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Let's Go to Camp... David! · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, And this is stuff you
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: should know about Camp David.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: That's right, it's about Camp David.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: But we're going to quickly mention that we are going
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: on a cruise, everybody, Virgin Cruise. The voyage is the
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: big Apple to Bermuda. Yeah, and it is an adults
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: only cruise wherein you can cruise with us, hear our
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: live podcast here stuff they don't want you to know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: and some of our other colleagues live podcast and hang
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: out with us and do there's like other events on board.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: It's gonna be a lot of fun.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be a huge amount of fun. I
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: think you just go to Virgin Voyages dot com or
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: you search stuff at sea and it will take you
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: where you need to go to register for this cruise.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: That's October second to seventh.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: That is correct.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: And I'm already working on my tan and trying to
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: drop a couple of pounds.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: What else to make sure I'm seaworthy. That's about it.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Are you practicing shuffle board?
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Practicing shuffle board, uh and cards.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: How many hats will you be bringing?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: In all seriousness, I will definitely bring my smaller kind
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: of cool straw hat and probably my big, big sunshade
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: straw hat.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, good, and maybe maybe a baseball cap.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah, that big, that big floppy sunshade hat that
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: says do not disturb on it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, it says bikini inspector.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Federal bikini inspector.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. I couldn't remember what it was.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Oh man, oh man. Well, it's funny that you mentioned
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: federal anything, because we're talking about the federal government. And
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: this is the best segue we could come up with.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Camp Dave. It is this rustic retreat that the President
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: of the United States is able to use to get away,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: ride horses, spend Christmas, try to broke her peace in
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: the Middle East, you know, the usual stuff.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: I requisitioned this from I think this is Libya. Oh
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: it's got to be because of the title. Yep, the
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: sleep away camp for very serious grown ups. And I
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: really love what she came up with. And I love
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: this episode already because I am a person that is.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I don't know where it came from, but I am
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: really interested in operations and like like operations, like how
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: things operate. Like if I go to like circ to Sola,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I'm wowed by the thing or Broadway show, but half
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: of my brain is obsessed with how it all works.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Right, and how they do what they do.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: And now I feel like I really understand not only
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the history of Camp David, but kind of a little
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: behind the scenes of how it all goes down, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I just for some reason I love that stuff.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I know that about you. Although just now
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I thought you were talking about operations like swapping an
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: arm in a leg or something because that is interesting,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: or the game operation. Yeah, so, Chuck, these operations that
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: you're fascinated by take place in keddoctin Mountain Park. It's
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's in western Maryland, and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: we're not supposed to really get that much more specific,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: although if you really look on a map, I'm pretty
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: sure you could find Camp David. But at least initially
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: when the first president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took over, it
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: was meant to be like a top secret place. Yeah,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't always a presidential retreat. It started out
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I guess under FDR as a New Deal project.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Initially, that's right, in the nineteen thirties, we kind of
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: were able to look around at things like that dust
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: bowl and say, hey, we've done a pretty bad job
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: with a lot of our agricultural practices, and there's been
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: you know, haven't treated our land as well as we should.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: So the federal.
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  Speaker 3: Government said, let me, let's buy up some what they
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: call sub marginal lands around the country and see if
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: we can rehabilitate them, see if we can do other
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: stuff with them.
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  Speaker 1: And this was one of those areas.
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  Speaker 3: It was in nineteen thirty six when they purchased about
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: ten thousand acres in the Katotkin Mountains. It's about fifty
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  Speaker 3: five miles from DC, and the soil was pretty ruined there,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: just like I said, from bad agricultural practices and industrial
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: purposes over the years.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But it was in a nice area.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: It was like lovely countryside, lovely forest, you know, creeks
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: and streams and ponds and all kinds of like great
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: stuff to recreate around.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, as long as you didn't look too close at
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: the three eyed fishes and stuff like that, you're like,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: this place is amazing exactly. So the government took over.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: They renamed the area Keddocton Recreational Demonstration Area, which is
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: a great name. It almost like this early part of
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: it sounds almost soviet does. The Works Progress Administration and
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Civilian Conservation Corps built camps there. Some of the original
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: idea was that it was going to be a recreation
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: area for federal workers and their families. The only way
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it could have gotten more Soviet is if, like it
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: had used brutalist architecture.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which didn't really fit in those lovely green woods.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: No, But FDR he was like, that's great. I'm glad
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: you guys are doing that. I'm going to be out
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: here cruising on the presidential yacht, the USS Potomac, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: it was known as the Floating White House. There's another
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: one still today called the Sycamore that I think is
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: JFK's presidential yacht, you mean. And I looked into you
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: can rent it for events, and we were gonna have
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: our wedding on it, and oh wow, it holds like
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: a limited number of people and we could never get
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: the guest list down. So we're like, oh, we're just
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: going to go a lope.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good idea to a lope that is, thanks. Yeah,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: they don't have things like that anymore because by the
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: time the Second World War rolled around, they were like,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: maybe having all these important people like floating out in
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: the middle of the ocean isn't a great idea. And
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: FDR was looking also to get away to someplace that
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: was a little cooler in the summer, sure, because he
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: had bad sinus problems. And I don't think we mentioned
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: the name of this one particular camp inside this larger
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: area that would become Camp David was originally finished in
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: nineteen thirty eight. It was called Camp High Katatkin Hi
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Dash Katatkin. And so by the time FDR is like,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: all right, I can't be on that boat. I got
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to go somewhere that's good for my sinuses. He said,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: you know, let me see what do you got within
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: one hundred miles of DC. And in April nineteen forty
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: two they took him to Camp High Katakin and he's like, Eh,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: this seems okay, he.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Said, this is fine.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: What's funny about that is apparently it was also a
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: secret site around the same time for the OSS, the
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: predecessor of the CIA, for training spies in like close
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: quarter pistol combat. There was something called the House of Horrors.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: There's a cool little Atlas Obscure article about it, Wow,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: where you would go into this like haunted house and
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: they like instead of ghosts, they would pop up cardboard
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Nazis and scary sounds and conversation being played, and like
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the hallways were angled in weird ways, and it was dark,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: so it was very disorienting and you had to kill
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: every Nazi in the place or else they would kill
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you because you knew too much by that time.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Probably, that's right. So that's just a weird coincidence, or
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: is it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: So?
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  Speaker 3: The obviously the presidential yacht was was run by the Navy,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: and so they said, all right, why don't we just
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: let the navy run this new retreat since they're in
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: the sort of retreat business, even though it has nothing
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: to do with being on the water. And it was
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: launched at an installation called the Naval Support Facility Thermont
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: and Rmont is the name of the area.
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  Speaker 1: When they hatched the idea.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: For like Roosevelt to start going there, they would say,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: all right, well, we're going to place one hundred marines
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: there we're going to put up a security fence with
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: an alarm on it.
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  Speaker 1: And he said, we also got to change this name.
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  Speaker 3: No one knows what high Catatkin is and it's hard
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: to pronounce. So I read this book Lost Horizon by
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: James Hilton and he talked about the Himalayan utopia of
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Shangri La, and that sounds really cool. So let's rename
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: it Shangri La. And they said, well, you're the president,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: I guess we have to.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: They're like, we think that's terrible, but okay, yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently that book is where the like the name Shangri
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: La came from. It was like, super popular book. Have
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: you read it?
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  Speaker 1: I have not, neither.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't until I think nineteen forty two the
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: FDR started using the camp. Of course, he very frequently
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: used a wheelchair, so they basically made an eighty A
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: compliant before there was such a thing as ada. Yeah,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: and he was like, all right, I came up with
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Shangri La. Let's keep this role. I'm on going. I'm
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: going to call the presidential cabin the bears Den. And
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: everyone was like, you're president again, and they called it
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: the bears Den.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: They initially spent about close to nineteen grand fixing the
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: place up, and they had a little doghouse next door
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: for his dog, Falla, which is really cute, and so
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: he would go there and chill out at Shangri La.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: I can't wait till they change that name, by the way,
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: and also started the practice of what would become a
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: thing of hosting foreign leaders there and kind of like
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: you know, getting away from the rat race in DC.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Legend has it that he and instant Churchill planned I
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: don't know if it's legend. I think that part is fact.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Planned some of the D Day invasion from one of
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: the cabin porches there. Yeah, and like would sit around
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: and drink bourbon and smoke cigars, do a little fishing.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I think this is the legend. Apparently on one of
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: the trips, they were driving back to DC and they
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: made a stop at a restaurant in Thermont called the
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Cozy Restaurant because Churchill had heard of these jukeboxes and
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: he'd never seen a jukebox, So apparently they stopped there.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Churchill went in and got a beer and just marveled
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: at the jukebox.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, and the Cozy restaurant was around till twenty fourteen.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: It was legendary because I mean, if you were, you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: not quite of high enough status to actually stay at
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Camp David, you stayed in Thermont and you probably ate
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: at the Cozy restaurant. So it was around for years.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: You could see Churchill there, apparently you could.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Can you just see him like just standing over the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: jukebox me mesmriz.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Just like laughing, look at these things. It's flipping records.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: So you want to take a break and then come
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: back and talk about I don't know, Camp David.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Sure, let's do it.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: So FDR was there, it was like a camp. Camp
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: rustic keeps getting batted around as a word to describe
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Camp David, and today it's still used. But apparently back
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: in FDR's time, at the beginning of all this like
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: it was, it was rustic. And then when FDR died
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: in nineteen forty five, Harry Truman, whose taste did not
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: run to the rustic. Instead, he liked to hang out
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: at the little White House on Key West that, you know,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: rather than in the woods outside of DC. Yeah, he's
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: still kind of he was a good custodian of it.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I guess he ordered like the brush to be cleared back,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: and he ordered heating a heating system to be put
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: in so it could be used year round. Before it
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: had only been used during the nice, nice months out
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: of the year, but he didn't use it very much.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Now, you know, it seems reading through the history that.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: How you view Camp David if you are president, kind
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: of goes back to like what you're into, sure, and
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: the people that enjoyed it seemed like people that were like, yeah,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I love going, like people that are probably into like
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: being in the woods and that kind of scene. And
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: if you're not into that kind of scene, like you
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: said Truman, I guess he was a beach guy because
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: he like Key West. Yeah, and our current president very
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: famously kind of hates Camp David because we see his
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: taste and it's certainly not rustic cabin in the woods
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: kind of thing. And you've seen other presidents that go
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: there and like seem like they have a really really
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: great time. Oh yeah, and we're going to get into
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: some of that, but it's just interesting, like it's sort
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: of foisted upon you as president.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: It's like, all right, here's your.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Camp, and half of them seem they're like, I'm not
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: really into this kind of thing.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a significant number just keep their mouth
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: shut about it but don't really enjoy it very much.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: But yes, it is expected of you to visit Camp
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: David at some point in time during your presidency. But yeah,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: some of them definitely appreciated it more than others. Ike Eisenhower,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Dwight D. Eisenhower. When he took over in nineteen fifty three,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: he was like, this is a needless luxury. Let's get
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: rid of it.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he seemed like he didn't maybe love it. But
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: his Attorney General, Herbert brownwell, he went there for an inspection,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: and he's a guy who loves that kind of thing.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: He loved it, and he came back and he sent
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: sort of a joke that seems like it was like,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: but I'm kind of serious a petition for executive clemency.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: And so Eisenhower's like, all right, fine, we'll keep Camp David.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: We should mention that it's a part of a almost
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: fifty nine hundred acre area that Katotkin Mountain Park, but
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: it's only about one hundred and fifty acres of that.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Lyvia found other and I did too, some other sizes
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: potentially for the size of Camp David, like one forty three,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: one eighty one, twenty five, two hundred. She said it
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: was oddly inconsistent, But I have a feeling that may
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: just be part of the sort of subterfuge of.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Not given away too much. Sure, sure, maybe maybe.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Not, but you know, it's somewhere between let's say, one
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: hundred and forty and two hundred acres.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: All right, I'll go along with that.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: All right, you're in for that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Of you referenced that Eisenhower relented and didn't get rid
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: of what was still called Shangri Lat at the time. Yeah,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: he said that the name shan Law was quote just
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: a little fancy for a Kansas farm boy. So he
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: renamed it Camp David. And we can stop saying Shangri
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: La now, chuck. Yeah, And he named it Camp David
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: after his five year old grandson, whose scholars now realize
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: was the one calling the shots during the Eisenhower administration.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Interesting, that's very funny, by the way, But interestingly, that guy,
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: the grandson, David, now runs the Institute for Public Service
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: at University of Pennsylvania School for Communications.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: And teaches a course called Communication and the presidency. So
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: that's kind of cool.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: And I bet you at the first day of class
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: he was like, yes, I'm that David.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: I'm that David guy.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: One other thing about Eisenhower the president ike he was
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: the one that warned the country in his farewell address
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: about the growing threat of a military industrial complex. He
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: was actually a pretty sharp dude who had the shortage
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: the country heart.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I mean he was sharp enough to not wanted to
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: drive there the fifty five miles because he had a
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: helicopter pad built on the site. So now it's just
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: a half an hour to get there on I guess
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Marine one.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: And he said, we should also have some more fun
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: stuff to do here. So let's put in a screening room,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: a little movie theater, Let's put in a bowling alley.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Let's put in a golf course. And they're like, we
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: can't put a whole golf course. He was like, just
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: one hole. And they said, sure, we'll put in a
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: golf hole. It'll have some different tea boxes to give
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: it a little variation. And he said, well, while I'm
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: naming renaming things this presidential cabin I don't like Bearsden,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I have a feeling you didn't like FDR, and he
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: changed it to Aspen in honor of Colorado, where his wife,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Mami grew up. And then that started the tradition of
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: naming all the camps cabins after trees.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, which still goes on today. It's a long standing tradition. Yeah,
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: it goes back to the fifty apparently. One of the
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: other things that I don't know if Eisenhower ordered it
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: or if they were just like this needs to happen,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: there was a construction of a bomb shelter in case
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: of nuclear war, because again this is the fifties and
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: the Cold War was really heating up. I guess it
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: could accommodate fifty presidential employees. I saw as much as
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty defense staffers if a nuclear war
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: broke out and it was a bomb shelters. Under selling it,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: it was a called the Presidential Relocation SPOT. I don't
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: remember the last word, but spot will do where you
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: could run the country like out of like underground essentially,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: And it's still there today. And we'll talk a little
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: bit more about it later. But one of the things
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: that I found interesting is that when Richard Nixon came along.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: He ordered a heated swimming pool to be built right
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: next to the presidential cabin and I guess the only
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: place to put it was whit smack dab on top
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: of the bomb shelter. Oh and it costs like two
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: hundred and sixty grand in early nineteen seventies money to
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: reinforce the bomb shelter, so the pool be put on
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: top of it. That's just so Nixon.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's kind of cool though. It's a cool
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: looking pool. It's like a little figure eight, and you know,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: as we'll learn. I guess we're gonna learn it right now.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: There aren't a ton of pictures of Camp David, Like
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: it's I wouldn't say it's veiled in secrecy, but they
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: don't put a ton of stuff out there. Like the
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: press has never really been allowed there. It's like a
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: true retreat. So the only pictures that have ever been
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: put out are like when an administration and it's like
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Obama's like, hey, put out this picture of me doing
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: a water gun fight at the pool with my daughters
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: because because it's super cool, I know, look awesome.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was looking over the photographer's shoulders as they
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: were skinning through him. He's like that one, that one
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: ill looked pretty cool.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, He's like, can you do something about my elevens
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and my crow's feet?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: He said, you need disport.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: So Nixon put in the swimming pool. And then he
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: also is responsible for building the Laurel Lodge, which is
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: the biggest building there. It's where a lot of the
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: meetings are held, a lot of the bigger dinners are there.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: And it replaced the previous Laurel Lodge, which is smaller, obviously,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: and that one was renamed Holly the Holly Lodge. And
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: then Reagan came along as a as a religious guy.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: He's like, we need a chapel here, we need a
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: non denominational chapel. Really, well, what really did he ask
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: for that or that they needed one?
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: You're not going to say it, like Ronald Reagan.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Well, okay, that's all I'm gonna say, all right, kidding.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: So that he got that going, but it didn't actually
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: open until hw Bush's administration. It's called the Evergreen Chapel.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Previous to that, if you were a religious president like
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: George's own Jimmy Carter, very famously religious, he would hold
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Sunday services in Hickory Lodge.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently there was only one wedding, which kind of
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: surprised me, and that was name HW Bush's daughter Doro.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, you guys looked into it. You couldn't get
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the guest list down.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: We couldn't find the place.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was a problem.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: W George H. W Bush's son. He spent a lot
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: of time. I think both HW and W Bush both
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: spent Christmases at Camp David.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they loved it.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And as W's term was coming to an end,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: he had the basketball court refurbished for his successor, Barack Obama,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: because Barack Obama famously loved basketball.
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: Man.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: What a what a class act.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Right, well, at a different time, you know, it's crazy. Yeah,
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: all right, moving on, So we mentioned earlier, like you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: it's it's a retreat for sure, but it's also where
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: some very famous diplomatic meetings have taken place. And that
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: started in nineteen fifty nine when Ike, as Josh calls him,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: because you're so friendly to each other, he invited Kruse
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Chef there, Soviet premiere Kruse Chef to you know, do
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: what you do there, which is like get a little
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: more informal setting, get people out of the rat race
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: of DC and try and connect a little more personally.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: And that's always sort of been the reason why they
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: take people there. And so kru Cheff sort of like
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Churchill was just sat around and got at the at
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: the jukebox at the Cozy restaurant. Apparently kruse Chef was
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: just marveled at the bowling alley's automatic pin setter.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I call Khrushchef NICKI.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I think he just yeah, well, he says call me
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: nicky when he's bowling. But he just kept saying.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: He says on his bowling shirt, that's stitchy.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: He kept saying, knock knock Bin's down again. I would
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: like to see bin set very nice.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Did I send this to you? That little the little
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: extra stuff about the bomb shelter?
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: No, so well, on top of the pool or under
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: the pool, wouldn't On top of the poo would be
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: a very bad place for a box shelter.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: They they were building this when Khrushchef came and visited. Yeah,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: they didn't want doing that, so they built a deck over.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: It was temporary, but didn't look temporary. Over the big
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: hole that they'd excavated. They hit all the excavated dirt,
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: and there's pictures of Khrushchef on the deck waving, clearly
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: doesn't know what he's standing on top of.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: He said, there's someone here. Echo. Every time I speak.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: In Soviet Russia, Echo.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Here's you. Oh man. That's a good fact.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I like that, the echo thing, hearing you built.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: Just building the deck. It seems like something out of
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: like a Zany comedy or something.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: It totally does. I can see Peter Sellers like rushing around.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a strange love vibe too.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, though,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: some foreign dignitaries and leaders did not enjoy going to camp.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: David Harold McMillan, who was Prime Minister of the UK
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: during Ike's term, he did not like going because apparently
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Ike would make you watch westerns during movie nights. Yeah,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: and McMillan, can I also call Harold McMillan mac mac
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: called them inconceivably banal movie nights. And I can imagine that,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: like what, you gotta be kind of into westerns to
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: enjoy like a western anytime? You know?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, Emily didn't like westerns.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I like.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Like weird westerns, like the remake of True Grit or
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Dead Man or you know, stuff like that. But like
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: the classics, I've never gotten into. Although I do like
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: The Wild Bunch. That's a great movie.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: No geez yeah, Sam Peck and Paul, But.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I've never I don't think I've ever seen all of
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: the Magnificent Seven. Like, I've just never really gotten into
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: good westerns, although I do love Sam Raimis The Quick
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: and the Dead too. See. I like weird westerns.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a name for that. It's not a visionist.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: It's weird's westerns.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's a weird different word. We'll just call
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it weird westerns. But I know what you mean. Like
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Australia puts out some cool westerns like that.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, like Nick Cave's one.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think you'd like Magnificent Seven by
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: the way. That's that's one that you probably would dig It.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Seems like you'd be right. Maybe I just need to
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: give it another shot.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's one. After the Bay of Pigs. JFK invited
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: would you call him jif he invited Ike back to
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: the camp to consult a little bit. I think, you know,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: he just trusted his foreign policy experience, experience. And there
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: was a very famous photograph taken on that trip. Ap
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: photographer Paul Vathis won a Pulitzer Prize in nineteen sixty
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: two for his picture Serious Steps. It's this great black
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: and white of JFK and Eisenhower kind of from the
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: rear walking up a wooded path.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: It's very cool.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Picture, right with JFK saying we are screwed and I
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: saying you are screwed.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: That's right, I'm not president.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Probably the most famous thing that happened at Camp David
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: was the Camp David Accords that was between Monacham Began,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: who was the Prime Minister of Israel at the time,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: and the president of Egypt at the time, Awar Sadat,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: and it was presided over by Jimmy Carter, and Carter
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: and his aides really did about the best job you
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: could possibly do in trying to get Israel and any
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Arab country in this case Egypt, to strike some sort
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: of peace agreement. And it's still like it's revered, especially
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: in the United States, as like this great success. But
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: if you look at it further down the down the pike.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: It didn't work out all that well, but still this
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: was about as good as you could expect. It's certainly
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: the best it's ever been done at camp day.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, at the time, it was remarkable to
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: even get those guys in the same room, much less
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: go to camp for almost two weeks. I think they're
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: there for thirteen days. And again, you know, the reason
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: they do this is to get away from the media,
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: to have some real privacy, to connect as humans.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little foots the end of the tables here.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: They watched movies together apparently on our sadat hiked the
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: trails each morning. Carter very purposefully didn't even use the
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: larger room. He went to that that initial meeting room,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: which was renamed Holly because he thought it was more
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: intimate and he loved it there. You know, Carter loved it,
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: but the guys found it kind of you know, they
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: were used to the wide open desert and so they
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: found it kind of dark and gloomy. But you know,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: one of the pluses of being isolated like that is
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: if things start going south, they just they can't run
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: and like jump in their car and be at the
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: airport in ten minutes.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the press isn't there to provoke hostility in
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: order to like get a great quote or to stir
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: things up for better, better press or whatever.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I also saw that Jimmy Carter watched Star Wars with
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: anwar sadat and that is not a joke.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's okay.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Watched at Camp David.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: That that's amazing.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: So Ronald Reagan, I think, aside from the Camp David accords,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I associate Camp David with Ronald Reagan more than anybody.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: He loved it, man.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: He loved going and playing cowboy when he was during
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: when he was president.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he loved it very famously, loved riding horses. Nancy
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: loved it. They would go there like a lot on
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: the weekends, like their little weekend retreat. Because again, it's
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: a thirty minute helicopter ride and all of a sudden,
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: you're at this, You're I think being away from the
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: press is a really big deal.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's a huge part of it.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just to go check out. So he would host
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: World Leaders there, He recorded his weekly radio addresses there.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: The Bushes loved it too, like you said, they spent
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Christmases there, both you know, father and son, and apparently
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: w used it for some post nine to eleven strategy
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: sessions and Obama liked it a lot too.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no word on what Biden did with it. He's
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: apparently being erased from history.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Well, Obama moved the G eight summit there.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: I think it was supposed to be in Chicago, and
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: you know, he gave the reasons that usually give was
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: to get away from everyone and kind of have a
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: more free flowing discussion. But other people are like, I
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: think you're probably also trying to avoid protesters, right.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Because if the press can't get there, I can tell
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: you protesters can't. Yeah.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: And I mentioned Donald Trump not really liking it very much.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I think in twenty seventeen he said it was quote
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: very rustic and then said, you know how long you'd
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: like it for about thirty minutes. So it's not his scene,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: and I think no one is surprised about that. But
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: he has used it, I think kind of when he
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: has to. I think last year he used it for
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: a retreat regarding Middle East strategy. So more Middle East
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: strategy taking place at Camp David.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, Chuck, I say that we take a second break
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: and when we come back, we're going to really get
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: into your favorite part how this place operates.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: I love it.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: All right, so we're back to talk about operations. I'm
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: so excited.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Its official name is the Naval Support Facility Thermont, obviously
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: still operated by the Navy, like I said, and most
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: of the work there are members of the Civil Engineer
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Corps who are known as the CBS. And if you're
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: Taylor in your station to Camp David, first of all, congratulations,
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: I imagine that's pretty awesome as an assignment. But it's
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: a thirty six month tour, so you're there for about
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: three years. And you may be a cook, or you
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: may be may be a hairdresser, or you may be
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: able to ride horses and teach people to ride horses,
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: or you may be a licensed lifeguard.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not a guard though. A guard guard though,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: that's the Marines, as we'll see.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: There are other organizations or other departments that handle different
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: parts of it. The public Works department they handle maintenance
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: of the building, the grounds, the electrical systems, the vehicles,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: anything that starts to break down. Public Works is probably
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: on top of it. The Operations department they handle arrivals
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: and departures of aircraft. That would include marine one. Chuck,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: that's aircraft too, that's right. They handle electronics, they handle firefighting, yeah, which.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Means to think about that.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: They're in charge of the VCRs and VCR fires there
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: at Camp David.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Oh man, you know that VCR has got some hours
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: log too, so it's a it's a fire waiting to happen.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: I think it's got a big trouble and little China
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: stuck in it right now.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I love that movie.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: That's so great. That might be my favorite movie. Man,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: that is such a good movie.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Oh it's classic.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: I keep trying to get Ruby to watch it and
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: she hasn't yet, but I know she's gonna love it.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: She will love it. Yep.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: It's good.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Supply department deals with finances, accommodations, and food service is
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: a big part of it there obviously, and that is
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: an extension of the Navy's Presidential Food Service Department. This
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: is the stuff I love, Like you never think about like, yeah,
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: somebody buys groceries for these meals for the White House
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: and elsewhere. But it's got to be like a rigorous
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: thing as far as the chain of command and like
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: as far as poisoning and stuff goes like, it's not
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: just somebody shopping for food. So they handle all that
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: stuff and all the catering and all the dining services.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: I've got something for you since you like how all
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: of this are. Oh yeah, I read about that when
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: they buy groceries. The first family pays for their own groceries.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Did you know that? Wow, everything else is essentially free.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: They have to pay for the food they eat, aside
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: from like state dinners and stuff like that. But the
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: family eats groceries that they pay for. They get a
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: monthly bill every month. And I think it was Michelle
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Obama who said that they learned the hard way that
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: you should ask how much different things that you're putting
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: on your grocery list costs, because oh yeah, you can
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: get sticker shock from the monthly bill.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I guess that's how Trump was well versed on
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: the price of eggs.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I guess so he.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: Probably went over that bill at the end of every
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: month and it was like, this is how much eggs are.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: I wonder if they jack the price is up, or
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: if they're fair or they get a discount or something.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: But I would like to know that. But yes, I'm
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: fascinated by that to somebody buying groceries in that situation.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I bet how it goes down is either
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: there it's a very specific like place that they shop,
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: or it's like just totally secret and no one has
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: any idea that it's that's what they're shopping for.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Good point. It could yeah, it could definitely be. Maybe
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: there's two. There's like a decoy shopper too, all right.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: They have a shirt on that says, you know, Presidential grocery.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: List, Federal Body Inspector.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: It's like when, uh, well, on that note, it's like
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: when Michael Keaton wore the FBI shirt in uh oh,
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: what was it?
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: No, I can't think of it out of sight.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Hmm. I don't remember that.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: The great Steven Soderberg movie with j Lo and George Clooney.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: I think I think he wore like an FBI T
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: shirt like while doing FBI raids and stuff.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know he was in that movie. I
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: haven't seen that one either.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: He's got oh boy out of side his guh rape
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: capital like that a great, great one.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: All right, I'll tick it out that in the Magnificent seven,
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: basically the same movie.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sure, yeah, Chuck.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I also said that if you were on a hitch
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: in the Navy assigned to Camp David, you probably weren't
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: a guard, and that's because the Marines guard it. Specifically
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: the Marines from the eighth and I Street Barracks, which
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: is a barracks in DC. They've pretty much from the
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: outset been responsible for guarding the camp.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: I think when it was first built in nineteen fifty seven,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: they only went there when the president was there. But
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: then Ike Josh's buddy said, you know what, we should
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: probably just have people there all the time guarding the place.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: And I think seventy one to seventy.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: Two is when the Marine's forum Marine Security Company as
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: a permanent company, and I think they are on about
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: an eighteen month tour when they're stationed.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: There, right, And everyone there has Yankee White Clearance, which
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: is very frequently referred to as a security clearance level.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: It's not it's a specific type of background check. I
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: think it's the deepest background check that they perform, and
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: everyone who works near the president has that kind of
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: background check done.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it involves a surgical glove, if you know what
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: There was one other thing too that Livia pointed out
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: that I hadn't thought about, But I'm sure it's quite
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: true for the people who just work there, Like during
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: times when the president's not there, there's probably not that
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: much to do, and then all of a sudden, there's
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: everything in the world to do right now when these
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: like the president does come and there's like a summit
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: or something like that.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean they're feeding themselves in the staff,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: and they're keeping up with the grounds and all that,
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: keeping the grass mode and everything clean. Sure, but yeah,
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: when the dignitaries come around and the president comes around,
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: it's I imagine a high stress situation because a lot
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: of these people that come, like we mentioned with you know,
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: these leaders in the Middle East are coming to a
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: completely different scene that they're used to, and a lot
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: of them are have very pacific religious accommodations that need
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: to be made and meal accommodations that need to be made,
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: whether it's like kosher food or like getting alcohol removed
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: from a cabin or putting prayer rugs in the proper spot.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a lot of hoops.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: You got to jump through to make sure everyone feels
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: good about being there, and also like that the accommodations
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: are kind of on par with one another, and like
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: got he got the better room, right, Well, you don't
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: want that happening.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, some of the cabins are nicer. There's obviously
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: ones that are closer to Aspen, the presidential cabin than others.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: So figuring out who stays where is like a huge,
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: hugely important part of all this. I mean, like we're
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: talking about some of the most fragile egos in the
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: entire world.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: Plus, I mean, if you're a foreign leader, you want
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: to be close to the president's cabin so you don't
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: have to go far for the middle of the night
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: sneak out, makeout, sessh.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: It's right, skinny dipping in the pond behind Aspin, that's right.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: So if you are a hiker in this area, you
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: can actually get accidentally close to Camp David. And the
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: way that you will find out that you accidentally got
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: close to Camp David is because a marine's going to
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: suddenly emerge from the woods until you to turn around.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Right now, It's like rao pretty much.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, hiding at the ground as a pile of leaves, right, yeah.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Or like he's covered in mud and he suddenly opens
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: his eyes.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Oh god, I remember that one. That was a good one.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: So yes. And the reason why you could accidentally stumble
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: into this chuck is because intentionally there's no sign in
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: saying like welcome to Camp David or stay away from
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Camp David. Like it's still meant to be semi secret.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: And it's those marines on patrol that are essentially the
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: first line of defense perimeter wise.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, you know you're getting close if you're on
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: your lovely hike and you see a sign that maybe
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: says no photography out here in the middle of the woods,
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: no loitering, and then you're like, oh, I bet you
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: I'm getting close to Camp David. And then you know,
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: the eye and the mud comes out, and you know
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: you're done for.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Also, if you're a plane and you get too close,
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: you're probably going to have a fighter jet suddenly come
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: out of nowhere and say, hey, follow me to Reggan
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: National Airport.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: I think airspace is restricted to five thousand feet above
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: sea level and at three mile zone when the president
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: isn't there. When the president is there, it's ten miles.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: And what else we got, Well, should we talk just
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: a little bit of about some of the lodgings.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Sure, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Well, there's about twenty cabins and obviously other buildings. You
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: got that presidential cabin, which is four bedroom with a
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: kitchen and an office in a patio. And that swimming
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: pool is right there. So if you see that picture
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: of Obama playing with his kids at the pool, the
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: cabin in the background that is the one.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: That's Aspen Baby the former bears Dan. Yep, there's Laul Lodge.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: We talked about that. It's a huge conference rooms, dining room,
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: all it's like the official it's the most official, probably
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: of all the congregational areas. Right Hickory Lodge. When you
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: want to blow off some steam and just watch the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: pin setters in action, that's where you're going to hang out.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: There's also a bar there so you can.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Get soused, and maybe a hookah pipe.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Sure. Oh yeah, there's definitely a hukah lounge and a
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: kava bar as well. There's a gift shop in Hickory
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Large Lodge. Like do they actually charge foreign leaders for
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: like a postcard or something, and are the foreign leaders
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: buying a postcard at Camp David.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: Oh, well, I know that Kruschef very famously bought a
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: shot class Camp David shot class and a little license
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: plate with he couldn't find his name, but.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: He just found one that said Nick Yeah, and he's
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: like close.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: Enough, and on the shot class that said I got
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: nuked at Camp David.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I want to.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: Go there so bad it us did see a picture
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: of the actual Camp David's sign, and it looks like
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: a like, you know, teenager like Camp in the Woods
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: camp sign.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: It's awesome, right, Like it's yeah, I can imagine exactly
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: what it looks like. Yeah, it's kind of chiseled in
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: the yellow lions.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: That's the one.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Uh what else you got, horseshoes, skeet shooting. Oh, there's
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: the last thing I think we should put in there, Chuck,
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: is that they all ride golf carts there. Apparently it's
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: one of the funnest aspects of Camp David, which I
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: think says a lot about Camp David, is that there's
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: a fleet of golf carts and the president's is called
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: golf Cart one.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was George W.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Busher came up with that.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: That's right, and they've called it that ever since. Uh so,
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: you can, you know, shoot the skeet.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: I think there's a second swimming pool for the staff
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: and you play a little tennis if you want.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Have you ever shot skeet?
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, it's funny. I was driving from Chicago to
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Akron and I was passing by fields that my dad
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: used to take my sister and I out to to
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: shoot skeet.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Oh did you have one of the flingers?
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have only done it once and it was
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: at a skeet shooting facility in Wine Country in California.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: It's funn and I was. I loved it and.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I was pretty good at it.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I had never shot shotguns like that before,
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: and like I was hitting them Paul, Yeah, it was fun.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is fun. Like we go out with a
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: big old box of those clay pigeons and shoot them up.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I don't remember whether I was good or not, but
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: I mean I was probably ten years old holding a
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: twelve gage shotgun.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I loved it so much. I was like,
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: oh man, I found online. There's like a club south
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: of Atlanta, and I'm going to buy a shotgun and
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: like become a member. And of course I never did
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: any of that, but I am looking forward to going
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: again one day.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Somebody is Christmas coming up?
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: That's right?
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I think we're done with David for.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Now, right, Yeah, that's a good one.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Until you go there and you can report back.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: Well, since Chuck said that's right about going to Camp
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: David and reporting back, it's time, of course for listener mail.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: This one is a follow up on Roar.
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: Hey, guys, just wanted to write in about a brief
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: thing Josh said in the Roar episode. I'm summarizing, but
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: he mentioned at one point that a movie shouldn't have
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: the same writer director in star because they needed to
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: keep one another in check, sort of like the branches
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: of government. This really isn't a thing.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Josh Chuck was on the spot.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Came up with a good example in Clint Eastwood, but
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: I couldn't think of any others, so I will mention
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: Spike Lee, Woody, Allen, John Cassavettis mel Brooks, Kevin Costner,
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: a guy named Orson Wells. More modern examples include Ben Affleck,
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: Bradley Cooper and Billy Bob Thornton. Some even act as
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: editors and camera operators, sometimes under fake names for reasons
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: I think have to do with unions, but I'm not sure.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I hope young.
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: Filmmakers hear this, because encouraging students to write, direct, and
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: star and their own short films is a great way
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: to learn the craft and get things done.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: And that is Sylvi, not Sylvie Sylvie.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Thank you for setting me straight eight
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: ways till Sunday. If you want to be like Sylvie
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: and set me straight and give all sorts of great
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: examples to back your point up, that's fantastic. You can
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: put it in email and send it off to stuff
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 43:36
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• 43:40
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