthnet Aeromedical Services       If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video     CME Collective    

Today we hear an interview that was done during Camp ECHO with two physicians who have been helping with ECHO since its inception. Dr. Lewis Rubinson of the University of Maryland Medical Center and Dr. Ben Lawner of the Allegheny Health Network. Both these gentlemen have been big supporters of ECHO and we get a chance to talk candidly to them over a few beers about why the have chosen to support ECHO, what they see as the future of HEMS, and Prehospital medicine.       If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video     CME Collective    

This week we head back to Camp ECHO to hear flight medic Josh Piotrowski of Erlanger LifeForce. Josh provides a clear and precise outline to confidently answer the old adage of “right patient, right drug”. Every patient is different and no patient deserves a “same pressor, every time” approach to hypotensive treatment. Josh wants all of us to be better providers and be critical care ready.   If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video     CME Collective     

Today we again head back to Camp ECHO in WV to hear Flight Nurse Practitioner Jacob Miller from the Cleveland Clinic discuss the latest evidence on all things resuscitation.     CME Collective If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video

Sam and I ran into Brendan Riordan (@concernecus) at Camp ECHO a few months ago in West Virginia. We had a fantastic conversation out in the lobby of the conference center on all the right ventricle! In this podcast we address questions like: How can we differentiate sepsis from pulmonary embolism (PE)? Does extrinsic application of PEEP reflect in CVP? Does a dilated RV in arrest always mean PE? (I know I'll charge my phone!) Does extrinsic application of PEEP reflect in CVP? www.foamfrat.com 

Today we have the pleasure of talking to Dr. Phil Nawrocki and Dr. Matt Poremba of Alleghany LifeFlight in western Pennsylvania. Dr. Nawrocki is the lead author on a recently released study on the use of push dose epinephrine with their flight team. We get a chance to discusses what they found during the study, why they chose epinephrine and how they encourage their crews to employ it push dose Epi. Additionally get a chance to discussed LifeFlight’s  use of whole blood as a follow up to Dr. Poremba’s #CampECHO talk which was recently released here on the Rotor Wash Podcast (http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/9741833). Articles discussed in the episode: Philip Stuart Nawrocki, Matthew Poremba & Benjamin James Lawner (2019) Push Dose Epinephrine Use in the Management of Hypotension During Critical Care Transport, Prehospital Emergency Care, DOI: 10.1080/10903127.2019.1588443 Francis Xavier Guyette, Christian Martin-Gill, Gabriela Galli, Neal McQuaid & Jonathan Elmer (2019) Bolus Dose Epinephrine Improves Blood Pressure but is Associated with Increased Mortality in Critical Care Transport, Prehospital Emergency Care, DOI: 10.1080/10903127.2019.1593564   If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video       CME Collective

  We again head back to Camp to hear Flight Nurse Robin House’s talk on toxicology in the HEMS environment. Robin offers a down and dirty look at some the most common toxicology emergencies we could potentially face and how best to manage them in the pre-hospital environment.     CME Collective If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video        

Today we again revisit Camp ECHO for an Interactive discussion of the recognition and management strategies for acute right ventricular failure. This talk will briefly touch on specific anatomic and physiologic considerations (differentiating from LV, ventricular interdependence, etc), diagnostic tools and strategies for prevention/treatment of acute isolated RV failure or biventricular failure, including fluid/diuretics, inotropic/vasoactive pharmacology, and finally initiation of temporary and durable MCS   If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video       CME Collective

How do you become an asset rather than a lability at work? In this podcast episode, we are joined by multi-keynote speaker Shane Turner to discuss the difference between an employee and a professional. We highlight topics such as work ethic and personal drive. We also bring out how to stay engaged, using past mistakes as present motivators, and how to fight negativity at the base level. We also give tips on how to bring up uncomfortable topics to infect others with positive change as 'provider zero'. ------------------------------------------------  Follow us on Twitter @HLTHPodcast Follow us on Facebook @heavyliesthehelmet Visit our website at heavyliesthehelmet.com Contact us at heavyliesthehelmet@gmail.com Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Heavy Lies the Helmet, LLC podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of their employers and their employees. Heavy Lies the Helmet, LLC is not responsible for the accuracy of any information contained in the podcast series available for listening or reading on this site. The primary purpose of this podcast series is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute other professional advice or services.

This week we revisit another lecture from Camp ECHO. Josh Piotrowski of Erlanger Life Force presents a lecture that will take a look at the rare presentation of Electrical Storm. Josh says “As critical care providers, we need to recognize that uncommon is our bread and butter and we need to be informed when others may not. We will break down the current ideations on the pathophysiology and treatment of repetitive ventricular arrhythmias.” Enjoy another great talk from Camp ECHO!    If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video       CME Collective

Brian King steals the mic from Tony Falzone as he sits down with  Tyler Christifulli, Sam Ireland, Bryan Winchell and Brad Garmon from the REinVENT, pre-conference workshop at campECHO, to discuss their workshop. This 10 minute interview goes rogue as Joey Loehner joins the guys as they sit back and enjoy a post pre-conference beverage as they discuss a variety of different topics relating to education and orientation.

Ruth Myles, a flight nurse at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team (DHART) delivers her talk at #CAMPECHO regarding PTSD and the relationship between it and video gaming and what recent research has shown. From Ruth: "We did not do enough”, this statement was made by a Dispatcher in the AfterAction Report following the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub, Orlando, Fl. It is an expression of psychological trauma that is echoed in us all at one time or another. Intrusive memories of the traumatic event or flashbacks are hallmark signs of PTSD, and preventive strategies are lacking. This presentation will examine recent studies that indicate the therapeutic value of video games as a cognitive vaccine.   If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video       CME Collective  

In this episode, listen as I review the process for my talk at #CAMPECHO, the challenges of putting it together and the responses from it. What an honor it was to present at the ECHO HeliOps Critical Care Conference this year! I met some new friends and was able to see quite a few familiar faces that I highly respect and regard as true professionals in the industry of air medical. If you are a flight crew member and interested in coming to a conference, you MUST check out ECHO! If you are looking to get into air medical and want to learn more about the industry, keep an eye out for the ECHO Future Flight Crew Internship. HANDS DOWN a gamechanger and something that will positively impact your career for years to come!    Be sure to check out my website for more details on what this Motivated Medic stuff is all about!   Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments at themotivatedmedic@gmail.com   

On today's Rotor Wash episode, join us for an interview with 3 gentlemen from HealthNet Aeromedical Services. Clinton Burley, President & CEO of HealthNet joins us along with Base Lead and Flight Paramedic, Mark Brooks and Flight Nurse Glenn Sutphin. These men truly love what they do and the people they work alongside and it shows through in the work and effort they put into their program. We discuss the experience with ECHO, the impact it has had on their service and other details relating to the industry of air medical.      As referenced in the podcast, take some time to watch this video created in collaboration with Health Net Aeromedical Services and the ECHO FAST Team as produced by flight paramedic and ECHO Future Flight Crew Alumni, Matthew Whittaker. If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video       CME Collective  

On today’s Rotor Wash episode, we will wrap up the Critical Care Panel Discussion from our 2018 Annual Conference ECHONooga. Our panel which is comprised of critical care experts will finish the discussion on topics and interventions that are ongoing amidst clinicians in the field.   CAMP IS THIS WEEK AND THE ECHO IS GETTING LOUDER!!! Don't forget about the #CAMPECHO Trek competition by dressing up your car or you! Prizes will be awarded to the winning team On Day 1 of #CAMPECHO!!!

On today's Rotor Wash episode, Dan Rauh, a flight Nurse Practitioner at the University of Cincinnati Air Care and ICU intensivist, will discuss Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) and Hyperglycemic Hyperosmolar Syndrome (HHS). We will look at the differences and discuss treatment options in the critical care setting. Dan will also be presenting at #CAMPECHO next month. Take a look at our website for more details on the speaker line-up. We hope to see you there!    #CAMPECHO IS NEXT MONTH!!! As discussed at the beginning of this episode, if you as a flight crew member are in need of help, you can call our ECHO FAST (Flight crew Assistance and Support Team) line at 1-833-AIR-FAST which is available 24/7. The peer support team is made up of flight crews from across the country just for you. You can also reach out to us via Facebook Messenger from our facebook page @echoheliops and our website http://www.echoheliops.org/fast-team/       Check out one of our key partners, IA Med!