WEBVTT - What was Camp X? 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:03.480 Josh, my friend. If you are a listener of ours 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:08.440 and you live in Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Austin, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Kansas, 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:10.440 or right here in Atlanta, you can come see us 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.640 on tour starting in August and finishing up in November. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.599 Is that right? Yeah, that's right man. It's our two 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:21.480 thousand and seventeen North America Monsters of Podcasting Tour. That's 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:23.640 what I like the sounds of that. Eddie van Halen 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.400 is opening, Yeah he is, but not really, no, not really. 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.840 But you can find out all the information and all 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.760 the deats at s y s K live dot com 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.800 are Squarespace Live touring home on the web, and we 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.560 hope to see everyone out there. Welcome to Stuff you 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:49.760 should know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:54.000 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:59.160 Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry Rolls. Stuff you should know the podcast. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.440 That's right, And Buddy, I am happy to be doing 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:08.800 another grabst article. Getting him back in the fold has 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:14.240 been a true boon for this organization. You so much so, Chuck. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.720 I think that we should see if Noel can whip 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:22.160 us up a little Grabster theme music to play when 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.440 we do a grab star article. What do you think? Yeah, okay, 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.440 well we'll see Grabsters in the metal maybe it can 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.480 be metal themed. Yeah, but Noel's into the mogue, so 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.080 he'll maybe he'll be a weird mashup of that. Yeah. 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.560 I'm pretty excited about this. And this is one, uh 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:39.760 for those of you don't know, we're talking about Ed Grabanowski, 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.080 one of our favorite writers here who hadn't been doing 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.360 a lot of writing for us, and we specifically petitioned 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.440 to get Ed right and again and not even just that. 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.960 Can we send Ed ideas specifically for this show that 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.200 we think are great because we know he will do 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.760 right by them. And this is one of those. Because 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.680 someone wrote in wish I had the email, but someone 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.920 wrote in suggesting camp X and I had never heard 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.520 of it the little research and I was like, oh man, 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.480 this is a grab Stoar article if I've ever heard one. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:10.600 I was gonna ask you where you where you heard 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.120 of this because I hadn't heard of it, either listener 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.800 mail or Facebook. It's pretty awesome whoever sent that that suggestion, 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.919 and hats off to you, thanks for it. So camp 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.399 X for those of you who haven't heard of it. Um, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.000 hopefully we're not the only ones, right, only ones who 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.160 haven't heard of it? Right? It's pretty little known I 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:35.040 think among general circles. I think enthusiasts and war uh. 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.919 Historians probably no more about it. Maybe re enactors, sure, 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.640 why not? Um? Well, aside from those people, if you 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:45.880 haven't heard of Camp X, don't feel bad because it 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.359 was meant to be that way. It was a secret camp. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.760 It was basically a camp to treat to train good 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:59.320 guy terrorists in World War Two. Good guy terrorists saboteurs, saboteur, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:05.640 I like that word. Propagandists, uh, Morse code operators, assassins, 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:10.000 basically the guys who went over as secret agents and 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:15.760 just messed up stuff in Europe and I believe Africa 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.079 as well, North Africa, uh for the Allies during World 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.720 War Two. Yeah. And if there's one thing I learned 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:27.600 through this article is, even though I'm a liberal peacenick, 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.639 if I would have been alive during that generation and 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:37.480 had to go to war, I would totally have wanted 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.240 to have been a sabbateur. Oh yeah, like all the 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.440 movies like The Great Escape and Victory and all these 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:48.120 great World War Two movies I watched growing up. I 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.120 was never about like the front line battles, and you 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.320 mean some of those movies are okay, But man, you 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.720 show me a movie about dude sneaking around the dead 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.880 of night to blow up a bridge, and I'm all 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:05.520 over that. Have you seen fox Fire, the Clint Eastwood 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:07.960 movie where he had to go steal a plane? Was 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.080 it Firefox or fox Fire? Fox Fire? Was it Firefox? 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.600 I think we're I think it was fox Fire and 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.960 we're just being misled by the web browser. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.640 I do too. I saw that it was a special plane, 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.680 wasn't it. Yeah, and he had to go steal it. Yeah, 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.000 and just bridge over the river quiet like I watched 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.800 all Dirty Dozen, all those movies that were about small 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:38.080 groups of soldiers infiltrating quietly and breaking havoc from the inside. Man, 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.880 I love that Big Red One. Oh yeah, that's my 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.520 first R rated movie, the guns and Avron. Yes, remember 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.400 poor Mark Hamil's testicles get blown off in Big Red 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:52.120 One by grenade. I thought you were gonna say Mark 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.200 Camil's port testicles. Anyway, they they they got blown off, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.280 and Lee Marvin was like, you don't need these anymore 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.400 and just like tosses them away. I remember, like I said, 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.120 it was my first R rated movie. I remember being 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.279 in the movie theater at Toco Hills here in Atlanta 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.600 and seeing those test skills being tossed down to him 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.760 and I was horrified. So anyway that got weird. Can't 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.080 camp it usually does. Camp X was a place where 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.919 those people and those movies that you love may have 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.600 been trained. It was quite literally a secret agent training 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.560 camp in World War Two, and like the kind where 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:31.240 you know, now you look back and you're like, yeah, 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.200 that sounds like something from a James Bond novel or 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.039 something like that. It actually is kind of the thing 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.400 that inspired later fiction like James Bond, Like this is 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.080 where it really happened. And it was in this little 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.479 place in the middle of nowhere along Lake Ontario uh 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:54.560 in Ontario, Canada, about thirty miles over the lake from 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.360 the United States. Should we get back in the way 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.560 back machine. Oh, we're gonna go to Camp X. Maybe 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.120 we'll keep your head down because they use live fire. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:13.040 All right, here we go, all right, here we are, 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.040 and the wars raging, but the United States is not 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:24.600 yet involved. Officially because um, well, because we were the 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:26.920 United States, we were kind of way over where we 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.360 where we sit and on positioned on the planet Earth, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.440 and all the fighting was going on over there, so 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:35.920 we were sort of isolated from that. And although President 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:40.600 Roosevelt was like, man, uh, we technically should be going 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.000 over there and helping out Britain battle the Nazis because 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.720 they're not good guys, and we should probably join up, 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.840 but there is pressure for us to remain over here 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.599 and not get involved just yet. Yeah. Well, there's a 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.719 huge isolationist movement that joined with the peace movement that 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.640 was basically like, no, we remember World War One and 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.839 how horrible that was. We need to stay out of this. 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:06.120 Let that be a European war. Did you know? Um, 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:12.080 there were actually elements from friendly countries. They're like Roald Dahl, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.440 the guy who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.320 Ian Flaming, the guy who went on to write, um, 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.120 the James Bond novels. They were working as agents for 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.120 the British government here in the US, working to kind 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:29.360 of propagandized against that isolationist movement to get the US 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.440 to enter the war and help Britain out. Yeah, and 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.440 in fact, you mentioned Bond earlier, we might as well 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.760 go ahead and say that there were rumors that Ian 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.560 flaming and did actually go to Campex to train, even 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:44.160 though those were I think completely unsubstantiated. Is that right. 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.920 He probably visited and said hi because he was friends 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.080 with one of the people in charge there, but he um, 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.320 and he definitely was in America at the time it 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.600 was operating. Um, So he probably went by there, but 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.040 he didn't train there. As far as anyone knows, the 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.160 World War two is going on, even though they didn't 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.440 call it that at the time. And um, which is 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.160 something that got right in the new Wonder One Woman movie. 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.400 By the way, man, that was one of the best 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.520 superhero movies I've seen in a long time. It was great. Yeah, 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:19.720 in pretty much every way. Yea, uh so, World War 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.040 two is raging. Roosevelts wants to get involved but can't 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.520 really officially do it, but he does know that Hey, 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:27.640 even though we're not officially involved, we probably need to 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.480 kind of get unofficially involved and at least start gathering 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.920 intelligence and start getting information going and kind of just 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:42.600 do our pre war due diligence I guess you could say, yeah, like, 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.760 at the very least, there are probably a lot of agents, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.040 and not just from friendly nations working in the United States, 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.680 so we should at least have an intelligence service that 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:57.120 can battle those guys, if not assist with the the war. Right. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.439 But that's a tough thing to get going from scratch, 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.679 as that points out. But there was a country, uh, 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:09.000 great Britain, who was very experienced in this field from 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.920 all their years um traveling the world is one way 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.160 you could say it, uh, but the friendliest way you 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:19.760 can say it, yeah, um, And they were really really 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.160 experienced with this, and they had great intelligence operations and 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:24.840 they said, you know what, we'll come in and we'll 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.640 we'll we'll help you out, we'll get you going. Yeah 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.400 they did. In the U said okay, but don't tell 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.160 anybody because we're neutral, right, and they went sure, sure. 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.200 So to facilitate this, I think at the time they 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.120 weren't necessarily sure where this was going, but they wanted 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.720 to form a partnership. So the British Security Coordination, which 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:49.480 was a an office of the Special Operations Executive, which 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.880 is itself a branch of m I six right. Um, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.360 they set up an office, a secret office at Rockefeller 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.920 Center in New York. How awesome is that it is? 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.880 Even on the plaque on the on the wall said 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.440 that it was British Passport Control, completely undercover British office 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.880 that was meant to act as the liaison between the 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:16.640 British secret operations and America's super secret operations. That was 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.760 so super secret it shouldn't have even existed. And that 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:24.480 office would later become Lauren Michael's office, right at least 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:28.200 in my mind, to you Lauren Michael's impression. Uh no, 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.480 that's pretty good. So you've got thirty Rock, you've got 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.080 an outpost set up. They were kind of getting things going, 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.040 um and it was headed up at that time. Did 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.920 you say William Stevenson, No not Yeah. He was a 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.600 Canadian who actually served Britain as a fighter pilot in 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.480 World War One, and he was the head of the 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.080 BSc at the time, and he is roundly considered to 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:54.480 have been the inspiration for James Bond. He was the 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.680 real deal. He drank martinis at lunch, yeah, and killed 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.280 people with his bare hands, and like he was. He 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.440 was the real deal. So he was the one who 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.120 set up originally Camp X and I think he had 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.800 his fingers and a lot of other pots. And Ian 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:14.280 Fleming actually did work directly beneath him, as did Rawl Dahl. 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.480 Well they have it, aren't you? Just fascinated by the 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.960 fact that the guy wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.800 was a a secret agent working in America in the authorities. 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.240 It's great, and you know what, he wrote those children's books, 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.880 but he also had a an entire bookshelf full of 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.880 kind of body raunchy adult books that he had written, right, 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.080 it was great. Everyone just thinks him as a kid's author, 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.480 but he was much much more. Well, it's like with 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.640 Anthony Burgess, who wrote a clockwork Orange also wrote children's 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:50.920 books too. Well, that's disturbing. So uh, Canada at this time, 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.320 um well, and it still is. His head points out 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.480 Commonwealth and are part of the Commonwealth, and they wanted 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.720 to support Britain, but they also wanted to go to 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.480 war as Canada and assert themselves and say, but we're Canada, 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.839 We're going as Canada. So so the Brits are like, alright, alright, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.760 everybody call him out, find whatever. Let's just let's just 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.600 chill out here, right. How about we set up a 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:21.000 secret camp in Canada to facilitate the training of Canadian 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.200 and American secret agents. How about that yet? And they 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.680 said how secret? And they said so secret that Prime 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.480 Minister Mackenzie King is not a way And then they 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.160 just dropped their tea and said you've got us and 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.800 his monocle popped out. So yeah that the Prime Minister 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.400 didn't even know about this thing until it was well underway, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.040 because I think they were afraid he would say no, right, yeah, 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.240 but do you know how mad I would be as 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.840 Prime minister finding out after the fact. I'd be like, guys, 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:58.120 come on, it's me Mackenzie. You know me, Big Mac. 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.120 Don't you know me? So? Uh, Stevenson said, let's pull 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.600 the trigger on this. They got a businessman from Vancouver 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.320 named A. J. Taylor I love this to buy two 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:12.000 hundred and sixty acres they called them a hundred and 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.280 five hectares in Canada and Canada by this land near 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.160 um Oshawa, Ontario, for twelve grand under the name the 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:26.080 Rural Realty Company Comma Ltd. Period, which is British for ink. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.680 Oh is it? Yeah? Okay, it means the same thing. Yeah, 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.560 that's what I figured so um this this land. It 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.200 was one of the reasons they was selected was it 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.040 was extremely remote. There were towns around it, but you 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.680 could barely consider them towns they were so small and 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.920 sparsely populated. Then this place was in the middle of 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.720 nowhere and near these middle of nowhere towns. But it 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.280 also had very terrain like there's a swamp. The part 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.240 that butted up against Lake Ontario was cliff like and 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.960 it actually kind of resembled some of the cliffs of 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:02.520 France that would later be scale during D Day. Um 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.080 there was open planes and fields, there were woods, basically 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:10.480 everything you would need to train somebody to do some 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.840 damage in Europe. Yeah, that was pretty simple. Far house, farmhouse, 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.559 there was some storage facilities, and then they added, of 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.600 course barracks, built some classrooms and eventually we'll we'll talk 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:26.000 about the radio station there. But they built a building 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.480 to house this radio equipment that would be pretty key 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:34.640 kiss one of four f M sound of Oshawa. All right, 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.760 So they get this place up and going right. And again, 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.640 the whole reason it's in Canada's because America is officially 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.360 neutral and it's not supposed to be training secret agents 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.920 under the guy under the guidance of the British that's 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.560 just not supposed to be happening. And irony of ironies 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.640 is that Camp X, which is not its official name. Um. 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.680 They had a number of different official names, which really 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.400 kind gets across just what a secret installation it was 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.520 that didn't have one official name. Um. But Camp X 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:12.880 opened on December six. The next day the Japanese attacked 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.280 Pearl Harbor Summer seventh, nineteen forty one, and right after 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.080 that the US entered the war. And this guy who 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.280 runs this website and has written a couple of books 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.680 on Camp X, I think it's the camp ex official 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.640 site dot com maybe. Um. He points out that had 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.960 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier, Camp X 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.200 never would have existed, because they would have just built 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.640 it in the US because the US centered the war, 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.480 and in fact, there were plenty of other secret agent 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:41.720 camps that were built in the US. But they kept 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.600 Camp X going not just to train Americans but also 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.400 to train Canadians as well. Yeah, and so that the people, um, 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.320 like you said, no one officially called it Camp X, 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.520 that that name came from the local Uh, what few 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.880 local people were near there, just because it was so mysterious. 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.280 They called it Camp up X, or they called it, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.680 quote the secret military camp. Right. The people that were 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.280 actually their training called it the farm because of kind 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.760 of you know, the fields and the orchards everywhere. Uh. 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:16.280 And the official designation wash STS one oh three Special 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.600 Training School one oh three, Right, and then the Royal 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.040 Canadian Mounted Police had their own name for it too, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.520 which was S two five dash one dash one man, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.600 This is getting good. The Canadian military called it Project 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:33.880 JA really yeah, interesting, Yeah, But don't you think that 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.320 kind of like gets across that this is so secret 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.960 that that no one really knew what to call it. 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.240 It shall not be named. It's like what's his face? 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.600 Love craft Ian camp? Right? Should we take a break? 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:48.640 I think so? All right, we'll be back and we'll 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.120 talk about what training was like, and i'll give you 0:16:51.160 --> 0:17:18.120 a hint rigorous all right, Chuck. So the training there, 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.480 if you went there, and there's actually a discrepancy here 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.600 between the Camp X site and what ED is saying. 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.919 What what the Camp X official site is saying is 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.080 that when you go there, you're basically going into what 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:37.840 amounts to basic secret agent training, and you are you're 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.919 trained in all these different ways, and then if you 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.800 don't wash out, which is supposedly a tremendous percentage of 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.359 a very high percentage of the people who went in 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.640 didn't make it through. But if you if you made 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.920 it through this training, which was between three and ten 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.400 weeks depending on who you ask UM, you would then 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.399 go on to Britain two different finishing schools depending on 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.320 what you excel at during this generalized basic secret agent training. 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:11.160 And then once you finished finishing school, the British Secrets 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:17.359 Services would um design a secret mission based exclusively for 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.920 you around your talents, and then drop you behind enemy 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:25.800 lines and you go do some crazy stuff. What's pretty amazing, right, Yeah, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.640 So like they would say, Chap, you've got the real 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.520 neck for the bang bang. So they would send them 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:36.800 to bridge blowing up school exactly, and then then you 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.280 go below up the bridge over the river Quai Man Alright. 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:45.760 So regardless, everyone went through some of the same basic 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.320 things or maybe everyone at Camp X. Maybe it's so 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.800 secret nobody knows for sure, that's kind of the way 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:56.040 it is. But everyone would learn things like um kind 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:58.160 of some basic I guess what I call it basic training, 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.840 but some basic things of sad but were one oh one, 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.760 like how to read a map in a foreign language, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.160 how to draw a map to lead someone to where 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.720 you need to be, um, how to take a guy 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.280 out with your bare hands, how to fire a gun 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.159 in the dark, how to put together a gun in 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.560 the dark and fire it in the dark using something 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:24.119 that I've never heard of called instinctive gun fighting. Yeah, 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.880 so that's where rather than saying like freeze bad guy 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.000 and getting down on one knee and closing one eye 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:35.399 and looking down the sights and pretty much yeah, like 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.560 the streets of San Francisco or something, right, you just 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.159 you're running and shooting. You're not even using the sites. 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:46.280 You just are are using basically your hand as your guide. Um, 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.160 and you're shooting people at a distance of at least 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.160 twenty ft and like you said, oftentimes in the dark. 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.080 And this may all come as part of the training. 0:19:55.320 --> 0:20:00.399 After you've been dropped off in an abandoned farmhouse told 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.080 to find a bag of gun parts and put it 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.080 together in the dark and come out shooting. What was 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.760 that deal in that? Like seventies cop shows where they 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:14.639 would hold their wrist to study their gun hand you 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.480 wanted to steady your your shooting hand. I know, but 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.320 I don't think that was I mean, you study it. 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.399 I gotta how to shoot a pistol. I don't know 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:27.119 if it was ever like that officially. Maybe it's to 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.080 keep the recoil from throwing your aim off. Well, I 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:31.480 mean I think it's for all that, but I don't 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.439 know if that was ever the proper way, is what 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:38.040 I'm saying. It seems like it's like specifically a TV thing. Yeah, 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.840 Like Aaron Spelling was like, try this, hold your hold 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.919 your wrist, yeah, do that from now on. Karl Malden 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:50.280 was like, uh, some of the other I mean this 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.280 training there by all accounts, you send an article from 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.520 a guy who was actually there. It sounded like some 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.960 of the most hardcore training you could go through. Yeah. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:05.560 This guy named um Andrew Andy Durovich UM. He was 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:10.720 a Canadian Hungarian UM guy. He was actually in his 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.840 thirties when he went through Camp X training and he 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:18.320 wrote a book about his experience and he he was 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.200 a great source of a lot of UM this information 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:23.800 of of what it was like to go train there. 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:26.159 But he was the guy who was saying that you 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.840 would UM there were. There was not only like daytime maneuvers, 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.640 there were nighttime maneuvers as well. And while you were there, 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.440 you were basically training the entire time, like you didn't 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.680 if you had, you know, a class on um where 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.480 to kick somebody in the testicles in one building, and 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.360 then you had another building and outbuilding where you went 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.879 to go learn how to mess with plastic explosives. You 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.800 didn't walk from one building to the next building. They 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.640 gave you an assignment to get to the other building 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.359 without being seen by you know, this guy who was 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.640 trying to find you, I think it was. It was. Yeah, 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.960 it was very very well put Chuckfoli. Immersive and apparently 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.040 the whole thing started off the moment you got there 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:14.080 with a welcome reception. Yeah. So they these guys, uh, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.000 this particular group that Andy, he went by Andy Daniels 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.720 that he was with. Uh, like you said, we're Hungarian. 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.719 So they kind of had a little Hungarian spread of 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.200 food and they made him feel welcome, had Hungarian wine 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:27.680 and they all got kind of drunk and they all 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:29.399 just thought this was just like a nice thing they 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:31.960 were doing. But that was even part of the training 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.640 because you had to be trained to be able to 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:40.640 go undercover and drink with the the enemy and still 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:45.160 keep your wits right because and I read actually another 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.680 account by Andy Darovitch that after he went through Camp 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:50.879 X and was trained on a secret mission, he was 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.359 approached by some of the like a German intelligence officer 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.440 who was working undercover I think in Cairo, and they 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.119 were trying to drink each other under the table to 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.480 get them one another to reveal information. And he said 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:07.560 he ended up winning that battle some of the uh, 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:12.320 some of the German intelligence officers comrades came and got 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.359 him because he drank him literally under the table. Uh. 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:17.800 What are some of the things they would do? They 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:20.960 would say, oh, I don't know. Um, go to the 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:22.639 edge of a cliff and say, all right, you have 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.040 to jump off of that into the water. Uh, swim 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.200 back to shore and climb back up from a rope. 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:31.600 And they get through doing all this and they get 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:35.440 to the top and then they say do it again, right, 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:37.560 like when they're at their most exhausted. They would push 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.600 these men, and that there were only men being trained. 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.160 Women did play a part, which we'll get to, but um, yeah, 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:46.960 they would push them to their breaking point. And then 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.640 keep pushing them because they were doing things so important 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:54.399 and so convert there. It was survival training. Yeah, And 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:56.480 I think the the impression I have also is that 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.600 they were basically going on the concept of muscle memory, 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:02.760