7| Navy Intelligence & Blackwater Operative / Hyperlocal AgTech Expert Richard Brion
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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 NotesRevolution 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 Ronan, 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 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 regard to not even a studio. There’s a makeshift this is this is a this is a private couch filled office in a we work.
Richard Brion 1:39
There’s nothing more to it. microphones Adobe Audition. I’m not going to tell you any more about that. But
Richard Brion 1:46
I mean, it could be worse. We could we could be in a coffee shop trying to do this. It does happen. Yeah.
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
Unknown Speaker 2:08
crease in the gears right?
Unknown Speaker 2:10
Yeah. So Richard, Red. I’m going to call you Red because we know.
Unknown Speaker 2:18
Yeah make sense.
Unknown Speaker 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 is great
Richard Brion 2:26
yeah pretty much there’s I was watching this thing the other day where
Richard Brion 2:31
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 his 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
Unknown Speaker 2:46
I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not red. Yeah.
Richard Brion 2:50
The name fits. What can you What can I say? Yeah.
Brian Schoenborn 2:54
So dude, let’s let’s get into it a little bit. Um, you you told me You just came back from a couple of backpacking trips right
Richard Brion 3:03
now. 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 shift. So let’s hear about this.
Richard Brion 3:11
Yeah. So it was just a, their 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. mountain goats are super aggressive up there. 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. Drink it be Yeah, basically. So
Unknown Speaker 3:53
so they asked you to like
Richard Brion 3:58
so basically, they they asked 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. So they encourage you to pee on the rocks. Yes, so that it doesn’t. So that way the goats don’t end up tearing everything up. 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
Unknown Speaker 4:19
pretty much
Unknown Speaker 4:21
I could crack that like I was lucky.
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 chase 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 yeah, and they follow you down there and they basically like oddly feels like they’ve got you pinned up against this rock face. either up or I knock you off the cliff but I mean, I’ll say 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 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. 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 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 rusick 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 I Batman, and it’s so cold which is so awesome. Really.
Brian Schoenborn 6:42
So that’s that fresh not 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. Nice. Yeah. In order to get is a little bit faster and more fun. Nice.
Brian Schoenborn 7:03
So So for people listening, we’re currently in Seattle.
Brian Schoenborn 7:08
And in case you haven’t realized it at this point,
Brian Schoenborn 7:11
the 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, dude.
Unknown Speaker 7:37
Or hills. I remember when I was in
Unknown Speaker 7:39
when I was in Boston people looked over we’re gonna go to keulen tuner verbal and I like check it out. It’s like fucking like
Unknown Speaker 7:46
my buddy like they’re they’re black diamonds are like body house. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 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,
Richard Brion 7:59
big bear See some actually I see I see some actual mountains.
Unknown Speaker 8:03
Skiing was the one time it was at Breckenridge
Brian Schoenborn 8:07
and my buddy who is like his big time snowboarder, and his, his brother law’s a professional snowboarder and snowboard instructor and ship,
Unknown Speaker 8:15
and he’s a guru. So he had some fucking skis, and he takes me down the blues first. I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing, dude.
Unknown Speaker 8:22
It was a
Unknown Speaker 8:24
it was it was intimidating. Let’s put it that way. I mean, I did it. I don’t
Richard Brion 8:27
know about you. But that’s sort of how I learned how to swim. It was just fucking hit. Yeah, here’s here’s a lake just you’re getting tossed out of the boat. We’ll figure it out or you don’t I mean, sometimes especially the warm things. Sometimes it
Brian Schoenborn 8:40
doesn’t work out so well. 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,
Unknown Speaker 8:47
so like, I’m like crouching with my ass is almost touching.
Unknown Speaker 8:52
still moving forward.
Unknown Speaker 8:55
already moving. I’m not even standing.
Brian Schoenborn 8:58
I was going down the hill here. And alike 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 bolt 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.
Unknown Speaker 9:16
No, hold on that. That’s awesome. People are looking at me. from above, they’re going, 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.
Richard Brion 9:33
That’s That’s hilarious. But now 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.
Unknown Speaker 9:55
It
Brian Schoenborn 9:57
was 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 really then again he’s a former Marine base yeah his former Marine mountain goat and spend time in interact and you 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 like yeah, crazy, dude. 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 their quads. Oh for sure. Mines me 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 Yosef. He’s in Hong Kong right now. But he’s, he’s, uh, yeah, he actually hike 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. 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 to go to you get too far out. 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 a log 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 a backpack 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 bridge. Just to get to the wall, dude.
Richard Brion 12:32
Yeah, I mean, you’d have to be based on where they are. Geographically where it is, right? There is a mountain range and between Mongolia and China, so I mean,
Unknown Speaker 12:41
that’s why they built the wall to keep the goddamn Koreans out.
Richard Brion 12:44
Yeah. And they worked for a long time. But they figured it out.
Unknown Speaker 12:51
They did.
Unknown Speaker 12:55
Cons. Exactly.
Brian Schoenborn 12:57
Well, I think they built it to keep the cons out. Yeah I’m pretty sure changes and all the you know, I think Kublai Khan might have might have
Richard Brion 13:04
figured it out but 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
Richard Brion 13:22
people Oh, yeah, right. I mean, every restored in the last like 30 years it’s all like new looking brick and shit like that. But just like it’s like easy to get to take good photos. Right?
Brian Schoenborn 13:32
So like, like in, in Chinese and Chinese slang. This they ran Shang ran high, which means people mountain people see 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,
Richard Brion 13:48
all day, every day. Yeah. So it’s pretty much that way all day every day.
Brian Schoenborn 13:54
Tokyo people have this sense of common courtesy.
Richard Brion 13:58
Oh, of course. So it’s a little bit different. I mean, there’s just
Brian Schoenborn 14:02
people everywhere. 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
Richard Brion 14:10
stuff like that. Yeah, but there’s not a culture on the planet that doesn’t, of course.
Brian Schoenborn 14:14
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.
Brian Schoenborn 14:30
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. Just need to be like out in the middle of nowhere, like Like, for example, I like I really enjoy stand up paddleboarding.
Brian Schoenborn 15:05
And I like, 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. Yeah,
Richard Brion 15:16
you know, it can be that simple. Yeah. 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
Richard Brion 15:28
it can be anything for some people.
Richard Brion 15:31
I mean, I’ve got a friend that doesn’t music goes out to his garage, and it basically changes his life for a while. Yeah. Until the people creep back. Yeah, exactly.
Brian Schoenborn 15:41
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,
Richard Brion 16:00
More so the Blackwater days in the post military contractor days, a lot more trampling around in the mountains, places like Afghanistan, which oddly enough in 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 New Mexico 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 cool to bog room kind of thing. And then you go up into the Taos mountains in New Mexico and that’s like heading up towards the salon pass of Afghanistan. Looks pretty much the same. Probably a good reason that jarhead the movie was filmed actually in Albuquerque, was it? 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 shot I want to do something like I was getting a little bit of love. You see it’s river,
Brian Schoenborn 16:55
turning red. That’s
Richard Brion 16:56
when you know that you’re saying too much, but I’m saying too much.
Unknown Speaker 17:03
Pack it up.
Richard Brion 17:05
Let’s be 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, his 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 us he’ll stop. 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 or snow and then you kind of can’t delete you kind of can’t 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 yes i other
Brian Schoenborn 18:15
Yeah, 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. It’s interesting, like I learned it from 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 phases and I’m like, wait a minute, how did you do that? Yeah, you know, I go, you know, know how to do it.
Brian Schoenborn 18:42
I am. 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? Yeah, 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, tiny you know, minority minority village person, that sort of thing. And she wore these like, these sandals these cheap as plastic sandals with just that wide band that goes 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 but like no no beaten path, right like we’re going up and down these Himalayan the foothills right yeah, 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. Exactly.
Richard Brion 19:53
That reminds me I one time in
Richard Brion 19:57
in Thailand, you know they they’ve got the little movie. Thai boxers Oh sure. Yeah, I 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 knew. Yeah, the funniest ones are when they’re like, 1415 year old kids think that it’s they think that Oh, I’m a big bad marine that the Marine Corps trained me and then scrawny Yeah, within seconds they get their ass whooped
Unknown Speaker 20:22
by this little four foot tall
Richard Brion 20:25
85 pound Thai kid that yeah, it’s tough as nails but Spoken like a true marine I got taken upon myself to keep up with right
Brian Schoenborn 20:35
it’s a point of pride man. That’s how we
Richard Brion 20:39
view the proud All right.
Richard Brion 20:42
Well, unfortunately isn’t it isn’t an old biblical proverb that says pride cometh before the fall
Unknown Speaker 20:48
there it is.
Unknown Speaker 20:53
Spoken like a true squared.
Richard Brion 20:57
We Yeah, we some of us, we try to we Try to finesse it a little bit rather than brute force every grace fall gracefully.
Brian Schoenborn 21:04
Yes. 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 Yeah.
Richard Brion 21:10
So I was doing I was
Brian Schoenborn 21:12
like, What timeframe was this?
Richard Brion 21:14
So this is like, when was that? It was like 2004 or five ish. Okay, so that’s likely the heat of Afghanistan. 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 cool and some of the other places Bodrum and whatnot. Even parts of manga hora and whatnot. It kind of settled down to kind of an equilibrium for quite some time. We were able to go was this before or after they put Karzai in power. This was during cars, cars, cars I’ve been in for a couple of years. By this point, I encourage at least or at least a year. I’m just trying to refine 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.
Brian Schoenborn 22:07
Yeah, for reasons out of my control.
Brian Schoenborn 22:11
But, you know, my unit was a first coat rack, right? Yeah, but it was Afghanistan first so those 911 Afghanistan and then for whatever reason, they said, Hey, we gotta go. Just bullshit. But that’s all another thing.
Richard Brion 22:23
But so first Marines.
Brian Schoenborn 22:24
My my unit was 3131 Third Battalion first Marines. We were IMF. We fought in Fallujah.
Richard Brion 22:31
Yeah. My first battle and Felicia, my buddy. That’s a border patrol. He was in Afghanistan at the time before I met him. He was active duty marine for three one. No shit. Yeah, he was a company. He was in 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 boys. So I was weapons company. Yeah, but it was like Lima, India and kilo. I don’t
Richard Brion 22:57
I would have done what I would have to ask him. But
Brian Schoenborn 23:00
what’s the 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 11. Yet he was our 311. He was he was the sergeant for his platoon. The actual arm 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 everyone and the interesting story was we were in the same place basically at the same time didn’t know each other yet. So was with Blackwater. We were in
Brian Schoenborn 23:35
boot camp together. That’s weird.
Richard Brion 23:38
Younger Yeah, I think he’s younger but um, so he he’s closer.
Richard Brion 23:45
But yeah, so anyway, so
Brian Schoenborn 23:46
three one didn’t we were not in Afghanistan. The unit that went to Afghanistan before like the first ones in was one five
Richard Brion 23:54
Yeah, first battalion hadn’t I had him backwards. They were also saying it was one five or x three one no one five was Afghanistan.
Brian Schoenborn 24:00
They were also based in Camp Pendleton.
Brian Schoenborn 24:03
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.
Brian Schoenborn 24:18
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 find the interesting thing was is so during the whole Lone Survivor incident, I was in cool. With Blackwater and a bunch of the Blackwater team were were former seals that were actually good friends with a lot of those guys so shit. So when I went down twice, we actually were planning, sending taking a helicopter down and angle heart and getting out towards that area and jumping into the recovery mission until there was a and 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. So, so my buddy, because helicopters and air support was off limits out 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 and the other one making a phone call. And that photo made sort of a fortune and it was also made a Marine Corps coin and my buddies that started is one of those two guys that are memorialized in that coin. That’s crazy. And he ended up coming contractor working with me in Blackwater in Japan, then we went to Iraq together with another contract and come so
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 black Water is in terms of you can understand. He’s a fucking mercenary. Right? I mean paid, you know you’re for higher security services in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. That song is that accurate?
Richard Brion 26:15
Yeah, pretty much.
Unknown Speaker 26:16
It was like no whatever, you know, it’s always work.
Richard Brion 26:20
Well, I mean it. So it’s a perspective thing, of course so I sit down and I watched the show the Deadliest Catch from time to time you know, the craziest crab fisherman and I think that is the craziest fucking job but that also pays well,
Unknown Speaker 26:33
well, 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 good chunk of those guys would think that what I was doing back in the day, and 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 call the 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. 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 sure. 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. I mean, even when they’re even when there’s weather predictions and weather forecasts. I mean,
Unknown Speaker 27:50
weathermen are never right.
Richard Brion 27:51
Yeah, especially in these places, right. So, I mean, you were in in China to the South China Sea. That was all the time. 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 cool, you know, Nanga har slung up there in Iraq. How was mostly I was in Baghdad proper, but then we were in dnn, 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.
Richard Brion 28:36
So yeah, so it was a camp, or that camp echo in de wynia. So this camp, when we first when
Richard Brion 28:48
di W.
Richard Brion 28:51
A and how there Yeah, there it is, right there doing Iraq. So it’s a couple hours south post information on this. What do we do when we post The show but yeah look 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 than in Jeff province. But this thing was so small. I mean, it was literally probably the size of a small school compound the camp or the the entire camp wow in the in this town yeah and so they had this tire factory in town and whatnot and so it was first last place you would expect Yeah, I know Terry encampment to be Yeah, it was kind of good shit. But it was kind of a key point for the new Jeff 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 the Spaniards out there but you kind of you lost it. You got overrun. And it’s because the city Yeah, 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. 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 and 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 the Polish went back out, they kind of held it and then they got drawn back to the base. So do you and it was probably the dodgiest place I was it was we were getting rocketed pretty much every night. One of the G’s right or 1155 cabooses I’m not familiar with 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
Brian Schoenborn 31:24
you know 155 millimeter their mortars are no joke I know some I remember I had some mortar men in my cap platoon.
Richard Brion 31:30
Yeah, and those guys are pretty I mean rules of engagement. This we’re 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 rock it everything back. Yeah. Which is effective in certain circumstances, but at the same time, spray and pray 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 3.3 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 horn, former French Foreign Legion, some British special boat guys, especially our guys on the team. Couple of Army Greenie being least a special boat and special area talking like Special Forces. Yeah,
Brian Schoenborn 32:51
so the bass player you’re a Motley Crue badass motherfuckers basically
Richard Brion 32:56
Yes. So the so the British they have their SS in there. SPS, so their Special Air Service and their special boats, which is kind of basically the SS 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. Okay, and then we had some, also some roaming 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 David said,
Brian Schoenborn 33:36
because 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 the army military police unit was. So every every evening the rock had their hands full. Oh, they definitely did. But every every evening, the Rockets always came in right around the same time. Everybody else has all hunker down and play. 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 as these bombs. 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 rock it 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 bullshit and laughing and just waiting for them. And some of those those army military police guys thought we were batshit crazy. Core and
Richard Brion 35:03
and maybe we were but like I said that the those guys that go pick up crap fish and jobs in Alaska they’re crazier than me
Brian Schoenborn 35:10
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 how dude. But what you realize that if you’re with there was somebody if you’re there with somebody else
Brian Schoenborn 35:32
and you can sit there and bullshit about stuff while while this is all happening? Yes, it’s a
Richard Brion 35:38
completely different thing, dude. I mean it is the manageable. 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, you’re allowed to go off base and like, yeah. So as Blackwater we lived in our own country. lb NLA we also we were running, we are help training counternarcotics police for the government, 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 I sat forces, we’re 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,
Brian Schoenborn 36:43
crypto, meaning encrypted messaging, yeah,
Richard Brion 36:46
encrypted radio, you know, the big old fat, you see,
Brian Schoenborn 36:51
but nobody can intercept it.
Richard Brion 36:52
Yeah, exactly. So basically, you see him on any of those military movies. You know, the guy standing back there with the little what looks like antich headset phone when
Brian Schoenborn 37:05
you look at before you stick it when you put a little yeah we put the antenna on you got to look
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 and kaboodle no joke from the Intercontinental Hotel Group it’s still there. As of 2018 when I was there last thinkable 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 that a swimming pool you could take in there. They even had a lake resort in just outside a couple that had a golf course that we could go on. It’s
Brian Schoenborn 37:51
crazy. So Simon so it sounds like you were pretty like ingrained into the couple and the enemy Leo 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 38:09
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 calm. 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 should be 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 super they could have been a contract or they could have been active duty Special Forces. There was really no way to tell unless you got into the weeds with it. So everybody wore beards, but as far 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 amateur area. Yeah.
Brian Schoenborn 39:13
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 more so Afghans and then I my job was intelligence. So I was a lot more interacting with them. But there’s a famous street and Koval. 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 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. There was a barber that I would go in that would use all the old school hand tools, no power to do trims. Staff 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 are thinking about taking advantage of the situation from doing so because kids were off limits. Yeah. 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 in 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 but you pay Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 41:04
I always want to hear the ones that you can’t talk about. Yeah,
Richard Brion 41:06
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 call me we had this big stick and you’d be like I’d be your bodyguard all in English. couple couple of few bucks in English you tell you be the bodyguard. And then he would have liked to have 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. Okay, so basically you had four corners, 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. 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 were kind of the end sometimes even with some of the adults in the area, they even had a little, like playful rules 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
Richard Brion 42:32
entrepreneur, exactly. very entrepreneurial on how they were doing it. And then cool, 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 and
Brian Schoenborn 43:17
you’re giving the kids food another Yeah. So they were so they’re, they’re getting benefits for their services.
Richard Brion 43:22
Yeah. And I mean, we’ve had
Richard Brion 43:26
a lot of the guys thought I was crazy, but a little
Richard Brion 43:31
bit, 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 some
Unknown Speaker 43:54
sugarcane juice. Yeah.
Richard Brion 43:57
Yeah, that’s what I didn’t realize it sugar cane. Something that literally
Brian Schoenborn 44:02
just came liquid right yeah
Richard Brion 44:03
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 maybe either case it was just it was kind of dirty looking card 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 not just a glass well yeah and it’s just a glass that you drink it there 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 non you know, you go on everywhere else but the Afghan non to me is some of the best I’ve ever had. So
Brian Schoenborn 44:53
like how is it different from like Indian non so none and a flatbread? Yeah For that you would like take and like scoop. So recent 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 loving 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, it’s not like
Brian Schoenborn 45:30
it’s not like a
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 under his arm after all day. That’s what I’m talking about. Now. That’s the real shit.
Brian Schoenborn 45:46
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
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 vet, 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, I’m slim Dude, you’re lengthy 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 yourself your legal supplements and your protein shakes and your nitrus oxide and lifted the gym. You know, do all the Bro things, of course. Yeah, and you know, in an area like that, and I mean, we had a lot to do, but there’s still times when there’s downtime, right? Sure. Between stuff scene workout and you make sure that you’re fit to do Yeah, right. I mean, that’s, that’s me. 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 non and shy and General ossifies. Yeah. And so it was goat meatballs and lamb meatballs. 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 office 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 H a cc H A CP or whatever, yet the hassle? 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 on 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. I have no idea what that means but it doesn’t sound so banana bags are. There are basically an IV fluid bag and it’s very bright yellow banana and color almost. That’s why we call them banana but it’s basically hydration bag. Oh gosh. You know the team medics and stuff you get what too drunk you know from whatever and they would banana bag you and good way to, but I needed a banana back for like his way to get your head right. Yeah and it was pretty It was pretty gnarly. No,
Brian Schoenborn 49:09
it’s funny that you talk about the food poisoning thing right like like I was in Asia for almost four years. Yeah, right. I traveled through Southeast Asia. Fucking Beijing all over China, South Korea all over the place. Indonesia, Australia. Everywhere do not dive dive super deep. I get local free food. Oh, shit. I got food poisoning once in my four time in my four years there. American Russian American barbecue restaurant
Richard Brion 49:37
doesn’t surprise pork sandwich dude.
Brian Schoenborn 49:39
Yeah, 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.
Unknown Speaker 49:48
Yeah, just all night long.
Brian Schoenborn 49:50
dry heaving. It was fucking awful, dude. Well, no,
Richard Brion 49:55
and I’m like you I got and after that point, I dove in a rack. 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 with that sticky rice it’s like a nail finish like a male filling in it or whatever 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 Yeah,
Brian Schoenborn 50:27
they do that in China too. But
Richard Brion 50:29
yeah, they call it char
Brian Schoenborn 50:32
Yeah, it’s a Beijing dialect. I’m
Richard Brion 50:34
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 in 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 fan had no look at the cloud. So what they had a sunroof in the van we’re all riding in so I stood up to the sunroof, because of course I’m the tallest dude in the van. 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 you and everything and then also onee which for those that don’t know the Japanese word, so I favorite food. 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 honey island of Japan. It was awesome. So
Brian Schoenborn 52:01
I mean, so where were you in Japan? I mean, you were there for a while,
Richard Brion 52:05
right? Yeah, I was there for just shy of a year. Okay, so we were we were on the far north end of Han shoes. So um, she was was like so hot. She’s the main island in Tokyo and yes, so Tokyo is on
Brian Schoenborn 52:19
Japan like, yeah, primarily that island, right? Yes. AKA Of course.
Brian Schoenborn 52:25
heito in the north, right?
Richard Brion 52:26
Yes. So on to the main about Okinawa, which is right there. So right punch 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 so
Richard Brion 52:38
so bullet train, it was like two hours and 45 minutes by gold trains go on, like 200 miles a car. It’s like a 12 hour drive. Yeah. Okay. 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 almora. prefect would be more more precise. And we were in a little town called Gosha guara. And we had to stay in a Japanese hotel and let me tell you, I mean, this one nice hotel was
Brian Schoenborn 53:17
I’ve heard a few. I’ve heard about a few different types of Japanese.
Richard Brion 53:20
It wasn’t any of those. But it was. Well no, it was not a love hotel. And it was done. It was also not one of the not one of the space pod ones are all bad slides. I’ve slept
Unknown Speaker 53:31
in one of those. Yeah.
Brian Schoenborn 53:34
Bangkok I think
Richard Brion 53:35
Yeah. And
Richard Brion 53:38
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 I’ll do it.
Brian Schoenborn 53:56
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. Yeah, 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
Richard Brion 54:13
on there anyway. I mean,
Unknown Speaker 54:15
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 pug kinda like on a navy ship. Yeah.
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 day where he had a mental problems. Yeah. And they were gone through a drug study there was it was set in like the 70s. But the doctors and they show they had basically a drawer that was automated that slid out. They laid in it and it slid back in Yeah, Tokyo actually has some legit hotels that are sort of like That nomis but now this was but it was still tiny I probably it was probably was probably less than 100 square feet over a hotel room bathroom shower. You know whole nine yards like
Unknown Speaker 55:12
just the essentials. Yeah, just just enough space for the essentials. Yeah,
Richard Brion 55:16
so that’s where that we lived in that out of that hotel for like six and a half seven months. But yeah, when I local economy,
Brian Schoenborn 55:24
that your little cabin fever or something?
Richard Brion 55:27
Yeah, but I mean, it could be worse. I could be in a hooch in Iraq where exactly it’s basically just a shipping and small shipping container turned into a bedroom and then I had to walk to a shower block and then concrete two walls everywhere at least, at least the people in Japan were nice data that an American hardly bar and Gosha guara ball player. Yeah, they hadn’t really seen white people that frequently or foreigners of any kind for that matter up in that area for a long time, really. So they still had an American Harley ball. As with all these like American Harley bar fans in this, like remote area of Japan, I mean, it’s still city still urban. But I mean, it’s more like the difference between being in New York City and then being in like Charlotte and Charlotte, North Carolina, you know, still urban enough, but nothing like the urban density that you get out of like New York City or whatever. So it’s
Brian Schoenborn 56:25
like a third or fourth tier city or something like that.
Richard Brion 56:27
Yeah, I mean, it. It’s, it was probably I think, almora prefect almora. The city’s the largest Gosha guar and might have been the second largest non refactored maybe, but I mean, still all good time. I miss the food. The authentic food from Japan, for sure. Don’t get me wrong. I love lots of Asian food, lunch
Unknown Speaker 56:49
and time ruin sushi for me anywhere else.
Richard Brion 56:52
Yeah, there’s a couple places in Seattle and of course, Seattle’s awesome because we got the ports here in the city. Also
Brian Schoenborn 57:00
clubbing Japanese culture here. A lot of Japanese have moved to Seattle.
Richard Brion 57:04
And so the city of Tacoma, they have Sister, sister city that’s out of Japan. And though for those that don’t know, Tacoma is 30 miles south of Seattle, so they’ve got a sister city, there’s even a Japanese garden along the waterfront down in Tacoma that has an actual pagoda that’s down there and that you can rent out for events and stuff. So I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty cool. You walk down there, and they tell you about the sister cities, but so the food was amazing. The people are really nice. And it’s something that a lot of people don’t understand. Is there even very, and I know this is gonna cause some controversy, but what the hell Let’s wait and do it. Proper Japanese culture is some of the most politely racist people on the planet.
Brian Schoenborn 57:53
Oh, for sure. I mean, they put manners above everything, right?
Richard Brion 57:55
Yeah, when they’re learning in school and stuff. It̵
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