The American Military Brit

Unknown Speaker 0:01
This is the American military Britt, shedding light on the realities of military life. Now, here's your host, US Air Force Staff Sergeant Christopher Clark.

Unknown Speaker 0:13
Hello, and welcome to the American military Brit podcast for the podcast today we've got a special guest, Grant hearse, and I want to kind of introduce him a little bit to you guys, because he has a unique experience that I want to talk about today. And that is working in weapons school. I've never actually heard of weapons school or patches or anything like that. But they're essentially like the smart guys in the Air Force if you want to call him that we both did intelligence. So that's something that he has experience in but I'll let him kind of explain his story. I just wanted to kind of lead him in a little bit. But yeah, grinder if you just want to start with kind of like who you are and what you do right now as far as a job there in the Air Force go.

Unknown Speaker 0:54
Yeah, Chris. Thanks. Who I Am. I said I'd, native Texan, who's been in the Air Force for 18 years had a lot of interesting experiences and a lot of fun adventures while I'm there. And the last two and a half years I've been living here in Las Vegas, getting to experience the joys of Nellis Air Force Base, and that was in Southern Nevada.

Unknown Speaker 1:14
Yeah, so what like what made you want to join the Air Force? Was there a specific moment? Or was there a specific thing that happened?

Unknown Speaker 1:21
I combination of things, like anything in life, there's there's always multiple influences that kind of kind of push you in a direction. Typical board and high school board and college guy who was at my freshman year of college when the Iraq War started back in 2003. And I don't know you come home and you see the war on TV, and you look at your books sometimes. And you look at the what's happening on TV, and you think I've got a whole life for these books, I can come back to this later. But I want to go try this out. I wonder that see this adventure, I want to go be part of this thing that's happening. And I went and listed and 18 years later, still still still at it. So it was a little bit of a little bit of a whim and a little bit of bored of what I was doing. And it's been a fun ride ever since.

Unknown Speaker 2:08
So you saw the Iraq war. What about like 911? Was 911 can influence on you at all? Like when you saw that?

Unknown Speaker 2:15
Yes. And no. I grew up in suburban Dallas. And it wasn't a community where like, people went to college people didn't join the military in in my town. It wasn't wasn't really a thing. I've got an uncle who's retired Air Force. I've got a bunch of grandfather's that were in World War Two. But it wasn't a it wasn't a thing. It wasn't like it wasn't real. It was like that was something other people did. And going to college, I went to Texas Tech for a year out in Lubbock, Texas, about five hours west of Dallas, and a little more country town a little different. A little different perspective on life out there. And like I said, living out there kind of taken me out of that, that that Dallas bubble that I grew up in, showed me that yeah, you you can do this. This is something that normal people do. It's just one of the many choices in life. So I joined almost on a whim and almost done on a lark and thought to do for years and call it a day and it was so much fun I did for more informed, more informed more informed more. So

Unknown Speaker 3:19
yeah, cuz it's funny how you say that how? Oh, this is something that normal people do. Like we can join the military, because I feel like a lot of people think you have to be something special to join the military. But with this podcast, that's something I'm trying to do is like bust that myth, basically.

Unknown Speaker 3:34
Well, never let anybody ever say that Chris is a special guy. If he can do it, anybody

Unknown Speaker 3:41
can I mean? Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, that's honestly that is what I'm because so many people say that to me, they're just like, Oh, you have to be like super like, into fitness. Like you have to be go to the gym all the time and be like crazy smart. And all these like all these crazy tough like, that's one thing people always say you have to be Oh, super mentally tough and all this stuff. So I'm just trying to like bust those myths, you know,

Unknown Speaker 4:04
blame, blame Hollywood for that, right? Because the only stories that Hollywood tells are the ones about Navy SEALS and Army Rangers and fighter pilots. And like, that's a very small subset of what we're doing. Right. Obviously, that's an important part. But there's a just about any job that exists in a large company exists in some form in the army, and the Air Force and the Marines and the Navy. And so even if it's not your life's ambition to carry a gun and go shoot it al Qaeda guys, there's, there's probably something that is related to what you're interested in. That is part of that larger enterprise that is the Defense Department and it is the military. So and again,

Unknown Speaker 4:43
so to speak on that, like me, for example. I was thinking, Okay, if I joined like, before I joined I was thinking oh, if I joined they're gonna just send me straight to Iraq, and I'm gonna have to like fight al Qaeda or the Taliban or whoever it is, right? But it's like, no, there's other jobs like you was saying there's something you'll be interested in that you can go do like, you know, I was looking at logistics and then you know, obviously I came across intelligence and all this stuff. And it's like, yeah, there's something out there. You know, administrative work, fine finance, whatever the heck you want to do.

Unknown Speaker 5:15
Even if it's your life's goal, to be a journalist and be in media and to talk in front of a camera in front of microphone, your life, there's public affairs officers who do exactly that.

Unknown Speaker 5:24
So yeah, so let's, let's kind of get into let's shift focus here into the job aspects. So obviously, I explained in my introduction podcasts that I was in intelligence, but I didn't really get too much into it. I mean, we can't really because it's, you know, it's classified and all that stuff. So let's just kind of go as far as we can, but like, just kind of explain like what you do right now they're in the weapons school, and like what you do as far as an Intel person,

Unknown Speaker 5:50
alright, so apologies for the cliches or if this is Tropi at all, but I'll keep it topical, based on the latest movie this weekend, everybody's been at the theater watching, watching the Top Gun sequel. Whenever, yeah, one of the many things that we do in Intel is support mission planning. And when you watch the movie, it's always some general, who gives the briefing to the pilots beforehand about where the target is, and where the threats are and what the mission is and what we're doing. And in reality, it's it's a 22, or 23 year old intel analyst whose, whose job it is to, to work through those things, and to do a lot of the analytical work and a lot of the research work, so that the pilots can come in and get the briefing and go execute the mission, as opposed to them doing all that legwork for themselves. So I always like to tell people that when you're watching that movie, and there's that that dimly lit scene, where the Navy SEALs are in a dark room with dramatic movie, music playing. There's always a guy in the room who's explaining what the target is, what the threats are, what we're, what we're doing, what the mission is. And that's me. That's, that's, that's what Chris and I did, at least in some form. And it's, it's a job that very, very knowledge focused very, very research focused very, very technical in that sense. And one that doesn't necessarily involve flying at Mach two, or pulling eight G's, or having grenades go off around you very often. But one, that's a hugely important part of the mission.

Unknown Speaker 7:18
Welcome back, guys, we were kind of talking about Top Gun, it was pretty funny, because grunt was talking about how unrealistic is that if you want to go on a little run now, but if you want to,

Unknown Speaker 7:31
it's it's fantastic cinematography and fantastic action. And none of the tactics that the pilots are flying makes sense. None of the things that the threats are doing makes sense. It's, it's, it's an exciting ride, but as a as a fairly knowledgeable Air Force guy, I have to kind of roll my eyes and suspend disbelief in the movie and just kind of enjoy it for what it is because it's pretty loose interpretation of what Air to Air Combat actually looks like.

Unknown Speaker 7:59
Yeah. I mean, we can't really obviously, we can't really go into, you know, tactics and like Intel specific stuff too much. But, you know, I guess just probably just use your imagination pretty much as to what you think we're talking about. But anyway, so let's let's kind of go back to the beginning of your journey, because, like, in my intro podcast, I was talking about, you know, my basic training and tech school experience and, you know, basic training. I mean, it was back then it was like eight and a half weeks, I think and then tech school six months. But it's I'm not sure if it's changed. Now. I mean, I couldn't tell you to be honest, but just kind of talk about your because you went to basic training. Well, let's just say back in the day, right

Unknown Speaker 8:44
that back in the day, yeah. Everybody that didn't list as as a as an airman goes through about two to half months of training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, in San Antonio. And that's where they teach you to march straight and to fold your T shirts properly and to follow instructions and to do a ton of push ups. After a couple months of that once, once you've kind of proven you can handle some stress and you can follow the directions and you can you can function in a stressful environment, they send you off to what we call tech school, which is where you actually learn your job and learn specifically like skills that you'll need to do your job out there in the field. I initially joined trying to be a linguist wanted to learn a foreign language and be a translator or be a signals analyst and I didn't work out turns out learning foreign languages is really really hard and doing it as quickly as the Air Force wanted me to didn't didn't quite work out so once I went through that training that kind of gave me some options about hate so if this isn't working out, what are the things you want to do and that's when I kind of found my way into in my current intelligence career field. So I've been doing that ever ever since so

Unknown Speaker 9:53
I was gonna say like, as far as like Korean language go like, did you know Korean before you went there?

Unknown Speaker 9:59
No, actually I didn't, I didn't know any Korean. Most white folks that Luke grew up in Dallas, don't, don't learn it. But I know a little bit now. They give you a few options about what language you want to learn. That was the most appealing one that I that I had. And said, spend about six months struggling through that course before the Air Force finally said, look, let's, let's have you do something else, let's something else might be a little bit a little more than more appropriate for you.

Unknown Speaker 10:24
Why should you made it six months before they were like, Okay, we're gonna like wash you out or whatever, and put you in something else?

Unknown Speaker 10:29
Yeah, six, six, long and rough months. Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker 10:33
guys, see, listen to that. Like, if you want to just learn a random language that you've never spoke before you can do it, you can just go to the Air Force and just do whatever you want to do. Basically, that's what it sounds like. Okay, so let's get into some assignments that you had during your your time, because obviously, you've been I mean, since I've known you, you've been you've been like, everywhere you've been in Europe, you've been in Korea, you've been, you know, aware of us, oh, yeah, like what was kind of like your highlights and like the memorable assignments that you've heard,

Unknown Speaker 11:05
I mean, which ones weren't memorable. Every, every couple of years, the Air Force will see fit to move you around when new bass, part of the goal is to give people experiences, part of the goal is to make sure that that one unit doesn't get stale with people there for 510 years or time, right. So spent time in Germany and England, spent time in Korea, I've been based in Arizona, here in Nevada, of course, South Carolina, as well as a bunch of trips over to the Middle East to Iraq and Afghanistan kind of sprinkled in between so the every couple of years, yeah, there's, there's something new to do, and somewhere new to go. The Air Force is really good about at least giving you some input as to where you're gonna be based. So as an enlisted guy, I've got a list of like 10 bases that I want to be that want to be at. And when you know, whether that's my personal preference about where I'm living, ie, I want to be in Nevada, or California or Arizona, or if it's one of the overseas, or maybe there's certain bases that I want to be at because of the mission, right, because every different bases have different aircraft that they host, or different missions that his base support. And so if you want to really be in special operations, or certain bases that that do those missions. And if you really want to work with bombers or with fighters, there certain bases that host those types of aircraft or those types of missions sets. So depending on what it is that you want to do, and kind of what your ambitions are, there's usually some pretty good ability to influence where you're going to be based at and where you're going to be living while you're while you're in.

Unknown Speaker 12:34
Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned bomber is like if you want to work at bombers, it's like I didn't want to work with bombers, and they sent me to Whiteman Air Force Base. They're like, yeah, go over there and just work with the bee to like, Oh, thanks. Like it was cool at first, but you know, because you're like, oh, it'd be too cool looking. But then it's like, no,

Unknown Speaker 12:49
well, well, obviously, if everybody that wanted to be in Florida, or everybody that wanted to be based in Japan got to be there, then there'd be nobody at the base in Missouri or nobody that base in North Dakota. But yeah, you know, to some degree, we get some control over that. I met Chris, while we're both in Korea, and we linked up again, and we're both in England. And so if this guy tries to tell you that he'd had a rough go of it, don't believe him? Because he's had some some fantastic assignments while he was still on active duty.

Unknown Speaker 13:17
Well, no, I mean, well, first, the story of us me and in Korea was hilarious, because literally, we met that that day, and you're just like, Yeah, I'm leaving the next day and going to England. So that was that was pretty funny. But hey, listen, man, like, first of all, I was in Missouri for five years, so I was punished there. And then eventually, it was like, Yeah, send you to Korea, like Korea was great. It was very hard work. It was, it was very rewarding, because like the stuff we were doing was paying off you could tell but it was constant grind. But it was a good time as well. You know, you go out you drink all the time. It's like it's a good time. And England sucked as well. But the good thing was my family and friends were there. And I could also hang out with guys like you and like all the other friends I had there and we had fun. But the job itself sucked. But yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:07
we just blew past two interesting points. I think one is that while you're moving around from base to base, it's not you're not on your own doing all that right. So if you get assigned to a new base, they'll give you you know, typically three or four months notice about kind of how you'll be leaving soon be leaving on this date. And they'll assign you a sponsor to at the new base to help you adjust and transition. So while I was getting ready to leave Korea we had this guy Chris who's coming in and I got assigned to him to help answer his questions and help you know get a room set up for him meet him at the at the Air Terminal when he got in help kind of get him get him sorted out. And the way it works is there's a rotator a few times a week that flies from Seattle to Japan to Korea to shuttle guys in and then once it gets to Korea kind of dispersed to different bases. And so the flight that brought Chris in the same plane that brought him in one day, we high five we went out and got dinner I left on that same plane the next day to go on to my next assignment in England. So for all the traveling and all the instability, there is a lot of good support there in terms of helping people get adjusted and helping people to get integrated into the new base that they're living in.

Unknown Speaker 15:15
Yeah, and I knew this guy was my kind of guy when he was wearing like a Fulham shirt. Because I remember when I got to Whiteman, first day, I met peach and he was wearing a menu shirt. And I was thinking, oh, boy, we're gonna have some fun here. So

Unknown Speaker 15:26
we have a mutual friend who kind of gave me the gave me the the skinny on Chris. Let me let me know he was a big English soccer fan. So I made a point to have a jersey on when I went met him at the terminal. And it was friendship at first sight.

Unknown Speaker 15:41
Yeah, but like, for example, like you spent so much time in Europe, man, like,

Unknown Speaker 15:46
Yes, I spent three years in Western Germany, three in England. And like any good overseas traveler, you know, take those weekends and save up your money. And I made a point to go to as many soccer games as I could, as many breweries as I could, and as many old World War Two battle sites as I could. So you name by Ben tool.

Unknown Speaker 16:09
And that's the important thing, man, if, if any of you like listening, you know, the very few listeners we may have if you have any chance to kind of soak in a new culture and just go to like a new place. Because I feel like a lot of people in America very kind of, I don't want to say on culture, but I think that might be the word for it. But like not really well traveled, a lot of people kind of stay in that area. So if you ever get a chance to go overseas, man, just make the most of it.

Unknown Speaker 16:37
It's a it's a little harder for us, right? Because the country is so big. You can you can drive a car for 36 hours, and still be in the United States, depending upon where you start. And where you get where you end. Obviously, a lot of places in Europe or in East Asia, it's a lot smaller and easier to get a very wide variety of experiences from from from one site to the next. But ya know, it's been an absolute blessing. I've told people a time that what is a dream vacation for a lot of Americans to go down to London, and hit a museum and go to a pub for lunch and go to a soccer game and go to a West End theater play. Like that was just like an average Saturday while we were living over there, the UK, right.

Unknown Speaker 17:24
So yeah, let's just talk about deployments here real quick. Because grunt, I know you've been to, I've been to the softer places, if you will have been to Qatar and Jordan, so not, you know, but grant here has been to Iraq and Afghanistan. And I will just let me just say one thing about Afghanistan. Before I went to Qatar, I actually got assigned to go to Afghanistan, Kandahar. And I was I was just terrified, absolutely terrified. When I saw Afghanistan on there. I was just like, oh, gosh, this is you know, and I told it was interesting, because I told my mom. Well, I told my mom and sisters together they I had I told them I had a big announcement. And they were like, did you get a girl pregnant? Like, no, that's not what happened here. And I told them about the Afghanistan thing. And I remember like, it was crazy, because I did it over you know, Skype or whatever video chat it was back then. And my mom was literally just sit in there like, stone face just like looking forward. Like she didn't say anything. And my my sisters were just like, oh, no, oh, no, you know, this, this and that. And my mom just didn't say a word. She was just like, obviously, worried and stuff like that. Absolutely. It's not like, you know, you're not doomed, basically, is what I'm trying to say. Because grant here has been to both so just kind of like talk to just talk to the audience kind of hear about your, you know, your experiences over there.

Unknown Speaker 18:45
Yeah, can confirm, been all over and survived it. multiple trips to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, and said one as well due to Qatar. In Afghanistan, it was I was in Kandahar, I was in low gar, I was in Kabul, and kind of main basis. Some folks Rada, it's smaller fobs and smaller little little patrol bases. I've had kind of both experiences. It's some days, it is just boring and sweltering heat and the most mundane day in the world. Some days, it's really, really exciting. And things are going on either a mission that we're doing, or we're getting rockets and mortars shot at us hadn't been hadn't both had them all. I also am very familiar with the experience that you're describing, of breaking the news to mom. A couple of years ago, I thought I was going to be deploying to a country called Qatar or the Middle East. And that kind of changed last minute and I was going to Iraq instead. And I made a business decision of sorts, to not tell my mother about the change. And just let her sort of for six months be under the impression that I was going to be here and here and here. I accidentally let it slip to my sister. And I saw her to secrecy and said, Hey, look, for mom's sake, don't don't share the news. But when I got home, and I brought home, we went out to a bakery and anorak and brought home some baklava the little almond pastry thing. And the way I broke the news to Mom was to hand her this this tin of, of desserts that we gotten. And as she's reading the box, she's confused. Oh, do they export these from Iraq to Qatar? And I said, Well, maybe it's not how I got them. And only then when I was when I was safe, it's safe and sites Safe, safe at home. Did I break the news to her? But no, overwhelmingly, I know, the the news always focuses on, you know, horrible things that happen, either attacks or, or, you know, the negative bits, right? Because if it bleeds, it leads, I think is that the journalism smarter. But ya know, overwhelmingly, most of what we're doing is fairly safe. And it's fairly, maybe even a lot more mundane than what people picture as you slowly try to build countries and help their help their defense forces stand up their own capability, obviously, in Iraq, that's an ongoing thing, obviously, in Afghanistan, that's it is what it is in Afghanistan. But there's, there's lots of that type of deployment going on in the world right now. Even in countries that don't make the news and things you want to hear about. There's a ton of soldiers and airmen and marines and sailors that are all over the world, either fighting the counterterrorism fight, or supporting local forces as they try to secure their own countries and keep their own governments safe and secure.

Unknown Speaker 21:46
Right. And even like, with with us, you know, like we said, we're intelligence, I feel like when you deploy a lot more of what you do makes sense, because you're actually in the fight, if you will, like you're out there, you're supporting, like, actual missions. And it's just, it kind of brings to life, the importance of being intelligence, and you even see other people around doing what they do, you know, whoever it is finance, whatever. You know, there's a lot of jobs out there where people say, Oh, they don't do anything, but especially when you deploy, you see just how much all of that kind of interconnects with each other. So absolutely,

Unknown Speaker 22:27
yeah, absolutely. I think both are both defensively, trying to keep the base safe and trying to prevent attacks against against our forces, as well as offensively trying to go out there and find those nefarious actors to help clean up, clean up the country. You're very, very close to the pointy end of the stick out there when you're deployed. And so it's it, it does kind of sink home. And it's a lot more clear that like, what you're doing is actually it's changing, changing the world and changing history in small ways day to day. Tying back to the soccer story early, I think you never know when the day is going to be that something big happens. I was I was on a Saturday soccer game in Germany years ago. And I was pretty drunk and cheering for the local team. And I was got a phone call from my boss that said, hey, get to work right now. Like, hey, Sir, give me a few hours maybe need to sober up. And a few days later, we were on a plane to go down to to Libya to go fight back in 2011, during the Arab Arab Spring, so whether it's day to day here at Nellis or elsewhere to base or it's for deployed in a war zone, sometimes you would work and not much happens. And it's a boring day of paperwork, and training that you got to do. And other days, you know, something happens and like today is the day that we make history. Today's the day that something really remarkable happens. And it's always unpredictable when that's going to happen. And it's that's one of the fun bits of the job is going to work every morning thinking today might be today.

Unknown Speaker 23:57
Yeah, and it sucks, man just to kind of relate to that. Like when I deployed to Qatar, this was my first deployment. So obviously, I was very flustered and what they did, I was supposed to leave January, I don't know January 6, or something. And instead they then tell me on it was like December 22 or something they're like, No, we actually need you to leave like just after Christmas like December 27. So I had to get the rest of my out processing done before everybody showed up for for Christmas. So it was like December 23. I'm like oh crap. It's like Friday. I'm like, Oh crap. I've got to get everything done in this one day. And I did I did achieve it because everybody went that extra mile for me because they're like, Oh, you're deploying it's like, yeah, I kind of need your help. Like, usually people are like, Oh, no, I can wait, you know, but people actually helped me out and I wound up leaving on December 27. So the thing that we'll finish off with here for me personally, obviously I got out after I'd be In what, eight and a half years, and I just honestly, I just couldn't take it anymore. I was just like, all right, I'm gonna get out. I'm gonna go civilian. I'm gonna go after this journalism thing. But with Grant here, you've been in, what? 18 years now? Literally 89? A few months. Yeah. So like, I just want to I just want to get your kind of thought process on like, while you're still in. I mean, I'm assuming you're going for 20, but just kind of explained, like while you're still in,

Unknown Speaker 25:26
yeah, if you if you go to a theme park, and you get on the roller coaster, it's a really fun ride. And then the worker tells you, hey, do you wanna ride again, you go, okay, yeah, I'll go on for another ride. And you go a second lap around, and you pull back into the station, and the worker says, you can go for a third time. And as long as it still stays fun, as long as you don't get nauseous on the on the rollercoaster ride, you gotta keep going and keep it keep it up. It's been 18 years, it's been absolutely an amazing journey. And I feel like every, every place I've been has been uniquely interesting and wonderful. Every place I've been has afforded opportunities to learn something or to experience something or to meet interesting new people. And you know, why get off the roller coaster as long as it's, as long as it's staying fun. The, like I said earlier, the number of days where I thought to myself, Oh, wow, what I did today was an absolute dream, or what did today was like this will be in the history books one day. And to be a part of that. It's like, Man, why would you ever want to get off this ride?

Unknown Speaker 26:39
Yeah, I mean, absolutely, if you because it sounds like you enjoy it. But I feel like there's a lot of people I've met. Who, well, a certain bold individual that we both know who, who gets very, like, stressed from working in the Air Force. And I just think to some, like, with some people, I'm just thinking, why are you still in love with yourself, you still enjoy, enjoy

Unknown Speaker 27:01
perspective. Anything you do in life is gonna have, like, good things and bad things, right. And I think if if you look at life, and you suffer all the things that your life isn't, you'll never be happy, right? But if you day to day, take time to reflect on all the things that your life is, then you're never going to going to be unhappy. There's plenty of folks who would come here to Las Vegas and say, Man, the weather's too hot. And there's nowhere good to go river rafting. And there's no there's no beach. And oh, man things on the Strip are too expensive. And you go, Oh, okay, cool. But you think about all the things that Las Vegas isn't, as opposed to all the things that it is. And I think if you if you look at life, and you you accept kind of where you are as as where you are, and you go cool. I'm living in this weird place now. But millions of people live here. And these people have hobbies, and they have interests and I'm going to spend a couple years getting into that and I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to England and I'm gonna get real hardcore to soccer. I'm gonna go to games every weekend, I'm gonna really soak up the pub culture and learn all the different ciders and all the different cask ales there are. Oh, and I'm going to Korea now. And I'm going to try to learn this language a little bit. And I'm gonna get into this food and I'm going to enjoy going to the Korean the Kpop karaoke bar. And I'm going to go watch the Korean league baseball because that's an absolute experience. And you get assigned to South Carolina and you go okay, this is college football country. I'm going to, I'm going to go fishing. I'm going to go camping. I'm going to go watch Steve Spurrier and SEC football and get into NASCAR while I'm here. And I think that's the key to happiness in life is looking at kind of where you are. And focusing on the things you have and the things you can do, as opposed to fretting over the things that you can't do. The second time I went back to Korea in 2012. I met some guys and unit that I was working with. And it was March April whenever it was and soccer season was starting. I suppose we guys arcade Saturday, let's go to Seoul and let's watch the soccer game. It'll be you know, whoever was playing. And one of the guys I talked to said oh, we will I've been and I said Oh cool. We've been to the games. He goes no, I've been to Seoul. And I thought Yeah, man, it's a it's a massive city with a million things to do. And it's 20 or 30 minutes in the train to get up there. Of course you guys will know I put up there once I was like dude, you've been in this country for 11 months, what are you doing? And he would sit at home and talk to his girlfriend on Skype and play whatever video game people were playing 10 years ago and I was like dude, are you getting out and experiencing the country and he was so focused on well you know, my girlfriend is 4000 miles away. And the the guys I play this video game with it's a group They're all on different timezone. And he was so caught up in like the things that he couldn't do that he just like spent a whole year ignoring the amazing place he was living. And I think that's the key to happiness anywhere in life. Whether it whether you here at UNLV in Nevada, or whether you live in over in Uzbekistan, that like wherever you are, like drink the Kool Aid, get into it, and you'll never have a boring day in your life.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai