Let's Go to Camp... David!

8:41Chuck Bryant:Yeah. What's funny about that is apparently it was also a secret site around the same time for the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA, for training spies in close quarter pistol combat. There was something called the House of Horrors. There's a cool little Atlas Obscura article about it. Wow. Where you would go into this like haunted house and they like instead of ghosts, they were pop up cardboard Nazis and scary sounds and conversation being played. And like the hallways were angled in weird ways and it was dark. So it was very disorienting. And you had to kill every Nazi in the place or else they would kill you because you knew too much by that time.

9:28Chuck Bryant:Probably.

9:29Josh Clark:That's right. So that's just a weird coincidence. Or is it? So obviously the presidential yacht was run by the Navy. And so they said, all right, why don't we just let the Navy run this new retreat since they're in the sort of retreat business, even though it has nothing to do with being on the water. And it was launched at an installation called the Naval Support Facility Thermont. And Thermont is the name of the area. When they hatched the idea for, like, Roosevelt to start going there, they would say, all right, we're going to place 100 Marines there. We're going to put up a security fence with an alarm on it.

10:07Josh Clark:And he said, we also got to change this name. No one knows what Hai Katotkin is, and it's hard to pronounce. So I read this book, Lost Horizon, by James Hilton, and he talked about the Himalayan utopia of Shangri-La. And that sounds really cool. So let's rename it Shangri-La. And they said, well, you're the president. I guess we have to.

10:26Chuck Bryant:They're like, we think that's terrible, but okay.

10:29Josh Clark:Yeah.

10:29Chuck Bryant:Yeah, apparently that book is where the name Shangri-La came from. It was a super popular book. Have you read it?

10:37Josh Clark:I have not.

10:38Chuck Bryant:Neither have I. So it wasn't until I think 1942 that FDR started using the camp. Of course, he very frequently used a wheelchair. So they basically made it ADA compliant before there was such a thing as ADA.

10:56Josh Clark:Yeah.

10:57Chuck Bryant:And he was like, all right, I came up with Shangri-La. Let's keep this role I'm on going. I'm going to call the presidential cabin the Bear's Den. And everyone was like, you're president again. And they called it the Bear's Den.

11:12Josh Clark:That's right. They initially spent about close to 19 grand fixing the place up. And they had a little doghouse next door for his dog Fala, which is really cute. And so he would go there and chill out at Shangri-La. I can't wait till they change that name, by the way. And also started the practice of what would become a thing of hosting foreign leaders there. And kind of like, you know, getting away from the rat race in D.C. Legend has it that he and Winston Churchill planned. I don't know if it's legend. I think that part is fact. Planned some of the D-Day invasion from one of the cabin porches there.

11:46Josh Clark:And like would sit around and drink bourbon and smoke cigars, do a little fishing. I think this is the legend. apparently on one of the trips, they were driving back to D.C. and they made a stop at a restaurant in Thurmont called the Cozy Restaurant because Churchill had heard of these jukeboxes and he'd never seen a jukebox. So apparently they stopped there. Churchill went in and got a beer and just marveled at the jukebox.

12:11Chuck Bryant:Right. Yeah. And the Cozy Restaurant was around until 2014. It was legendary because, I mean, if you were, you know, not quite of high enough status to actually stay at Camp David, you stayed in Thurmont and you probably ate at the cozy restaurant. So it was around for years.

12:29Josh Clark:You could see Churchill there, apparently.

12:31Chuck Bryant:You could. Can you just see him like just standing over the jukebox mesmerized? Just like laughing. Look at these things. It's flipping records. So you want to take a break and then come back and talk about, I don't know, Camp David? Sure. Let's do it.

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14:49Chuck Bryant:so um fdr was there it was like a camp camp rustic keeps getting batted around as a word to describe camp david and today it's still used but apparently back in fdr's time at the beginning of all this like it was it was rustic and then when fdr died in 1945 harry truman whose taste did not run to the rustic instead he liked to hang out at the little white house on key west that you know rather than in the woods outside of dc yeah um he still uh kind of he was a good custodian of it i I guess he ordered like the brush to be cleared back and he ordered, um, heating, a heating system to be put in so it could be used year round before it had only been used during the nice, nice months out of the year.

15:42Chuck Bryant:Um, but he didn't use it very much.

15:45Josh Clark:you know, it seems reading through the history that, how you view Camp David, if you are president kind of goes back to like what you're into. Sure. And the people that enjoyed it seemed like people that were like, yeah, I love going, like people that are probably into like being in the woods and that kind of scene. And if you're not into that kind of scene, like you said, Truman, I guess he was a beach guy because he liked Key West. And our current president very famously kind of hates Camp David.

16:16Chuck Bryant:Yeah.

16:17Josh Clark:Because we see his taste and it's certainly not a rustic cabin in the woods kind of thing.

16:22Chuck Bryant:Right.

16:22Josh Clark:And you've seen other presidents that go there and like seem like they have a really, really great time. Oh, yeah. And we're going to get into some of that, but it's just interesting. Like, it's sort of foisted upon you as president. It's like, all right, here's your camp. And half of them seem like, I'm not really into this kind of thing.

16:39Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I think a significant number just keep their mouth shut about it, but don't really enjoy it very much. But yes, it is expected of you to visit Camp David at some point in time during your presidency. But yeah, some of them definitely appreciated it more than others. Ike Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower, when he took over in 1953, he was like, this is a needless luxury. Let's get rid of it.

17:03Josh Clark:Yeah, he seemed like he didn't maybe love it. But his attorney general, Herbert Brownwell, he went there for an inspection. And he's a guy who loves that kind of thing. He loved it. And he came back and he sent sort of a joke that seems like it was like, but I'm kind of serious. A petition for executive clemency. And so Eisenhower was like, all right, fine, we'll keep Camp David. We should mention that it's a part of a almost 5 ,900-acre area, that Cototkin Mountain Park. But it's only about 150 acres of that. Livia found other, and I did too, some other sizes potentially for the size of Camp David, like 143, 180, 125, 200.

17:47Josh Clark:She said it was oddly inconsistent, but I have a feeling that may just be part of the sort of subterfuge of not giving away too much. Sure. Sure. Maybe not. But, you know, it's somewhere between, let's say, 140 and 200 acres.

18:01Chuck Bryant:All right. I'll go along with that. All right.

18:03Josh Clark:You're in for that?

18:05Chuck Bryant:You referenced that Eisenhower relented and didn't get rid of what was still called Shangri-La at the time.

18:11Josh Clark:Yeah.

18:12Chuck Bryant:He said that the name Shangri-La was, quote, just a little fancy for a Kansas farm boy. So he renamed it Camp David. And we can stop saying Shangri-La now, Chuck. Yay. And he named it Camp David after his five-year-old grandson, who scholars now realize was the one calling the shots during the Eisenhower administration.

18:35Josh Clark:Interesting. That's very funny, by the way. But interestingly, that guy, the grandson David, now runs the Institute for Public Service at University of Pennsylvania School for Communications and teaches a course called Communication in the Presidency. So that's kind of cool. And I bet you at the first day of class, he was like, yes, I'm that David.

18:54Chuck Bryant:I'm that David. Yeah. One other thing about Eisenhower, the president, Ike, he was the one that warned the country in his farewell address about the growing threat of a military industrial complex. He was actually a pretty sharp dude who had the country, the country at heart. Yeah.

19:15Josh Clark:I mean, he was sharp enough to not want to drive there, the 55 miles, because he had a helicopter pad built on the site. So now it's just a half an hour to get there on, I guess, the Marine one. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. And he said, we should also have some more fun stuff to do here. So let's put in a screening room, a little movie theater. Let's put in a bowling alley. Let's put in a golf course. And they're like, we can't put a whole golf course. He was like, just one hole. And they said, sure, we'll put in a golf hole. It'll have some different tee boxes to give it a little variation. And he said, well, while I'm renaming things, this presidential cabin, I don't like Bears Den.

19:56Josh Clark:I have a feeling he didn't like FDR. And he changed it to Aspen in honor of Colorado where his wife Mamie grew up. And then that started the tradition of naming all the cabins after trees.

20:08Chuck Bryant:Yes, which still goes on today. It's a longstanding tradition. Yeah, that goes back to the 50s, apparently. One of the other things that I don't know if Eisenhower ordered it or if they were just like, this needs to happen. There was a construction of a bomb shelter in case of nuclear war. Because, again, this is the 50s and the Cold War was really heating up, I guess. It could accommodate 50 presidential employees. I saw as much as 150 defense staffers if a nuclear war broke out. And it was a bomb shelter is underselling it. It was called the presidential relocation spot. I don't remember the last word, but spot will do, where you could run the country like out of like underground, essentially.

20:54Chuck Bryant:And it's still there today. We'll talk a little bit more about it later. But one of the things that I found interesting is that when Richard Nixon came along, he ordered a heated swimming pool to be built right next to the presidential cabin. And I guess the only place to put it was right smack dab on top of the bomb shelter. Oh. And it cost like$260 ,000 in early 1970s money to reinforce the bomb shelter so the pool could be put on top of it. That's just so Nixon.

21:29Josh Clark:Yeah, it's kind of cool, though. It's a cool-looking pool. It's like a little figure eight. And, you know, as we'll learn, I guess we're going to learn it right now. There aren't a ton of pictures of Camp David. Like, I wouldn't say it's veiled in secrecy, but they don't put a ton of stuff out there. Like, the press has never really been allowed there. It's like a true retreat. So the only pictures that have ever been put out are, like, when an administration, and it's like Obama, it's like, hey, put out this picture of me doing a water gun fight at the pool with my daughters because it's super cool and I look awesome.

21:59Chuck Bryant:Yeah, he was looking over the photographer's shoulders as they were skimming through him. He's like, that one, that one, I look pretty cool.

22:05Josh Clark:Yeah, he's like, can you do something about my 11s and my crow's feet?

22:09Chuck Bryant:He said, you need Dysport.

22:12Josh Clark:So Nixon put in the swimming pool, and then he also is responsible for building the Laurel Lodge, which is the biggest building there. It's where a lot of the meetings are held, a lot of the bigger dinners are there. And it replaced the previous Laurel Lodge, which is smaller, obviously. And that one was renamed Holly, the Holly Lodge. And then Reagan came along as a religious guy. He was like, we need a chapel here. We need a non-denominational chapel.

22:39Chuck Bryant:Really?

22:40Josh Clark:Well, what, really? Did he ask for that or that they needed one?

22:43Chuck Bryant:That you're not going to say it like Ronald Reagan. Well. Okay.

22:48Josh Clark:Okay. That's all I'm going to say.

22:50Chuck Bryant:All right. That's good enough.

22:51Josh Clark:So he got that going, but it didn't actually open until H.W. Bush's administration. It's called the Evergreen Chapel. Previous to that, if you were a religious president, like George's own Jimmy Carter, very famously religious, he would hold Sunday services in Hickory Lodge.

23:08Chuck Bryant:Yeah, apparently there was only one wedding, which kind of surprised me, and that was George H.W. Bush's daughter, Doro.

23:15Josh Clark:I mean, you guys looked into it. You couldn't get the guest list down.

23:19Chuck Bryant:We couldn't find the place.

23:21Josh Clark:Oh, yeah, that was a problem.

23:23Chuck Bryant:W, George H.W. Bush's son, he spent a lot of time. I think both H.W. and W. Bush both spent Christmases at Camp David.

23:33Josh Clark:Yeah, they loved it.

23:34Chuck Bryant:Yeah. And as W's term was coming to an end, he had the basketball court refurbished for his successor, Barack Obama, because Barack Obama famously loved basketball. Man, what a—

23:49Josh Clark:What a class act, right? What a different time, you know? I know. It's crazy. Yeah. All right. Moving on. So we mentioned earlier, like, you know, it's a retreat for sure, but it's also where some very famous diplomatic meetings have taken place. And that started in 1959 when Ike, as Josh calls him, because you're so friendly to each other. he invited Khrushchev there, Soviet Premier Khrushchev, to, you know, do what you do there, which is like get a little more informal setting, get people out of the rat race of D.C. and try and connect a little more personally. And that's always sort of been the reason why they take people there.

24:28Josh Clark:And so Khrushchev, sort of like Churchill was just sat around and gawked at the jukebox at the cozy restaurant. Apparently Khrushchev was just marveled at the bowling alley's automatic pin setter.

24:42Chuck Bryant:Yeah. I call Khrushchev Nicky I think he just

24:49Josh Clark:yeah well he says call me Nicky when he's bowling but he just kept saying that's what it says

24:54Chuck Bryant:on his bowling shirt that's what's stitched on he kept saying

24:56Josh Clark:knock pins down again I would like to see pins set

24:59Chuck Bryant:very nice did I send this to you that little the little extra stuff about the bomb shelter no

25:07Josh Clark:so they were on top of the pool or under the pool it wouldn't on top of the pool be a very bad place for a bomb shelter

25:12Chuck Bryant:right They were building this when Khrushchev came and visited. Oh, the shelter? In 59, yeah. What's that over there? Right. They didn't want him doing that. So they built a deck over it that was temporary but didn't look temporary over the big hole that they'd excavated. That's fantastic. They hid all the excavated dirt. And there's pictures of Khrushchev on the deck waving, clearly doesn't know what he's standing on top of.

25:36Josh Clark:He said, does someone hear echo every time I speak? In Soviet Russia, echo hears you. Oh, man, that's a good fact. I like that.

25:45Chuck Bryant:The echo thing, hearing you?

25:47Josh Clark:No, just building the deck. It seems like something out of like a zany comedy or something.

25:53Chuck Bryant:It totally does. I can see Peter Sellers like rushing around.

25:56Josh Clark:Yeah, I had a Strangelove vibe too.

25:58Chuck Bryant:And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, though, some foreign dignitaries and leaders did not enjoy going to Camp David. Harold McMillan, who was prime minister of the U.K., during Ike's term, he did not like going because apparently Ike would make you watch westerns during movie nights. And Macmillan, I also call Harold Macmillan Mac, Mac called them inconceivably banal movie nights. And I can imagine that. You gotta be kind of into westerns to enjoy a western anytime. You know?

26:38Josh Clark:Yeah, Emily doesn't like westerns

26:41Chuck Bryant:at all. I like weird westerns like the remake of True Grit or Dead Man or, you know, stuff like that. But like the classics, I've never gotten into. Although I do like the Wild Bunch. That's a great movie.

26:57Josh Clark:Oh, jeez, yeah. Sam Peckinpah.

26:59Chuck Bryant:But I've never, I don't think I've ever seen all of The Magnificent Seven. Like I've just never really gotten into good westerns. Although I do love Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead too. See, I like weird westerns.

27:12Josh Clark:Yeah, there's a name for that. It's not revisionist. It's a...

27:16Chuck Bryant:Weird Westerns?

27:17Josh Clark:Yeah, but it's a different word. We'll just call it Weird Westerns, but I know what you mean. Okay. Like Australia puts out some cool Westerns like that. Oh, yeah.

27:25Chuck Bryant:Like Nick Cave's one?

27:26Josh Clark:Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think you'd like Magnificent Seven, by the way. That's one that you probably would dig.

27:32Chuck Bryant:It seems like you'd be right. Maybe I just need to give it another shot.

27:35Josh Clark:Yeah, that's one. After the Bay of Pigs, JFK invited... What did you call him?

27:42Chuck Bryant:Jifk.

27:43Josh Clark:Jifk. He invited Ike back to the camp to consult a little bit. I think, you know, he just trusted his foreign policy experience. And there was a very famous photograph taken on that trip. AP photographer Paul Vathis won a Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his picture, Serious Steps. It's this great black and white of JFK and Eisenhower kind of from the rear walking up a wooded path. It's a very cool picture.

28:10Chuck Bryant:Right. with JFK saying, we are screwed, and Ike saying, you are screwed.

28:16Josh Clark:That's right. I'm not president.

28:18Chuck Bryant:Probably the most famous thing that happened at Camp David was the Camp David Accords. Yeah. That was between Menachem Begin, who was the prime minister of Israel at the time, and the president of Egypt at the time, Anwar Sadat. And it was presided over by Jimmy Carter. And Carter and his aides really did about the best job you could possibly do in trying to get Israel and any Arab country, in this case, Egypt, to strike some sort of peace agreement. and um it's still like it's it's revered especially in the united states as like this great success but if you look at it further down the down the pike it didn't work out all that well but still this was about as good as you could expect it's certainly the best it's ever been

29:13Josh Clark:done at camp david yeah i mean at the time it was remarkable to even get those guys in the same room much less go to camp for almost two weeks. I think they're there for 13 days. And again, you know, the reason they do this is to get away from the media, to have some real privacy, to connect as humans.

29:30Chuck Bryant:To maybe find love. Yeah.

29:33Josh Clark:Little footsie under the table. They watch movies together. Apparently Anwar Sadat hiked the trails each morning. Carter very purposefully didn't even use the larger room. He went to that initial meeting room, which was renamed Holly, because he thought it was more intimate. And he loved it there. Carter loved it, but the guys found it kind of, they were used to the wide open desert. And so they found it kind of dark and gloomy. But one of the pluses of being isolated like that is if things start going south, they can't run and jump in their car and be at the airport in 10 minutes.

30:09Chuck Bryant:Yeah, and the press isn't there to provoke hostility in order to get a great quote to stir things up for better press or whatever. I also saw that Jimmy Carter watched Star Wars with Anwar Sadat, and that is not a joke.

30:26Josh Clark:Oh, wow. That's what they watched at Camp David. That's amazing.

30:32Chuck Bryant:So Ronald Reagan, I think, aside from the Camp David Accords, I associate Camp David with Ronald Reagan more than anybody.

30:40Josh Clark:He loved it, man.

30:41Chuck Bryant:He loved going and playing cowboy. when he was president.

30:48Josh Clark:Yeah, he loved it. Very famously loved riding horses. Nancy loved it. They would go there like a lot on the weekends, like their little weekend retreat. Because again, it's a 30-minute helicopter ride, and all of a sudden you're at this, I think being away from the press is a really big deal.

31:05Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I think that's a huge part of it.

31:07Josh Clark:Yeah, just to go check out. So he would host World Leaders there. He recorded his weekly radio addresses there. The Bushes loved it, too. Like you said, they spent Christmases there, both father and son. And apparently W used it for some post-9-11 strategy sessions. And Obama liked it a lot, too.

31:26Chuck Bryant:Yeah. No word on what Biden did with it. He's apparently being erased from history.

31:33Josh Clark:Well, Obama moved the G8 summit there. I think it was supposed to be in Chicago. and, you know, he gave the reasons that usually give was to get away from everyone and kind of have a more free-flowing discussion. But other people are like, I think you're probably also trying to avoid protesters.

31:49Chuck Bryant:Right. Because if the press can't get there, I can tell you protesters can't.

31:53Josh Clark:Yeah, and I mentioned Donald Trump not really liking it very much. I think in 2017, he said it was, quote, very rustic and then said, you know how long you'd like it, for about 30 minutes. So it's not his scene. And I think no one is surprised about that. But he has used it, I think, kind of when he has to. I think last year he used it for a retreat regarding Middle East strategy. So more Middle East strategy taking place at Camp David.

32:20Chuck Bryant:Yeah. Okay, Chuck, I say that we take a second break. And when we come back, we're going to really get into your favorite part, how this place operates.

32:29Josh Clark:I love it.

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33:23Chuck Bryant:This oil change, fall in love with your car all over again.

33:27Josh Clark:In just 10 minutes, your dream technician will check your tire pressure, top off fluids, change your oil, and verify with Carfax exactly what your car really needs, all while keeping you in the driver's seat. Take 5, the stay-in-your-car 10-minute oil change. Find your nearest shop at take5.com. This is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. The United States will not stand by and allow any power, however great, take over another country. From iHeart Podcast, Saigon. Please allow me to introduce Joseph Sherman. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam? I should stop talking so much.

34:06Chuck Bryant:I like hearing you talk.

34:07Josh Clark:One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart.

34:12Chuck Bryant:This is for Vietnam. I've taken a hit from Japanese ground fire. Do you read me? They're pouring petrol all over him. He's holding matches.

34:21Josh Clark:I'm on a landmine. For freedom. Let's get out. Freedom for Vietnam. Run. Saigon, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Rob Benedict. Sting hears madness.

34:33Chuck Bryant:The world should hear about this. There's a fire coming to this country, and it's going to burn out everything.

34:38Josh Clark:Listen to Saigon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

34:57Josh Clark:All right, so we're back to talk about operations. I'm so excited. Its official name is the Naval Support Facility Thermont. Obviously still operated by the Navy, like I said. And most of the work there are members of the Civil Engineer Corps who are known as the Seabees. Sure. And if you're a sailor and you're stationed at Camp David, first of all, congratulations. I imagine that's pretty awesome as an assignment. But it's a 36-month tour. So you're there for about three years. And you may be a cook or you may be able to, you may be a hairdresser. or you may be able to like ride horses and teach people to ride horses or you may be a licensed lifeguard.

35:36Chuck Bryant:Yeah. You're not a guard, though. A guard guard, though. That's the Marines, as we'll see.

35:41Josh Clark:That's right.

35:42Chuck Bryant:There are other organizations or other departments that handle different parts of it. The public works department, they handle maintenance, the building, the grounds, the electrical systems, the vehicles, Anything that starts to break down, public works is probably on top of it. The operations department, they handle arrivals and departures of aircraft. That would include Marine One, Chuck. That's aircraft two. That's right. They handle electronics. They handle firefighting. Yeah. Which means that they're in charge of the VCRs and VCR fires there at Camp David. That's right.

36:21Josh Clark:Oh, man, you know that VCR's got some hours logged, too. So it's a fire waiting to happen.

36:27Chuck Bryant:It's got Big Trouble in Little China stuck in it right now. I love that movie. It's so great. That might be my favorite movie, man. That is such a good movie.

36:37Josh Clark:Oh, it's classic. I keep trying to get Ruby to watch it, and she hasn't yet, but I know she's going to love it. She will love it.

36:42Chuck Bryant:Yeah, it's a good one.

36:44Josh Clark:Supply Department deals with finances, accommodations, and food service is a big part of it there, obviously. and that is an extension of the Navy's Presidential Food Service Department. This is the stuff I love. Like you never think about like, yeah, somebody buys groceries for these meals for the White House and elsewhere, but it's got to be like a rigorous thing as far as the chain of command and like as far as poisoning and stuff goes. Like it's not just somebody shopping for food. So they handle all that stuff and all the catering and all the dining services.

37:19Chuck Bryant:I've got something for you since you like how all this works. Oh, yay. I read about that when they buy groceries. The first family pays for their own groceries. Did you know that? Oh, wow. Everything else is essentially free. They have to pay for the food they eat, aside from like state dinners and stuff like that. But the family eats groceries that they pay for. They get a monthly bill every month. And I think it was Michelle Obama who said that they learned the hard way that you should ask how much different things that you're putting on your grocery list cost because - Oh, yeah. You can get sticker shock from the monthly bill.

37:52Josh Clark:Yeah. I guess that's how Trump was so well-versed on the price of eggs. I guess so. He probably went over that bill at the end of every month and was like, this is how much eggs are?

38:00Chuck Bryant:I wonder if they jack the prices up or if they're fair or they get a discount or something. But I would like to know that. But yes, I'm fascinated by that, too. Somebody buying groceries in that situation.

38:12Josh Clark:Yeah. Yeah, and I bet how it goes down is either it's a very specific, like, place that they shop, or it's, like, just totally secret and no one has any idea that it's, that's what they're shopping for.

38:25Chuck Bryant:Good point. It could, yeah, it could definitely be. Maybe there's two. There's, like, a decoy shopper, too. All right.

38:32Josh Clark:They'd have a shirt on that says, you know, presidential grocery list.

38:37Chuck Bryant:Right. Federal body inspector.

38:40Josh Clark:It's like when, well, on that note, it's like when Michael Keaton wore the FBI shirt in, oh, what was it? No, I can't think of it. Out of Sight.

38:51Chuck Bryant:I don't remember that.

38:52Josh Clark:The great Steven Soderbergh movie with J-Lo and George Clooney. I think he wore like an FBI t-shirt while doing FBI raids and stuff.

39:01Chuck Bryant:That's funny. I didn't even know he was in that movie. I haven't seen that one either.

39:05Josh Clark:He's got, oh, boy, Out of Sight is great. I know, you've told me that. A great, great one.

39:10Chuck Bryant:All right, I'll check it out. That and The Magnificent Seven. Basically the same movie, I'm sure.

39:14Josh Clark:Yeah.

39:16Chuck Bryant:Chuck, I also said that if you were on a hitch in the Navy assigned to Camp David, you probably weren't a guard, and that's because the Marines guard it. Specifically, the Marines from the 8th and I Street barracks, which is a barracks in D.C., they've pretty much from the outset been responsible for guarding the camp.

39:36Josh Clark:Yeah, for sure. I think when it was first built in 1957, they only went there when the president was there. But then Ike, Josh's buddy, said, you know what, we should probably just have people there all the time guarding the place. And I think 71, 72 is when the Marines formed Marine Security Company as a permanent company. And I think they are on about an 18-month tour when they're stationed there.

40:01Chuck Bryant:Right. And everyone there has Yankee white clearance, which is very frequently referred to as a security clearance level. It's not. It's a specific type of background check. I think it's the deepest background check that they perform. And everyone who works near the president has that kind of background check done.

40:21Josh Clark:Yeah, it involves a surgical glove, if you know what I mean.

40:26Chuck Bryant:There was one other thing, too, that Livia pointed out that I hadn't thought about, but I'm sure it's quite true. For the people who just work there, like during times when the president's not there, there's probably not that much to do. And then all of a sudden there's everything in the world to do right now when the president does come and there's like a summit or something like that.

40:49Josh Clark:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, they're feeding themselves and the staff and they're keeping up with the grounds and all that, keeping the grass mode and everything clean. Sure. But yeah, when the dignitaries come around and the president comes around, it's, I imagine, a high-stress situation because a lot of these people that come, like we mentioned, with, you know, these leaders in the Middle East are coming to a completely different scene that they're used to. And a lot of them are very specific religious accommodations that need to be made and meal accommodations that need to be made, whether it's like kosher food or like getting alcohol removed from a cabin or putting prayer rugs in the proper spot.

41:28Josh Clark:So, yeah, there's a lot of hoops you got to jump through to make sure everyone feels good about being there. And also like that the accommodations are kind of on par with one another. And like he got he got the better room.

41:40Chuck Bryant:Right.

41:41Josh Clark:Well, you don't want that happening.

41:42Chuck Bryant:I mean, some of the cabins are nicer. There's obviously ones that are closer to Aspen, the presidential cabin, than others. So figuring out who stays where is like a hugely important part of all this. I mean, like we're talking about some of the most fragile egos in the entire world.

42:00Josh Clark:Yeah, plus, I mean, if you're a foreign leader, you want to be close to the president's cabin so you don't have to go far for the middle of the night sneak out makeout sesh.

42:10Chuck Bryant:That's right. Skinny dipping in the pond behind Aspen.

42:13Josh Clark:That's right.

42:16Chuck Bryant:So if you are a hiker in this area, you can actually get accidentally close to Camp David. And the way that you will find out that you accidentally got close to Camp David is because a marine is going to suddenly emerge from the woods and tell you to turn around right now.

42:34Josh Clark:It's like Rambo. Pretty much. Yeah. It's like hiding in the ground as a pile of leaves. Right, yeah.

42:40Chuck Bryant:Or like he's covered in mud and he suddenly opens his eyes.

42:43Josh Clark:Oh, God, I remember that one. That was a good one.

42:45Chuck Bryant:So, yes, and the reason why you could accidentally stumble into this, Chuck, is because intentionally there's no signage saying, like, welcome to Camp David or stay away from Camp David. Like, it's still meant to be semi-secret, and it's those Marines on patrol that are essentially the first line of defense perimeter-wise.

43:06Josh Clark:Yeah, like you know you're getting close if you're on your lovely hike and you see a sign that maybe says no photography out here in the middle of the woods or no loitering, and then you're like, oh, I bet you I'm getting close to Camp David. And then, you know, the eye in the mud comes out and you know you're done for.

43:24Chuck Bryant:Also, if you're a plane and you get too close, you're probably going to have a fighter jet suddenly come out of nowhere and say, hey, follow me to Reagan National Airport.

43:34Josh Clark:Yeah, I think airspace is restricted to 5 ,000 feet above sea level. And a three-mile zone, when the president isn't there, when the president is there, it's 10 miles. And what else we got? Should we talk just a little bit about some of the lodgings? Sure.

43:51Chuck Bryant:I think we'd be remiss if we didn't.

43:54Josh Clark:Well, there's about 20 cabins and obviously other buildings. You got that presidential cabin, which is four-bedroom with a kitchen and an office and a patio. And that swimming pool is right there. So if you see that picture of Obama playing with his kids at the pool, the cabin in the background, that is the one.

44:10Chuck Bryant:That's Aspen, baby. The former Bears den.

44:14Josh Clark:Yep.

44:15Chuck Bryant:There's Laurel Lodge. We talked about that. It's a huge conference rooms, dining room. It's like the official. It's the most official probably of all the congregational areas, right? Hickory Lodge. When you want to blow off some steam and just watch the pin setters in action, that's where you're going to hang out. There's also a bar there so you can get soused.

44:37Josh Clark:Maybe a hookah pipe? Sure.

44:39Chuck Bryant:Oh, yeah. There's definitely a hookah lounge and a kava bar as well. Okay. There's a gift shop in Hickory Lodge. Like, do they actually charge foreign leaders for, like, a postcard or something? And are the foreign leaders buying a postcard at Camp David?

44:55Josh Clark:Well, I know that Khrushchev very famously bought a shot glass, Camp David shot glass, and a little license plate. He couldn't find his name, but he found one that said Nick. Yeah. And he was like, close enough.

45:07Chuck Bryant:And on the shot glass, it said, I got nuked at Camp David.

45:16Josh Clark:Oh, man, I want to go there so bad. I did see a picture of the actual Camp David sign, and it looks like a teenager Camp in the Woods camp sign. It's awesome.

45:28Chuck Bryant:Right. Yeah, I can imagine exactly what it looks like. Yeah. It's kind of chiseled in, the yellow lining inside.

45:36Josh Clark:That's the one.

45:38Chuck Bryant:What else you got? Horseshoes, skeet shooting. Oh, here's the last thing I think we should put in there, Chuck, is that they all ride golf carts there. Apparently, it's one of the funnest aspects of Camp David, which I think says a lot about Camp David, is that there's a fleet of golf carts, and the president's is called Golf Cart One. Yeah. That was George W. Bush who came up with that.

46:03Josh Clark:That's right, and they've called it that ever since. So you can, you know, shoot the skeet. I think there's a second swimming pool for the staff and play a little tennis if you want. Have you ever shot skeet?

46:14Chuck Bryant:Oh, yeah. It's funny. I was driving from Chicago to Akron, and I was passing by fields that my dad used to take my sister and I out to to shoot skeet.

46:24Josh Clark:Oh, did you have one of the flingers?

46:26Chuck Bryant:Yeah.

46:27Josh Clark:Yeah, I have only done it once, and it was at a skeet shooting facility in wine country in California. It's fun. And I loved it, and I was pretty good at it. Oh, yeah? I had never shot shotguns like that before, and I was hitting them. pull.

46:44Chuck Bryant:Yeah, it was fun. Yeah, it is fun. Like we go out with a big old box of those clay pigeons and shoot them up. I don't remember whether I was good or not, but I mean, I was probably 10 years old holding a 12 gauge shotgun.

46:57Josh Clark:Yeah. I mean, I loved it so much. I was like, oh man, I found online. There's like a club south of Atlanta and I'm going to buy a shotgun and like become a member. And of course I never did any of that, but I am looking forward to going again one day.

47:10Chuck Bryant:Somebody has Christmas coming up.

47:12Josh Clark:That's right.

47:13Chuck Bryant:Okay, well, I think we're done with Camp David for now, right?

47:16Josh Clark:Yeah, that's a good one.

47:18Chuck Bryant:Until you go there and you can report back.

47:20Josh Clark:That's right.

47:21Chuck Bryant:Well, since Chuck said that's right about going to Camp David and reporting back, it's time, of course, for Listener Mail.

47:31Josh Clark:This one is a follow-up on Roar. Hey, guys. Just wanted to write in about a brief thing Josh said in the Roar episode. I'm summarizing, but he mentioned at one point that a movie shouldn't have the same writer, director, and star because they needed to keep one another in check. Yeah. Sort of like the branches of government.

47:47Chuck Bryant:Sure.

47:48Josh Clark:This really isn't a thing, Josh. Chuck was on the spot, came up with a good example in Clint Eastwood, but I couldn't think of any others. So I will mention Spike Lee, Woody Allen, John Cassavetes, Mel Brooks, Kevin Costner, a guy named Orson Welles. More modern examples include Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, and Billy Bob Thornton. Some even act as editors and camera operators, sometimes under fake names, for reasons I think have to do with unions, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I hope young filmmakers hear this, because encouraging students to write, direct, and star in their own short films is a great way to learn the craft and get things done.

48:23Josh Clark:And that is Sylvie, not Sylvia.

48:27Chuck Bryant:Thanks, Sylvie. I appreciate that. Thank you for setting me straight eight ways till Sunday. If you want to be like Sylvie and set me straight and give all sorts of great examples to back your point up, that's fantastic. You can put it in email and send it off to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com.

48:48Josh Clark:Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Wait, this is a soda? Yeah. And it has protein? 10 grams. No sugar? Zero. And it actually tastes good? It's Sky Pop! Sky Pop Protein Soda delivers the refreshing taste you want from a real soda. Crisp and delicious with 10 grams of complete protein, zero sugar, and just 45 calories. So you're not choosing between great taste and real benefits. You're getting both in every sip. Sky Pop Protein Soda. Reach for the sky.

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