Join Seth Horst and guest Blaine Holom as they share a lively discussion on a variety of engaging topics, from the exhilarating world of scuba diving in North Idaho to the dynamic growth of Coeur d’Alene. This video is packed with fascinating stories and insights that highlight the beauty and community spirit of North Idaho.🌊 Dive Into Adventure: Explore the unique underwater attractions of Lake Coeur d’Alene, including sunken treasures like slot machines and historic wrecks. Learn about the local scuba diving scene, where beginners and experienced divers alike find camaraderie and thrilling dive opportunities.🌲 Coeur d’Alene’s Growth: Discover how Coeur d’Alene has transformed over the years, becoming a bustling hub that attracts newcomers with its vibrant community and stunning natural surroundings.🥋 Jujitsu and Personal Growth: Hear Seth and Blaine discuss how picking up new hobbies, such as jujitsu, has profoundly impacted their lives, offering discipline and joy in their daily routines.📸 Passion for Photography: Blaine opens up about his involvement with Warriors and Quiet Waters, where he discovered his love for photography. This program not only supports combat veterans but also fosters creative expression and connection through activities like fly fishing and photography.🎣 Warriors and Quiet Waters: Get a closer look at how this incredible program aids post-9/11 veterans in finding healing and purpose through the therapeutic experience of fly fishing. Blaine shares his personal journey and the profound impact the program has had on his life and many others.🚫 Life Changes – Saying No to Alcohol: Dive into a discussion about the significant health and personal benefits Blaine has experienced by giving up drinking.Jeremy Lock – https://www.jeremytlock.comWarriors and quiet waters – https://warriorsandquietwaters.orgJakes scuba adventures – https://www.jakesscubaadventures.comMacleod studios- http://www.studiomacleod.photos(lead photographer for WQW )https://www.savingfacesesthetics.comIf you’re thinking about moving to North Idaho be sure to give us a call, shoot us a text, send us an email, or schedule a Zoom call. We’d love to help you make a smooth move to North Idaho!
Blaine Holom (00:00.142)
What does that mean? Yeah, we just start. I’ll introduce you. Don’t worry. It’s nice to have a newbie on here because I know like, you know, it can be intimidating with all the lights and the microphones. All different. These girthy objects in your face. You’re not used to. You haven’t seen that since the Navy. So, um, you don’t make rank without noticing this. Welcome back. Uh, I’ve got my good buddy, Lane Holm here with me.
And he is a veteran. He’s a lot of things. He’s a habitual perpetual blue belt in jujitsu. Yeah, I got that. What’s that like for life? No, I already got my gear out for tomorrow morning with you. You better show up now that you have committed on this podcast. You shall be there. I know. Good. Let’s see what else. Oh, so the real reason I asked him to come on today is because my buddy Brian shout out to Brian.
gave me a call the other day and he’s like, Hey, is there scuba diving in Coeur d ‘Alene? And I was like, as a matter of fact, there is and I know a guy and I called the Blaine and I was like, yo bro, we got to talk about some scuba diving. So that’s one thing we’re going to cover. Then we’re going to talk about warriors in quiet waters. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Photography. He’s doing some cool stuff on the side of that. We’ll touch on a little bit of veteran stuff and whatever else comes along. Yeah. Sound like a plan. So cool, dude. And
You’re kind of a unicorn because you’re one of the like less than five people I know that’s actually from this area. Yeah, that’s true. Where were you born? Were you born in Coeur d ‘Alene? Yeah, I was born at well, so us locals called it big blue hospital for like ever. Right. So I was born in the big blue hospital. Okay. Uh, my dad was born in 1949 in Coeur d ‘Alene and where they used to have the birthing center was actually the iron horse parking lot downtown. Get out of here. Yeah. So your dad was born there. Yeah.
Yeah. And I always tell people I was conceived at the Lakers bar back in the day. That was the, uh, how, like, how has this place changed? I know it’s hard to kind of say because it’s been a slow. Well, so it’s slowly like change just over time, right? Yeah. Um, but like it’s weird now, um, looking back, cause like, I was one of those people like, Oh man, I’ll never live on a house that was built on a farm, you know? And like, cause the farms are all getting bought up. And like, to me, I was like, that’s just.
Blaine Holom (02:25.134)
That’s crazy. And now I live on a farm. I bought a house former farm. Yeah, that used to be a farm. Yeah. And it’s a subdivision now. And I’m like, I’m part of the problem. You are. Yeah. But you know, I’ve noticed is all the people moving in here. Like, if I look at all my friends, they’re all from out of state. Yeah, like all my current friends that I have that are like my solid friends are from
all over the place, Florida, California, mostly California, you know, I mean, this is a hotspot. Ever since like the 90s, people started kind of flowing up here. Do you secretly hate, hate us? No. Okay, good. If you think about it, like the economy when like you couldn’t live here and have it like my dad had to work at Kootenai Tidal for 35 years. Like that was the only job available back in, you know, the 80s. Yeah. You know, it was like working for a title company or there’s or working for a lumber mill, like,
NIC used to be a lumber mill, Riverstone. When you were, was it when in your lifetime? Yeah. When I was a kid, all the way up until probably middle school, Riverstone, that was a lumber mill. And then it turned into like Riverstone. No, it’s just super rich. Like, yeah. Wildness. Yeah. I remember when there was apartment, those condos above all the shopping places, they were going for $99 ,000. Should have bought one back then. I know. Good Lord. I’m an idiot. Yeah. God damn. Like they’re like 600 to a million now. Yeah.
I’m just like, I mean, river property, you could buy, I mean, river property all day, you know, for 8 ,000, $12 ,000 to river property. Now you’re looking at 240 ,000 just for land. Yeah. It’s insane. It’s insane. But like I said, we wouldn’t be Coeur d ‘Alene without the growth. Um, like my wife and I have a business saving faces, aesthetics, and like, we need people that are into aesthetics and like growing up here, you know, girls weren’t,
Like you, nobody was talking about facials or now it’s like micro channeling or thing or whatever. DERP. That was a slick shout out for your wife’s business, by the way. Good job. Saving faces, aesthetics. Yeah. Hit them up. They’re in town. Locally owned, locally owned. So what is it like? Who are the people that don’t like? Because I get that a lot. Like we get a lot of comments on our YouTube, like.
Blaine Holom (04:46.862)
were full and all this shit. I’m like, are they just hateful people in general? Cause you, you, you’re from here. You don’t feel that way. Yeah. I think actually we’ve in church today. I was talking to somebody about, Oh, it was under his mom. Actually my mother -in -law was talking to her about, Oh yeah, I’m going on this podcast residing in North Idaho. And then I was like, it’s kind of funny though, because it’s kind of geared toward people want to move to here. So it’s like, as a true vocal, it’s like, how much crap am I going to get?
for this. Do you feel conflicted right now, bro? I don’t, not at all. Cause honestly, we knew this was going to happen eventually. I mean, look around, we live in paradise. Yeah. Like I knew it was going to happen. It’s not a secret, right? It hasn’t been a secret for decades. And most of the people that move here and I ended up finding like really close friends. Like I think out of everyone I grew up with, there’s probably only like three that I’m like still close with. All the other people that I’m super close with are from California or Seattle.
It’s interesting. That’s what I tell people a lot because we do get some flack for like, oh, I’m like me single handedly. I’m attracting everyone from out of state. I get that a lot. Thank you for thinking I’m that big. First of all, those people that make those comments. But I think you’re awesome. Thanks, bro. What I tell them is like, hey, like the secret’s been out for decades. Now it’s about attracting the right people and and.
So what’s the opposite for attracting deterring the wrong people. And when I write, right, I always write it in all caps, cause I’m really implying like conservative people, right? Like we, we want, they don’t have to be, I’m not saying that, but, but we do want to preserve the way of life here. And that tends to be the conservative mindset. When I think, I think you know this too, like most people that are moving here, like former LAOs, former military, and a lot of people that are just tired of the crap that was going on in California.
And they’re just, they want it. They want a wife. Yeah. You know, where you’re not getting told what to do with your guns, with your, with just your constitutional rights. Right. And here’s the other thing is the people that are coming here, they have seen the bad side, right? So they will fight. Should fight like hell to keep that from happening here. I think people that grew up here, you know, you guys had it really good and it might be easy to be like, ah, it’ll always be this way, but it’s not always going to be this way unless we intentionally keep it this way.
Blaine Holom (07:07.598)
And I like, I think it’s getting better. That’s good. I’m a weird one, but like, I’m also the type that like people get really pissed off about the wake. They’re like, Oh, these people from Washington are coming over and putting their boats in just wake surfing. I’m like, dude, that’s, that’s a right to come here. Right. They’re Americans, right? Yeah. We just cause we’re from Idaho doesn’t mean we own this. Like, like when I went to Afghanistan, like I didn’t fight for just Idaho. I fought for everyone in this country. Right. So if they want to come over and use the lake, that’s their right. Cause guess what?
I’m going to go over and eat at their restaurants. I work in Washington. Yeah. Like there’s no, there’s no way around it. I do enjoy popping into Liberty Lake now and then and hitting up some of the restaurants right there. So Liberty Lake is growing. It’s kind of cool. It’s weird. It’s a little bougie vibe. I actually did a video there recently. I’ve never done a video on the Washington side and I did it. I felt a little dirty about doing it, but it was like, I think there’s some cool things that needed to be pointed out there. Are you licensed to sell over there too? I’m not. So, um,
but we have a team member that is no, no, no, it’s fine. We can take care of you. Don’t worry. We got somebody, but yeah. So I don’t know. I think we’re in the coolest area just cause you have all of these options. Like I wouldn’t live on the Washington side personally. And a lot of that is, you know, medical freedoms, gun, gun rights, things like that. Like, I don’t, I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do it, but there’s some, I know a lot of cool people that do live over there and I’m like, we get along, you know, we’re great friends. So on Spokane is pretty conservative.
If you think about it. A lot. I mean, most of people like you’re not going to sit there and deal with the craziness that Seattle deals with in Spokane. Yeah. So a little bit. I don’t want people to think that like we have Antifa right across the border because we don’t know. And honestly, like and I’ve tangled with Antifa many a time. They’re a bunch of pusses. They don’t want none. Honestly, like. Well, and I’ll tell you when I travel because I travel a lot for work every time I travel, somebody is like, oh, you’re from Coeur d ‘Alene. Oh.
Man, I remember when Antifa was going to go there and like, they have like 1600 people downtown with ARs and I’m like, yeah. They’re like, were you down there? I was like, no, are you kidding me? That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen. I, yeah. It only takes one person actually popping their gun off or weapon. The crossfire situation there was so dumb to me. I was like, cool. You deterred them from coming over and wrecking the buildings. But at the same time, I was like, Ooh,
Blaine Holom (09:31.598)
Yeah, actually, that’s terrifying. I would have been a little bit nervous about being down there at the time. Yeah. Myself, but I’m glad people did it and I probably depending on the situation, like I would, I would love to fight for my town, you know, whether that’s politically or physically or whatever, but I’m just bummed I wasn’t into photography at that time because that would have been photo ops all day. Yeah. Like real good. And I mean, you traveled to Montana too for work, like,
Yeah, I’ve heard, and maybe you can attest to this because I haven’t been to Montana very much, but, uh, there are some cities in Montana that are like full of. Broken out, you know, RVs and homeless people and that’s starting to happen. Are you seeing that? No, no, that must be just like media folklore. Yeah. Four core. Cause I mean, you’re going to go, there are some shady parts of Montana. I mean, there’s some areas where like, you don’t want to drive down the wrong road because it might be a private road. Oh, it might be a bad mistake, but.
I think like in Bozeman, there’s only like one street and it’s like not it’s kind of out of the way, but they have like broken down RVs and I think that’s what they’re referring to. Yeah. And there is homeless people that are right there, but I drove down that street on accident and it was like, okay, not a big deal. Not a big deal. Not like Spokane. No Spokane and Spokane’s kind of cleaned up. Dude. Like that tent city is gone. Oh, I don’t know about that. I don’t spend a whole lot of time there, but when I drive in there, I’m shocked about I pulled in there one time. Like I had my brand new truck.
I was going to a boat. I don’t know where I was going, but I took, I don’t even know what street I was on. The car is bad tactics. Still getting broken into in Spokane no matter what. Yeah. Well, I ended up next to like the Jesus center or whatever their version of that is. And there were like literally like 200 homeless people. And I’m looking around and I’m like, Oh my God, like I’m stuck in a red light. I’m like, it just feels like a zombie. A horde is coming. And I’m like, get me out of here. Like I felt super uncomfortable. You got four wheel drive.
Oh yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I’m always strapped, but it’s like, I don’t have enough to deal with this. Like you’ve seen zombie attacks. Oh yeah. And they just pile on top. And like, we’re like, I just went to, uh, opening day in Seattle, right? For to watch my red Sox beat the shit out of the Mariners. I didn’t know you were a day one. Yeah. I don’t know. I’ve actually watched the game in Fenway one time that I ever told you that. I think he did. I didn’t appreciate it very much because I don’t care for, for the, uh, the athletics.
Blaine Holom (11:52.59)
Um, and, uh, you know, it’s cool though. Cool vibe. Yeah. And I’m just glad we’re not like pioneer square. You know, it was dirty, like around the stadium. You’re like, yeah, I was praying. My car was getting broken. They do. I had, I had brought my web, my, my pistol and had it in a lock box underneath tethered to the seat locked up. So they couldn’t like take it from the car too. Cause I was like, they’re probably gonna break into my car, but they’re still not going to be able to get this off. I don’t think they’ll cut the wire, but I was thinking after the game, like, Oh, I’m going to be ready. It’s like,
Cause you can’t take it into the stadium. Yep. Which is I think BS. I mean, if you’ve got your enhanced concealed carry, you should be able to enhance concealed carry everywhere. Yeah. Especially there. And that’s like prime exactly. That’s like when you need it. Yeah. Yeah. So, Hey, let’s switch gears. Cause we’re going to talk about some scuba diving, dude. Yeah. How did you get into scuba diving? That’s a good question. Um, so back in 2018, I, uh, I was,
Kind of going through a rough patch of my life. Um, it’s kind of, yeah, dude, I was drinking like heavily, right? So I quit drinking in 2018 and once I got sober, um, I kind of started thinking about all the stuff I wanted to start attacking now. And, uh, I was like, you know what? I’ve always wanted to scuba dive. I never got to do it in school. Cause I wasn’t smart. I wasn’t very good at school. So I never had time to take an elective for me. I was always making up something. And, uh, so.
I looked up scuba diving. I saw, um, saw it on YouTube. Um, there’s an, uh, show called SV Delos. These people that are like just cruising around the world and, uh, they scuba dive, right. And they’re filling their bottles right on the, on the, on the, on their sailboat and like they’re diving and their footage is incredible. Right. They’re so good at doing a videography and everything. And, uh,
I was like, man, I wish I could scoot. I’m like, I bet it would be nice. But I thought you had to be like a millionaire to do it. You know what I mean? Like you had to be at least making like 150 ,000 a year to afford to be a scuba diver. Right. And I was just like, whatever, I’m going to look into this. And so then I came across, uh, right here in town on best Avenue, Jake’s scuba diving adventures. There it is. There it is. That’s a shot. Jake Jake’s scuba diving adventures. Yes. He is Jake Poulsen is, um,
Blaine Holom (14:09.39)
Probably one of the most technical divers I know, at least in the Northwest. Um, he’s, he’s a master Patty instructor. I believe the term is I’m not, not maybe not correct on that, but, um, he can certify you all the way to the point where then Patty sends in a Patty instructor to certify you as a Patty instructor. So he can get you all the way to dive master and beyond, right? He can do all the technical stuff.
Um, cause there’s a lot of certifications in scuba diving. Um, right now I hold my highest, uh, right now is advanced scuba diver and Patty. And then I also have a nitrox specialty, a deep dive specialty. So I can go down to 130 feet. Um, I also got my dry suit because if you’re going to dive in Lake Coraline, you’re going to want a seven mil or a dry suit even in the summer. Yep. Cause once you go through that thermal climb, which is usually in the summertime around.
Between 38 and 45 feet, I would say once you go through that, you’re in ice water and it it’s cold for that. Yeah. But there’s, there’s a lot of stuff in the lake to see. Um, my buddy and I were just actually talking about it today. And, uh, there’s a couple of things in the lake that are like that are myths, but some aren’t. Um, so back in the day in Coeur d ‘Alene, they used to have like casino, casino, like steamboats and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Early 1900s. Right. Okay.
And, uh, one night they all dumped their, um, slot machines and, and roulette tables and everything off the, off the steamboats. Cause they were getting rated, I think, or they, or they were about to get rated. And so there’s actually slot machines around the lake around blue Creek Bay that, um, people were talking about and they like $10 ,000 worth of like coins and stuff down there. Right. And nobody could find them, but, um, there was a guy that used to own a shop here. I can’t.
think of his name right now, but he actually found one of them and he displayed in his shop. So they’re really down there. It’s just, you gotta think they’re probably covered in like mud and all sorts of stuff down there. Cause it’s just, it’s a muddy bottom in the wake. So if you need a metal detector down there with you. Yeah. And you’re looking at, I don’t know how deep it is over there, but I would guess it’s probably 120 feet. And so like with the elevation that we live in 120 feet is like, I don’t know. I’d have to guess like 180 feet in the ocean. So, Oh,
Blaine Holom (16:35.086)
You’re now going into a technical dive on those where you’re going to have to do deco stops and stuff like that to get the nitrogen out of your body. And those aren’t, those aren’t easy. Like Jake, who’s the owner of Jake scuba diving. He’s also, he trains all the Kootenai County sheriff divers, right? He’s in charge. I think he’s also the only civilian on the team. Um, that’s not a, that’s not an actual Kootenai County deputy. And, uh, when those planes collided, the
seaplane in the Cessna from Lewiston. Yeah. He actually had to go down and recover the bodies that were still in the plane and they were at 150 feet, which he ended up having to do a technical dive. And like just the idea of getting down to that boat or that ship, the planes, like just getting there is so technically hard and like it’s super dark. So you got to wait. And by the time you get to the plane, you’re,
Probably already narked a little bit. Yeah. And now you got to go to work, like moving stuff, moving debris, getting the bodies out and he got them out. And, and then, you know, his, his safety stops on the way up, you know, I’m, I’m sure they weren’t, they weren’t short and those safety stops, the deco stops here. I mean, you have to stay within an inch. Like you can’t be moving up and down more than that. Does he have like a rope coming down that he’s hanging? He’s holding onto a rope at the time, but still even that you, you got to control your buoyancy.
really well. I mean, it’s that’s the kind of access we have in Coeur d ‘Alene is we have Jake scuba diving and also, if you are interested in scuba diving here every week during the summer, they do a fun dive weekly. So it’ll be at like Beacon, Osprey Point, Higgins Point, and Sanders Beach and it rotates every week. So it’ll be like one week, it’ll be Tuesday, next week, Wednesday, next week, Thursday, then it goes back to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That’s cool Thursday.
So that way, like if you can’t make a Tuesday, but you can make a Wednesday, then you’ll be available one of the weeks, you know? Okay. And there’s like 20 to 30 divers that show up to that. If people want info, do they just go to Jake’s dive shop and they’ll school them up on that? Yeah. Or you could Google Jake’s scuba diving adventures too. And they posted on there too, as well. I just realized, uh, my partner, Eric’s going to be so mad that I didn’t have him on this podcast. Cause he was on the Kootenai dive team. Oh, he’s got tons of great stories. And I didn’t even, he’s in Hawaii right now. So I’m like, sorry, dude, you’re out.
Blaine Holom (18:58.318)
Um, he knows he must know him then I’m sure. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool. I guarantee. I probably been on a dive trip with Eric. It’s possible. I’d have to see a picture. I’ve been on a dive trip with a lot of those guys. Yeah. Like Roatan, Cozumel. Um, they go to Curacao. I think they just got back from Curacao too. And I was trying to get some footage for him for it. So you could have some, cause I don’t know. I just never take my GoPro into the way. Cause it’s pretty murky. Your visibility is usually between like 15, 20 feet. That was my next question. So.
Cause I mean, looking at the water, like say you’re out on the Tubbs Hill and you’re looking down, it’s super clear. But if you get out and you’re going down deeper. Yeah, it’s about 60 feet. You’re getting, it’s starting to get dark, right? Yeah. 70 feet. It’s dark 80, a hundred. You’re pitch black. You know, some of the wrecks, steamboat wrecks and stuff like there’s a wreck in beauty Bay. I think the star com or something like that. It’s a tugboat and it’s at 70 feet, but it’s like, by the time you get down to it’s pitch black.
I’m glad I haven’t hooked my anchor on that yet because I go to Beauty Bay a lot. I don’t think you would anchor in 70 feet would you? I do. Yeah pretty close to the like it drops off really quick there like you can be pretty close to the shore and it’s hitting 70 feet on my… Beauty Bay is actually a pretty cool place to dive. I’ve never I dove for the first time last 4th of July. If you ever see the dock holiday on the lake it’s usually my buddy Brian it’s his boat.
We, uh, we go out, it’s a pontoon boat that’s like converted into like a houseboat too. Yeah. It’s super, it’s not the tri tri tri tune. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. And he’s got like, he’s designed it himself pretty much like customized it. Like it’s awesome. But we, we dove there in fourth of July last year and it was like pretty cool. I was kind of shocked. My favorite place to dive though, is the west side of tub sale on the resorted side, because it’s all straight, like rock cliff fall off.
Oh yeah. And, uh, it’s just cool. And they’re like at the start of the dive, you’re going out and I saw this like wood structure down there. And I was like, man, it looks like somebody was building like a house. Like it looks like a, a cat, like a log cabin, like top of the roof. Yeah. But then I brought it up to Jake and Jake was like, no, that’s the grandstands back. And this’ll, this’ll like two locals now, the diamond cup. Yeah. So the hydro plane races that used to happen here. Um,
Blaine Holom (21:20.942)
that they just pushed the grandstands into the, into the Lake when that was all. I’ve talked about that in videos. I was like, that’s pretty cool history. Yeah. Um, do you remember those? I can’t remember when they stopped doing it. We stopped. Well, yeah, my dad used to like, cause the resort wasn’t there. That was the, like the pier. Yeah. And so that’s where the pits were. And they’d go out right off of Tubbs Hill and race their track out there. Uh, they came back one year and did it on Lakeview drive, Coeur d ‘Alene Lake drive or whatever.
Um, where the old beach house used to be. I don’t know. Where are you? Was the beach house around when you moved? No. So the beach house used to be a restaurant that Higadon owned out on Lake Coeur d ‘Alene area. Um, so you pass the terraces over there and just keep going. Was it like past silver Marina? Like that’s exactly where it was where that little like weird fence thing is where there’s like a power box or something. They used to be a restaurant with a deck. So people would like,
come up from their boats and eat on the deck. That’s a good spot. She put one back there. I don’t know what happened. My, Andrea, my wife actually worked there twice as a server. Dude. Yeah. That’s a good spot for a restaurant. She was working there when the diamond cup came back for one more try, but apparently our city messed that up. Yeah. Vendors weren’t paid and there was just some. That’s a bummer. I could see people getting up in arms about they’re noisy and like.
I don’t think it was that. I think our city just literally just screwed up. They didn’t want to come back dealing with the with the foundation of the unlimited hydro point racing or whatever it is. So which sucks because like Coeur d ‘Alene such an awesome stop for them. You know, now we still have it in Tri -Cities though. I think they call it the atomic cup now, but it used to be called the Columbia Cup.
Yeah, that’d be a big attraction. I mean, we got a lot of attractions here in the summer, but that’d be pretty cool, I think. Well, in the hydroplane race, and kind of went down the drain after Budweiser pulled out from it, because it used to be the Miss Budweiser, right? And she’d win every race. Like, Dave Velwock was one of the drivers, Chip Hanauer. You know a lot more about this than I would have guessed. Oh, dude, I grew up hydroplane racing. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You ever see any crazy fish when you’re scuba diving out there? Yeah, I mean…
Blaine Holom (23:36.622)
Our fish are kind of boring in the lake. Yeah. I mean, we got like, you know, bass trout, pike, big pike down there, some big pike, but pike are, you know, they’re scared of us. So they’re probably scarce when you’re on them. And half the time you see them when you’re, when you’re scuba diving, they’re like sun tanning, you know, they’re just like in this super shallow water, like you would never know. And they’re just chilling and they’re not moving. They kind of remind me of barracudas in the ocean. Yeah. That’s, that’s a good analogy. They’re probably pretty similar.
Do like so if you’re down deep and you’ve got a flashlight because the water doesn’t have a huge amount of sediment, right? So you can see pretty clearly with the flashlight if you’re in the dark. Yeah, and that’s that’s where it gets kind of complicated at the bottom. Like you need to learn how to do like frog kicks and stuff like that. So you’re not kicking the sediment. Yeah, because once you started stirring it up like good luck. Yeah, like you need to either come back up or you’re going to get stuck down there and probably get confused. A bunch of trees and crap down there. Like what’s the land? Yeah, there’s there’s some weird.
There’s like falling trees and stuff. There’s, there’s like cars, like random cars in there. Um, they’re one of the cars over at beacon. They put a, like a skeleton, uh, mannequin in the driver’s seat. And then they, I guess they got told like, Hey, can you guys take that out? It’s like starting to scare people. So, uh, where, where is beacon? It’s so it’s out around silver Marina, right? You can just keep going.
Okay. Go up and over Bennett Bay. Yeah. When you come down, it’s one of those bays. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. And so is Osprey Point. It’s one, one babe or one little stop. So do you park in like one of those? Oh, everyone just parks on the side of the road. Like, you know, all your crap down there and jump in. Yeah. It’s super, it’s super fun though. I like the dive community in this town is awesome too. I’ve met a ton of cool people. Like, so there’s a lot of people that do it. Yeah. And they’re just like genuine good people, you know, and there’s,
That’s kind of where I, I don’t know. Like once I got sober, I started figuring out, like, I just wanted like people in my life that like added to it. Yeah. And like the scuba diving community adds to it. Is that what got you into jujitsu too? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, Tyler, actually Tyler Vranick. He kept bugging me about going to, I don’t think I know him. Yeah, you probably did. He stayed at the gym. We don’t talk about, but like he kept talking to me about going there and like Seth had just passed away and I was like, Oh yeah.
Blaine Holom (25:57.902)
Not this set. No, clearly the great far well. Yeah. Yeah. He’s, I wish I’d met him. He’s a stud. Yeah. And then, uh, and so I went in, uh, Tobin was coaching the class when he, is he black belt yet? Uh, I think he might be. Yeah. I mean, he’s a stud. Yeah. But he taught the slide pass that night. And like, I was just like, yeah, I could do that. And I slid, I did the slide pass on Tyler like in wide role and like Tobin loss. He’s like, yeah.
I was like, I like this. And so I dug in, did it for like, you know, over two years and finally got that bully belt and did two competitions. First one I got, I got one win, which was good. That was my only goal because I only trained for like six months. And, uh, and then the second time I competed, I like rolled like three times prior, but I ended up double meddling. So it was fine. Got a silver and absolute bronze in my way. I was gassed.
So you’re going to commit to the morning classes at the word a hundred percent. It’s gotta be my way. Like that’s the only way. Um, my life’s too crazy. That’s my problem. Like I’m too busy. If I don’t do it first thing in the morning, like it’s not happening. I just got into too many things and now it’s like, that’s the problem is like I got sober and started like going after everything I wanted to do. Yeah. And like scuba diving was the first thing and I, and scuba diving took over my wife for a little bit, but you know, Jujitsu is easy to fit into your scuba diving.
you know, journey. Yeah. But then photography came and motorcycles came and refereeing basketball and umpiring baseball. You do a lot. Yeah. Do you actually work? I do work. It’s funny because like people was like, oh, man, like you never work. And I’m like, that’s weird, because every time you call me, I’m in Montana work or I’m in Tri -Cities or.
You know, it’s like the only time you see me is when I’m not working and you act like you see me every day. Yeah. And they’re like, Oh yeah, you’re right. You are always in Montana. I’m like, yeah, it takes a lot to build a company. So, but that’s the beauty is like photography now is like with all my travels, like I’ll go see all my accounts and then I’ll do some follow up and then I’ll like head out during the golden hour and start shooting photography. I want to get to that, but let’s backtrack for a second. So.
Blaine Holom (28:18.094)
Can the drinking thing is that from something or have it just always been good to you? Like, you know, drinking was, I don’t know if it’s always been good to me, honestly, like when I started thinking about it, cause I started drinking freshman year in high school. Sorry, mom. Uh, but, uh, I mean, I think they know, cause they found me wasted at home. That was the thing to do back. I mean, it was, Coeur d ‘Alene was a small town. Like,
We’re kids, you know, all the country songs talk about backwoods, kids drinking, getting caught, you know, they wish it wouldn’t happen. That’s my child. Yeah. We had some cell that’s in the woods, but I mean, I don’t know if it was ever good because like I would, it really didn’t ever add to my life. And then after Afghanistan, it was like, it really wasn’t adding to my life. It was like, that’s what kind of what I was getting at. Like, is this, is this something like a coping mechanism from deploying or what?
I went I don’t know. Honestly, I think it was a little bit of everything because it runs in my family. You know, so my grandpa died from alcoholism before I was even born. He was only I think early 50s, you know. Yeah. And 85, I think I was born in 87. Oh, my brother doesn’t really know him because he was born in 82 or 81. Oh, shit. I don’t know. Sorry, Derek.
He was born in September though. So I got that part, right? Yeah. I used to use his ID to get into bars actually, but, uh, but yeah, I just, it was, I was kind of ruining my life for with it. Like it was just like kind of over consumed to me. That’s good that you were able to recognize that and like, you know, make that switch and it’s a hard thing to do, man. Like I got two uncles that are pretty much on the verge of that’s it for them. They really quit and they don’t think they have a problem.
One of them is just, that’s interesting how it does like firmly run in families. Oh yeah. And my parents, like they kind of, they really cut back. Like they hardly ever drink anymore. Yeah. But like back in the day, Coeur d ‘Alene was a softball town, you know, people would be at the Lakers after softball Tuesday, Thursday night, you know, and like, that’s just what people did in this town. Yep. I mean, all the softball fields had beer gardens. That’s awesome. I know back in the day, that’s really, it would have been awesome for me, but.
Blaine Holom (30:40.014)
Now it’s like, I don’t even miss it. Cause it’s like, if, if I was still drinking, I wouldn’t be scuba diving. Right. Yeah. All of those. Yeah. You certainly wouldn’t be going to Jujitsu because that’s really hard. Yeah. You wouldn’t be getting up at five 30 to go. No, I’m gonna have to get up at like five though. Cause I feel like I have to shower before Jujitsu or I just feel like the dude. We appreciate that. Yeah. I always shower like before I go to bed, which is like a weird habit from being a cop. Then you guys do your stupid cold pun shower. Yeah, we do that right after, but bring your bathing suit. I’m not doing that. Um,
Yeah, I get up at 430 pretty every day during the week because I need that time. So I get up, you know, I’ll have my coffee and just sit on the couch and like, you know, turn the fireplace on the dogs are chilling. And then my wife usually gets up around the same time. So that’s her time to like just talk and kind of prep for the day. Please. You got it. You got a sweet house. Oh, no. Oh, we sold. We’re so we’re sold it or it’s being sold right now. You’re not living in it. No. What we moved out. You guys buy a new house. Yeah. I’ll tell you where after.
Let’s tell everyone it’s on the down low subscribers on YouTube. It’s on the down low. Um, I actually, part of the reason I moved is cause I was like, it was getting too visible. Like I was really easy to spot and, uh, yeah. Cause people follow your podcasts. Yeah. It’s like being a celebrity now in Coeur d ‘Alene, right? Well, yeah. But so, but there’s a lot of people that like, don’t like me. Oh, really? Yeah. There’s the, there’s the ultra conservative that I’m not conservative enough.
And they think that I’m causing the downfall of Idaho. There’s that group. And then there’s the liberal side. And I’m not so worried about them because, you know, purple hair and soft hands. I don’t care about that. I’ve never been scared. It’s, it’s the crazies over here that, you know, you just don’t know. And I didn’t like, I don’t want to deal with that with the family. So. Yeah, I could see that. I, so we’re, we’re not far out of town. We’re not like the Tim Kennedy’s right. We’re.
No, I’m not that hard. He got heard that the Taliban were looking for him. So he went on Fox and told them exactly where he lived and that if they wanted to come to send people that didn’t, they didn’t care to get back. I’m like, yeah, I don’t know if I’d do that. I know he can get away with it. Yeah. I’m listening to him on a Sean Ryan show right now. Like what a stud, man. I mean, I have a good amount of firearms, but like if you sent like,
Blaine Holom (32:58.958)
a whole mobbed in my house. Like it would be hard. It’d be hard, dude. And if you’re sleeping, I mean, you’re already behind the curve, right? Like I don’t have a two 40. You’re right. Tim Kennedy probably doesn’t sleep and he’s got alarms and he’s got booby traps. Yeah. Like he’s like straight Ruby rich setup. Yeah. No, I wouldn’t personally do that either. I prefer to just be low key. I don’t want to be involved in anything. I always get asked about it when I travel to. Yeah.
They’re always like, Ruby Ridge. I’m like, yeah, it’s here. I was like, the government messed up. I my old graveyard partner moved here. Shout out to my boy, Sam. And he’s just like a history nerd. Yeah. So we’re looking at houses and he’s like, I want to go look at this house, like way up in the middle of nowhere. All right, dude. Like, let’s go. And we go up there in this house is a complete.
piece of shit. I’m like, you’re not buying this house. I know you don’t even want to buy this house on the way back down. He’s like, Hey, hold up. Stop at this intersection here real quick. And we get out and he’s like, take a picture of me here. This on the way to sand point. Yeah, it’s up there. Yeah. So it’s, it’s at Ruby. He took you to a river. Yes. He took me to Ruby Ridge and there’s a particular bridge where the FBI had set up and he took a picture there. And I was like, you son of a bitch. Like you wasted half a day of my time. Cause you know, I wouldn’t have taken you here if you had just told me that you wanted.
Yeah, it was pretty damn funny, but so yeah, it’s here. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, it’s cool. I mean, it’s not cool history when you think about it because now it’s sad. It is sad. And it’s, uh, you know, uh, I’m not a full on conspiracy theorist, but you know, I do recognize when the government overreaches and that sounds like it was a strong overreach. They, the FBI or yeah, the FBI still claims or still has that listed as a successful mission for them. Yeah.
I’m like, I don’t know about that. And maybe biting terms. Zing. Everybody will like you for that. Yeah. That comment. So, OK. You deployed to Afghanistan. Yeah. 2010. You’re in the Navy. I don’t understand this. I know. How’s this? I have a Navy hat here, by the way. Yeah, I was on the USS. I was at the USS Ronald Reagan.
Blaine Holom (35:18.478)
Um, and they shipped us right up on this, onto the shore. Um, it was like D -Day, man. It was crazy. Minus all the machine gun fire. Yeah. It was more like it was raining like skittles. So like we were, I felt like we were in a San Francisco commercial. It was, it was pretty cool. The village people showed up. We had a great time. Yeah. No. So I was a CB in the Navy.
And, uh, what’s funny is like, if you ever meet a CB, you’ll be like, Oh, what branch we in the back? Oh, it’s CB. You’re like, in the name. Cause like most people, I don’t know what that is to be honest with you. I’ve seen the, I’ve seen the, uh, logo. Yeah. So there was a movie, the fighting CBs, John Wayne plays it, the main guy in it. So like he was playing, he played you in that movie, basically. No, cause it was like World War II. So like actually a little history lesson here is, uh,
My grandpa was in the Navy. He was a shopkeeper on the USS, um, Denver. Yeah. It was a destroyer and, uh, they, his ship saw the most action in South Pacific from 44 to 46. And I got all the photographs and it was awesome. Yeah. So his brother Stan though was a CB and he was on Guam fighting the Japs and in Guam. Okay. So what does a CB do? Cause I don’t know. So CB it’s spelled S E a B E right. But it’s, it really stands for the letter C.
in the letter B, construction battalion. So we’re the combat engineers of the Navy really. And that would be the purpose of that would be, cause I know like Marines have those, army has that. Yeah. So your job or do they remind me? Yeah, no, the air force, they have the red horses, which we refer to as the pink ponies. So, sorry guys. So your job as a CB in the Navy would be like a traditional, like say world war two, you’d be dealing with mines on the beach and crap like that and getting ready for. So we have a, we have such a broad.
spectrum of like work. So like when I deployed, I was part of it’s called air debt. And so like there was like 130 of us that went up and joined a task force with the Army Rangers and the sea in the seals, right. And then we had main body, which those guys are going to be like just doing construction work and stuff like that. And they were down south, we kind of went up north, I was at fob so I don’t know, which if anyone’s ever been Afghanistan, fob so I know was known as rocket city.
Blaine Holom (37:38.414)
So we got rocket attack all the time. That sucks. Yeah. And, uh, and then, um, we have like wine hall teams, we have well drilling teams, we have convoy, um, convoy security elements, which all they do is convoy and protect material around. Um, then we have bulldozer team, which those guys had, that’s the coolest job. Are they armored bulldozers? These bulldozers are like humongous, like.
You have to climb up a ladder to get into the driver’s seat, right? Like a huge ladder and they’re up armored and they’re out just bulldozing like poppy seed fields and stuff. That’d be free fun, dude. Yeah. They’re getting shot at a lot. Um, but when I was in Afghanistan, it was 2010 to 11, which still to this day, I believe is the bloodiest time of the whole war. It was, it was nuts. Like in August of 2010, we had a complex attack on our, on our fob and.
It’s crazy to think about it now because it’s been what 14 years long time, dude. Yeah, dude. It feels like yesterday. Yeah. Right. So we were like, it all started at like four in the morning. Right. So they started wobbling mortars from a direction. And so while they were doing that, there was nine of them that had crawled up to the flight line, which I shouldn’t say flight line because it’s like a runway, but it’s like this tiny gravel runway that a C 130 can land on anything bigger couldn’t. Um,
And like they had breached our wire, got on our base. And so we woke up and it was a 10 hour complex attack. Like they just kept sending people in. Dude, that’s a long time to be in a heightened state. And if anyone knows like the green bean, it’s like the Starbucks over there, right? It’s the only cool thing we had on our fob. It’s like this little shed actually that they serve coffee. And like if you were kind of backed up, like you would go get a green bean and so you could.
not be backed up anymore. Um, but one of them got just merked right next to the green bean and like they were wearing army AC use like, Oh dude. Yeah. It was, I mean, it was piss poorly done, but like they got their ass handed to them that day. That was the first time I realized the media though was full of shit. Yeah. Because yeah. Who sports like release this article and was like, Oh, we killed like 120 of them and like nobody got hurt. And I’m like, the hell.
Blaine Holom (40:03.118)
I think we, I don’t even know what the real number was, but there was only like nine actually confirmed on base that got marked. I don’t know about the other, I I’m assuming there was a good amount, but not a hundred and something, but it was a long day. Like we had a gunship overhead cruising around. You could hear the cannon just going and it was like, Whoa, those guys probably had a lot of fun. Yeah. I ran into a, uh, at the Patriot pour, which you should be coming to occasionally, but where do they pour in coffee, bro?
Do you not know about this? I don’t know the Patriot Porter sounds like a brew fest to me. It does it could be that but every Wednesday at life public house 8 to 10 it’s free coffee for vets and first responders. It’s a cool ass group of people. Okay, so Life coffee. Yeah, great place When I was in Afghanistan that place was called Calypso’s. Yeah, it was crap hole. No It was the second owners of clips. Those were the first owners were Todd Maria. Okay, they
they would send me boxes of coffee to Afghanistan and my father. Really? Yeah. For free. Right. Just to love does that’s um, I got it and I was like, Oh, this is rad. And then I’m looking at it and I’m like, shit, it’s whole beans. I was like, I don’t have a copy. I had to have my mom mail me a coffee grinder to Afghanistan. That’s awesome, dude. And uh, it took like a month to get there, but we hit, we were waiting as soon as I got there. Like I was the copy guy.
the rest of the appointment. Like every Saturday morning we’d have coffee before we had to like go to mission waves and stuff. You could have like, I mean it’s pretty much the same story as Evan Hayford, bro. You could have just continued that and started another Black Rifle and you would have been good. I missed that. Yeah, you missed it a little bit, I think. I don’t think Evan would like me either. No? No. I don’t know. Maybe. I’m kind of a smart ass. Never met him. Yeah. As you know. I don’t know. So, okay.
This is good stuff, man. I’m always so curious about like deploying and living that lifestyle and what it’s like. So we’re talking about the Patriot board. Yeah. Okay. You better go. I know where I was going with that. Yeah. There’s a dude there that flies. They used to fly a Apaches. Speaking of patches, I saw one get hit with an RPG right above me during that complex. Like first thing it was crazy. There was like six of us. That would be the craziest thing to watch. I thought it was going to be this huge explosion, right?
Blaine Holom (42:25.358)
But like when it hit, it was just like this loud bang, right? And I’m like, I think it just got hit. And like, I can’t remember. Is that cause the movies like condition us to think it’s going to be a giant fireball? It’s not actually. Yeah. Everything’s totally different. Like then saving private Ryan. Um, even though I think that was actually like historically, like the guys that were there said it was pretty damn close, but I, that was a bad movie to use as an example of a bad war movie. That was a terrible movie. Actually. I would say like,
Oh, I don’t even know. I don’t watch them. No, we get it though. Like, right. You see a giant fireball. Yeah, it’s not that you just hear a bang and then like die hard. Did he go down? That’s a good thing. It’s not like that. No. Well, so he got hit and the word I got from the everyone else on the base was or the five I should say was he took some trap metal to shoulder. Damn. But he he swung around and then he lit the dude up and shot it. And then he did a hard landing over where he were like.
He’s wearing stuff. Hell. Yeah. Yeah. I for I he’s like, all right, you want to shoot me with a RPG, bro? Let’s go. That was like the turning point of deployment was like that complex attack was nuts because then I ended up because I was the only welder How old were you at the time? It’s 24. Okay, like I was a kid. Actually, I was 23 I just did you see did you not enlisted 18? I listed at 19. Okay, so you’re pretty close. Yeah, I was close I had a hard time getting in now. I guess they’ve forward the standards
That’s the thing they blow the standards for everywhere. Yeah, cuz I Wasn’t I wasn’t a good test taker growing up So that’s probably hence why I became a CB to because the only jobs that were offered to me were CB jobs I could have been a CM equipment operator a Builder a framer or a steelworker a welder and I was like I called my mom. She’s like well Welding would be I was like, yep
And so I was like, all right, I’ll be a welder. And then I found out later that my great uncle was a CB and then I started getting into history CB. So it was pretty cool. Bootcamp was a waste of time though. I mean, Navy bootcamp, they’re teaching that’d be a thing. And, uh, and I knew I wasn’t going to be on ships. Like this is not a thing. I knew like, I wanted to join the Marines. I wanted to join the army. And every time I brought it up, my mom would start crying. So I was like, all right. And so I did some, I kind of like,
Blaine Holom (44:45.646)
was like, I’ll do the Navy. And then when the, when I was signed up for my job in the Navy, they’re like, well, see, these aren’t really on ships, but they’re, they’re like on the front lines. I was like, yeah, sounds good. My mom just needs to know I’m joining the Navy and I’m going to be a welder. She thought I would be a welder on a ship. She was so mad when I went to Afghanistan, my grandma was too. She actually, she passed away. Like, I can’t remember how it was right before I deployed. I remember I saw her in the hospital and
And I told her I was going to Afghanistan and I don’t know why that was so dumb. She was having pneumonia. So like the last thing she needed to hear was me going. Yeah. She’d probably be better not know it. I was a kid. I was 19. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was 23. Yeah. So, so you’d already been in the Navy for a bit before you do. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I kept missing. I missed out on the first appointment to Ramadi and I was like pissed. And then when the BNR came out, which is the by name request list for the battalion, I wasn’t on it.
And I was super pissed. So I, I bitched and moaned up the command and they all left to Biloxi, Mississippi to start training up to go. And like a month later I was flying to join them. I was like, these guys are not going without me. Yeah. That would be a bummer to like, you know, sign up to serve and then completely miss out. Yeah. I was, it was weird. Cause like, I was like heartbroken. Yeah. Hang on. Yeah. Keep talking about, Oh,
about the war. So yeah, and then so that was like the turning point, right. And then from there, I ended up going to just kind of taking a tour around the country. Like I’ve been to calf, which is candor. I went to a bog room for a couple, couple months, not a couple months, couple weeks, couple months would have been eternity there with the flag and everything. Oh my god. So the flag is like your commanding officer of the air detachment was there. So
You don’t want to be near it. You always want to be away from the flag. Did you did you feel like that was the thing that like aged you and like, you know, I mean, like all this gray. Yeah, no. Like, you know, like for me, I’m surprised you don’t have as much gray with being in firefighting stuff as my head is pretty gray if it actually grows in. For me, like going to the CHP Academy and I was 27 when I went like that was a you were a grandpa.
Blaine Holom (47:12.11)
I was old. There was guys that were like 35, but I was like pretty old because there’s a lot of 21 year olds too. That like matured me a lot. And I thought I was mature at that point. Right. And I mean, 27, that’s not young. So that’s what you’re getting at. That’s what I’m getting at. Yeah. So when I came out the experience, yeah. Like I used to be a huge sports fan. Right. I came home from Afghanistan. I didn’t get anything about sports. I didn’t care. I was like, whatever. What were your priorities at that point? Drinking? Yeah. Yeah. Like the first thing I like, this is your sign.
We flew back from Afghanistan in 2011 and we left Kuwait. We didn’t get off the plane until we got back to Mississippi. And it was like we had to refill in these places and do maintenance. They wouldn’t let us off the plane, which I thought was bullshit because it sucks sitting on a plane for like two days. That’s awful. It’s horrendous. Almost torturous. Yeah. It’s like being in it. I don’t even know what like some mariners probably can.
Understand it. Yeah, you know a little tube stuck in it forever, but a bunch of smelly ass dudes Yeah, 60 dudes go down on a board 30 30 couples come up. They say that’s a mariner That’s hilarious that you say that guys like Eric brings that up all the time. Yeah. Yeah, it’s true. It’s true It’s very true for them CB is like but like the first thing we do we landed I got off we went they were gonna check us into the hotel on base and the rooms weren’t ready, right? And it’s like 2 in the afternoon. I’m like you guys didn’t know
I was like, you know how we get in these rooms and everyone’s looking at me. Cause I don’t know. I always had the brilliant ideas, I guess. I was like, there’s a liquor store right there. Let’s, let’s go get some bottles and start drinking out front. I bet we get in those rooms pretty quick. Yeah. So I instantly bought Jack Daniel’s cause they didn’t have anything else that was, that started drinking it, pugging it. And I hadn’t drank it. I don’t even know the whole deployment. Yeah. Cause it’s not possible.
Yeah. We weren’t like special forces. We were just part of the fight, the special operations group. So like, I guess the special forces guys have alcohol all the time or like seals. They can get it. I’m sure the Rangers were getting it too. We just like us. It was like, you get caught drinking. You’re like, you’re screwed. So like, we just didn’t even mess with it. But so like, I’m super lightweight now. And like, I remember that first night I was like throwing up and I’m just like, wow.
Blaine Holom (49:39.246)
Oh, why did I start this again? And then, gosh, was it 2011? Then 18, finally I’m like, okay, I’m done with this. So I’m gonna start chasing some dreams. Yeah. Yeah. Were you married when you got back, when you were deployed or? No, I had met Andrea like literally two months before I left. So I was like, Hey, and I didn’t really tell her. And then I told her, I was like, by the way, I’m going to Afghanistan. How long were you there?
I think nine months, a little longer than that. It’s a pretty long time. I don’t know. I’d have to do the math. Yeah, it’s a long time. I’m not good at math right now. And then, so yeah, and then four years after we started kind of dating, we finally got married on our anniversary, which is coming up 10 years this month, April 26. Dude, nice. Time flies when you’re sober.
When you’re sober and happily, someone’s going to think I’m an asshole because I’m drinking bourbon here while you’re talking about, I gave him permission. I did ask. Yeah. I don’t want to be a jerk. I don’t want to like tempt anyone. Give me that. This is your moment. Don’t be a quitter. Everyone’s going to see me relapse from live on podcast. We don’t want to see that. No, I don’t want to see that. That’s good, dude. Like I think it’s good. I think it’s good to conquer that. Yeah. Right. Um, let’s talk about warriors in quiet waters a little bit. Where does in quiet waters that, like I said, like,
There’s two things that have really like brought my wife kind of together and that’s scuba diving. Well, I guess three things. Jiu -Jitsu. I was waiting to see where you say that. And then worries and quiet waters. Yeah. So when I went in the war isn’t quiet waters, I went into the fly fishing side first and they just made a movie mending the line. Oh, last year I think it came out. Did you go last year? I remember you talking about it for the first time, right? Yeah. So the first time I went talking about it, I was like, I didn’t had no idea what it was. Yeah. So, uh, I went there.
As a participant in the fly fishing it’s called built for more right and that’s the program you go in and I got a bunch of friends trying to get into it right now because it’s a legit program it’s amazing so Mending the line is a movie that just hit number one on Netflix right and at the end of it they they show Worries and quiet waters like he’s running the program at the ranch and he’s wearing the shirt and they’re fishing into the pond that’s right there at the lunch because your introductory day they have They have ponds
Blaine Holom (51:59.79)
on the ranch and they’re loaded with fish, right? And they’re pellet feeding them. Yeah. That’s fun. It’s a monster. So I’m constantly, yeah. It’s nothing like the legacy ranch that they take you to where you’re catching like rainbows that are like eight pounds, you know? And it’s like, that’s not real. It’s like, yeah, it’s real. It just, it was pellet bread, bread, you know? So, uh, your introductory days there. And I had the pleasure of stopping by actually last week or the week before I can.
for the first fishing exercise this year and being a photographer for it but um back to going through the program first um they take you through the pillars of life right i think there’s like seven pillars that you’re running through and you’re and it’s a year -long program where you’re doing a zoom meeting every month once a month with your cohorts right you’re talking about stuff and you’re getting stuff off your chest and usually with i think um larry and i think they heard somebody else too that’s now uh
program facilitators. So they are probably have a group and he has a group and where he’s awesome. Like I love that guy. He’s a retired CSM. You know, he he literally went through the program too and was working as like pretty high up in one of the phone companies and then figured out that like his real passion was helping veterans. Yeah. And so he he took a job with Warris and Quietwaters and now he’s running, you know, the programs and stuff and.
There’s a lot of people in that program that I absolutely love. And it’s kind of cool. I was founded because it’s, it was founded by a Colonel Eric Hastings, right? He was a Vietnam vet. I don’t want to butcher this, but I think he was a fighter pilot. So he’s known to drive really fast too. Um, but he started helping veterans in Montana, learn how to fly fish. And then his wife was like, we need to do this, like to help veterans. So they started that. And then.
They hired on a CEO, Brian Gilman. And, uh, I think Brian Gilman’s been on Andy Stump’s podcast too. Solid guy. He’s the one of the most intimidating dudes I’ve ever met. Um, he’s got a big old beard and he’s clean cut, but like a really nice shaped big beard. He’s a retired Colonel from the Marines been in the combat hundreds of times, you know, like,
Blaine Holom (54:20.782)
He’s a man’s man. Like been on the front lines. Like he’s seen his, he’s cut his teeth. And, uh, like I, I still even when I’m around the ranch, he’ll be like, boy, nice to see you. And I’m like, Hey, yes, sir. Like the joke always too, at every event too, that’s there. Like every time an FX is going, I hear the same joke. I, I even made the joke when I was there going through it. It was like, am I going to get yelled on for walking on the grass? Cause like in the military, you do not walk on the grass. You walk your ass on that sidewalk.
There’s a crosswalk a mile up. You’ll go that crosswalk. You ain’t crossing the street right there. If you’re on base, you know what I mean? Um, and then there’s a lot of cool people that I’ve met through that program. Like, uh, Claire, she’s the director of the warriors experience. She’s, she’s on most of the calls too. She’s just the biggest sweetheart ever. Like she’s great to talk to. She’s, she’s a retired Navy helicopter, like a Seahawk pilot.
or Black Heart, I don’t know what they call it on the ships. And then there’s Casey Giles, she’s an alumni engagement. And then the program director now is, he used to be a guide. I think he’s still a guide, but he works full time for them now. But Jesse, I don’t want to butcher his last name, but I think it’s Leneve. But he like solid guy, great guy. Well, he’s fun. And then they just got this new girl.
Uh, for logistics, her name is Haley, uh, Netterville. And, uh, she’s got like a ton of different accents, like, cause she’s from like Texas from like Virginia total. She’s total rock star, right? She’s a fly Fisher. Um, I think her Instagram’s like Montana Fisher girl or something like that, but she’s hilarious, but she’s in charge of like getting all the flights and stuff. Cause you don’t have to be like, they’re going to fly you there. They, they flow somebody from Puerto Rico and for the program.
Like how many people are they bringing in at a time and like a year and all that? So each there, I want to, cause there’s so many different things going on, right? So each FX has between six and eight warriors that come in and the warrior, when we come in, we will get outfitted with all the gear and like Sims is a big part of this, right? Sims fly fishing. Yeah. Their headquarters is in their factory too. I think is in Bozeman.
Blaine Holom (56:41.678)
And, uh, they’ll like have somebody come and explain the gear and like, they give you all the gear. You keep it. Like it’s. If I had to guess it’s probably like $6 ,000 worth of gear, dude. Like, and you keep it right. And that’s, that’s just like one of the programs, right. And then you will, you’ll get paired up with a fly fishing professional guide and like one of them, like Whitney gold, like she’s a world champion spay caster. Like.
just went to Norway not long ago, won the world. She’s a world champion. I did not know that was a thing. And she is now guiding a warrior and teaching him how to fly fish. And she’s from Craig, Montana, I think. And she’s amazing. And then there’s a ton of cool stories like Rodney. He’s one of the guides. He went through the program back in the day. He was over in Afghanistan during the initial stuff and he got messed up. His wife was like, hey, I signed you up to go learn how to fly fish, Montana. And he was like,
I ain’t going to go learn how to fly fish in Montana like that. No, I didn’t get it. She’s like, I already signed you up. You’re going. So he goes to this program, right? And he falls in love with fly fishing and then becomes a fly fisher and then becomes and then moves this entire family from the East Coast to the bitter root, which is like Missoula, Victor Hamilton area. Yeah. Professional fly fishing guide now and live in his any guides warriors now through the program and teach him how to fly fish. It’s amazing. So you get paired with a.
Professional guide you also get a companion with you that week So somebody volunteers to be your companion that week and they’re just there to like if you want to talk you can talk if you don’t you know But they’re helping you out with like winding up your your rod getting it all packed away like you’re literally getting red cart Red carpet treatment like throughout this whole weekend like so the first day you get there you get introduced to your gear and stuff the second day They introduce you to fly fishing and they have their pawns right there
and they teach you how to fly fish. The third day, you’re either going to a river or a ranch lake. Then the fourth day, you’re doing the same thing. The fifth day, you’re doing travel. So the last, the Thursday that you’re there, you’ll go fish all day, you’ll come back and then you do what they do a Sayonara dinner. And everyone gets to go around just like kind of like say their piece and like it’s oh, it’s just amazing. Like the the experience that people have and
Blaine Holom (59:07.598)
the breakthrough that they have. Cause like some of these, some of these guys, even like me, when we go through it, we’re like down the dumps, man. And then at the end of it, you’re, you’re like a ray of shining light leaving that place. And then all you want to do is get back to that ranch. Cause it’s like where you feel like. That’s awesome, dude. Do they, um, do they have first responders too, or just veterans? They just have post nine 11 combat veterans, but they also do other programs. Like, uh, they do the same programs for caregivers. Um,
for alumni programs, they also do like family FXs and couples FXs. FX is like field exercise in the military. So they kind of kept that theme going. Yep. Um, and then they also do an alumni program photography and then also hunt for purpose. Now, when I originally signed up for this, I was thinking, dude, I really want to do hunt for purpose. Like I want to learn how to archery hunt for elk. And like, I mean, they got big names like Randy something guys in Montana. He’s on like hunting network. I don’t know his name.
Sorry, man. But he’s like super famous, right? They got the meat eater Steve. Renella. Renella. Like he’s been a part of it before. But like, I was like, I’m gonna do hunt for purpose. I want to learn how to archery elk hunts. Because like when I grew up here, my dad was a sports guy, right? So I grew up playing sports instead of hunting and fishing, like what I should have been in my mind, what I should have actually focused on, because I think it would have made it easier in life to get out in nature a lot more.
But so I was like, I’m going to sign up for that. Then I went through my effects and I was like, where are these guys taking photos of? And like one of them, I’m like, I’m pretty sure he was a veteran. His name was David, Dave Sterling. And like he’d lost his arm in an explosion in I think Iraq from an IED. And like he was shooting photos and like super cool guy. Right. I was like, man, what are you? So you’re here on your own like effects. He’s like, yeah, I’m doing photography. It’s an alumni program. I was like, what?
So I’m like watching it and I’m like asking him questions and I was like, that’s what I’m going to play for next. Did you, were you always interested in that? Or did it just never catch your eye? It just caught my eye. Never. If you’d have told me 10 years ago that I’d be, uh, this world traveling scuba diver, world traveling photographer, have a photography Instagram, like how to tell you, nah, never, no, like, and it caught my eye. And I thought it was going to take me like two years to like,
Blaine Holom (01:01:33.678)
Probably like two or three years of applying for it to get it because they had I think like 60 applicants They only take three a year. Oh wow and so like you really have to put your your heart into those essay questions and I waited out there and I got selected I was like no way and so like I’m I’m just blessed to have met the people I’ve met so far like when I went for the alumni program for photography like my main mentor
The, the one I connected with the most actually, because I talked to him before this podcast, I have to say it first. Um, Russell clicker was the greatest photographer of all time. Um, did he tell you have to say it like that? Maybe, um, he’s actually really good friends with a guy named Jeremy walk to who’s also one of my mentors. And then there’s been, uh, Elton is, um, who’s an incredible photographer, but then we had two team leads that live in Montana.
Kelly King, I think his last name was, and then Harry Miller, and they were, they’re amazing photographers too. And so I gotta go back in the alumni program in photography and meeting these guys and like, Jeremy Locke was a seven time award winning photographer of the year for military, right? He’s also got a bronze star. Oh wow. And I had to, I was like, wait, a photographer got a bronze star?
So I started thinking, I was like, man, is this like one of those like special ops thing where they write up their own words at the end or something, you know, calling some people out there. And so I like looked it up and like his bronze star right up. It’s pretty incredible. And it makes sense. I think he like gave a do a soldier that got hit and like had to drive a Humphrey and a firefight till I get him out and stuff. I I’m probably butchering that they can look it up though. Yeah, they can look it up. If you, if you Google Jeremy lock.
Not only will you see his website because his website’s incredible. He’s got amazing blogs. And that’s like one thing that I look forward to the most is like reading those blogs now is because you pick something up from each photographer. Like I went through boot camp for photography with these guys. Like we I shot probably 12 ,000 photos in three days. Like two of those days were in Yellowstone. And like, um,
Blaine Holom (01:03:54.798)
I’ve seen some of the photos you got. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I’m getting charged by bison now. I love it. Like, I love it. So like, I wish I could tell a story like Jeremy Locke does with photos. Like, but I’m, I’m picking that up from him, you know, like I’m learning from him how to, how to tell the story in eight photos and you could get like a week long vision of just eight photos. Um, I’m learning patience and waiting for the moment with, uh, Russell Cloca, like watching how he.
He always seems to find the moment, you know, and like the other day when I got that bison charging me, it was like, I had to be patient for that and wait for the moment. And it happened. And I caught it. Like I picked that up from Russell and then some of these nights sky photos that I do, like some of the best action photos and nights guys I’ve ever seen have been from Ben. Like he can, he can make a night sky look like something I’ve never seen before. And that.
Is that done like in the after side, like the editing side or is it mostly? I think it’s, it’s both, right? So you have to have your aperture, right? You have to have your, your ISO, right? You gotta have your shutter speed, everything right. Right. Um, and that’s where it comes down. Cause like you’re setting like a 32nd exposure for some of those. So you need a tripod. Cause I tried to do my first one without a tripod. I ain’t holding still for 30 seconds. I feel like I have Tourette’s all of a sudden when I try to stay still. I’m like,
And so it’s, it’s been incredible, like meeting those guys that really changed my life, like, like drastically. So where do you go from here with that? I’ll be still giving back to worries and quiet waters every chance I get. So every time they bring a FX and like, I’m going to be trying to like, ask them if I can stop in and take photos for him, you know? Yeah. Or if they have fundraisers, like I’d love to go do that and help them out anyway, I can’t cause I have to go there for work anyway. So.
It makes it just makes it easy to go. Yeah, you’re already right there. Kick ass at my job. And then that evening go take photos, you know, that’s awesome, dude. Yeah. What’s your Instagram? But can you put you want to put it out? Yeah, it’s just blamed underscore coal underscore photography. So what’s the what’s the coal? It’s my middle name. Okay, cool. So blame underscore coal. Yeah, CO le underscore photography. Okay. Yeah.
Blaine Holom (01:06:13.39)
There you go. It’s, it’s pretty cool. I love it. And like I said, the hunt for purpose is cool. I mean, they have programs for everyone and it’s just crazy. Like, you know, they, and now what they do is like, so you’ll go to your initial effects and you’ll do the fly fishing and you’ll learn it. You’ll go home, you’ll, you’ll fish, right? They’re going to, you’re going to want to anyways. And then you’re going to learn how to deal with stuff too at the same time. But then at the end of it all, they’re going to fly you back out to do a capstone event.
And like my capstone event was I went to Devil’s Lake in North Dakota and we ice fished for a week Dude, dude, I’ve never ice fished but it was during that crazy cold front too. Yeah, so it was negative 50 there the following week There was a 70 degree turn So the guys that came the week after for their capstone event In North Dakota had like they were wearing like hoodies outside on the ice. I was like they didn’t cut their teeth Not at all. I ice fished
Yeah. I did the real thing and like we were slaying fish. I didn’t think I’d like ice fishing. Yeah. I love ice fishing. It is so fun. Did you have like the little tent and all that? Yeah, we had no way I’m out there and negative 50. I was hoping that you would like contemplate if you really have to go to the bathroom or not. Right. Do I really have to pee? I don’t know. Can I just pee in the hole? I thought about that. It doesn’t work.
So you go outside and then you’re like, then you got to deal with the wind. You’re like, all right, don’t point at the wind like turn away. Like you don’t want to be in ice schools. Yeah, right. It’s nuts. But then it was funny too, because I was looking at it because then some other guys, their capstone event was going to South like South keys. Oh, wow. Saltwater fly fishing who pays for all this. So they get donors, right? Yeah, they do a really good job of fundraising. That’s fantastic. Yeah, like I know.
One of my accounts actually in Bozeman is one of their big donors, Simkin Hollins. What a great way to give back to veterans. That’s cool, man. I think it’s great. That’s the thing is I’ll see companies all the time post like, oh, 22 a day, let’s stop it. And then I’m looking at their social media and I’m like, well, what are you guys actually doing? Right. You can talk about it all day long, but you gotta do something. You can make a meme all you want about stop soldier suicide.
Blaine Holom (01:08:31.278)
It breaks my heart because like you think about it, a lot of those soldiers are probably first responders too. Oh yeah. And like now they’re seeing trauma in that and then they still know how to deal with it. And like, Warriors and Quiet Waters is actually going to fight 22 a day. And that number I think is low because I think I looked it up one time. Like the study was only done on like eight states. So out of eight states, they’re having 22 veterans kill themselves today. That’s a lot. And that’s the thing that kills me. It’s like,
Like what, what can I do to help? You know, like I, I, I’ve been in that shoes. Like I was down in the dumps, but I decided instead of ending it that way to end drinking and get my life on track and like start really going after it and surrounding yourself with people that are going to add to your life. Yeah. Like jujitsu, like I think everyone at the gym adds to my life and like Sparta training Academy will always have these most special place in my heart. Like those people like.
I just can’t, even if I quit Jiu -Jitsu, I’ll never quit my membership. If that makes sense. It does. Yeah. Um, but I’m not going to quit Jiu -Jitsu even though I got the blue belt. You’re already committed. I mean, I know we got to go. It’s only seven. I know we got to get up at 4 35 for you. I’ll just remember I’m up a half hour earlier than you. That makes me that much harder. Or are you doing the 4 34? Are you like Jaco up before the enemy? Yeah, exactly. Good. It’s my coffee time. I love coffee.
I sit on the couch and I drink my coffee. I relax. Yeah. Jiu -jitsu. It’s a, I know like it’s very, it’s probably becoming cliche to talk about because you know, the Joe Rogan starter pack, bow hunting, jiu -jitsu. I’ve literally been hitting all the, I’m hitting it all. Except that I’m not doing bow hunting. He’s onto something. I replaced it with photography. That’s cool too. Yeah. You need to go, do you know the boys at North, North Idaho archery? Is that Big John? Yeah.
I don’t I’ve met him a couple times but like I’ve never I never rolled with him. I always avoided the shit out of him Yeah, he hasn’t been training. He’s yeah, he’s injured. Yeah. Well, even if he was I would still avoid him dude He’s on a real estate team now, by the way That’s the thing though when you show up like now especially me like when I show up to the gym Like I’m a one -stripe blue belt like every white belt looks at me and is like I’m gonna prove
Blaine Holom (01:10:59.662)
Yeah, I’m a killin like they can because I’m out of shape like I last I went for like three times like two weeks ago and like Every white belt was handing me my lunch see it wasn’t because I didn’t know what to do is because I was too tired to do what I wanted where the morning class will be good for you because it’s a lot of guys our age yeah and I don’t feel like anybody has anything to prove right like I’m I’m pretty old and I I feel yeah I
I’m almost 44 dude. Somebody laughing because they’re like 60 and they’re like whatever junior, but yeah, I’m old So I have to be I see like 39. Yeah, I have to be very careful. Thank you, by the way So I gotta be kind of careful and that’s why I like morning class because everybody’s of the same mindset. Yeah, like we’re not trying to kill each other Yeah, no, I I’m excited for this. I’m excited for yeah, it’ll be uh It’ll just be one more little thing in your life that like gives you that positive experience. Yeah
Is there any, you know, I was wondering, is there any like programs for first responders that are dealing with stuff? There are. There’s actually one an hour south of here called Protectors Peak. Oh, it is run by a guy named Nate Harter. He’s been on the podcast. Super cool, dude. He’s a former police chief. I missed that episode, sorry. Yeah, you should go back and watch it. And they do a similar kind of thing. And there’s this Christian based, I think he…
I don’t know if they do any veterans. I can’t remember, but it is very first responder specific. They bring them in, you know, everything’s paid for. I think the people have to get themselves there, but then everything’s paid for. I think the White Oaks Foundation does first responders too, in military. Is it Mighty Oaks? Mighty Oaks. Are they in like Texas and California? Yeah, probably. Yeah, Chad Robshaw. Yeah. I think they do first responders. I just listened to his podcast on Sean Ryan. That was good. That dude’s a stud. I know Ways and Quiet Waters does like caretakers.
Okay. So they offer for caretakers. Yeah. So Protectors Peak does a spouse one as well. And they do the same kind of thing. They’re out in the middle of the woods. They do fly fishing, kayaking, just time away. That makes sense. It’s great. You know, there’s some, I know of a program in California, it was like West Coast, something, trauma retreat or something like that. And I knew some guys that went through it and it was a good program, but there’s something about that connection with nature. And I think,
Blaine Holom (01:13:18.67)
As you experience there, right? So that’s why I like protectors peak and we’re trying to bring more awareness to it because a lot of the guys that go there are from out of state not locally but it’s a great resource for local guys because they can drive down there so we’re Trying to bring some awareness to it so people know about it and can get down there and use that that’s it’s It’s so rewarding to be a part of programs like that. Yeah. So are you are you like do you actively give to those programs like?
volunteer form or something? No, I have not. I guess the only thing I’ve done for them is just to like put it out there more and try to create more awareness. I, we, our team, our real estate team talked about, you know, coming down and volunteering for, you know, a clean up day or something that we can help out. And, and you know what I mean? Like, I don’t know that I’m the guy to go there and like, you’d be surprised, man. I didn’t think I would be the one that wanted to like,
go back to FXs and stuff. But like when you see like the smile, like when you start to see the people that are going through it start to smile again. Yeah. And you’re the one that’s in charge of capturing that on a camera capturing those moments. That’s pretty cool. It’s the probably the most rewarding feeling I’ve ever had. I’ve like, I’ve been through hard times. Um, you know, after the fire and like, that was a rough day for a number of reasons and uh,
I didn’t know it at the time, but it completely changed. Like I didn’t want to go work the road. Like I was broken. Oh, the big fire in Cali. Yeah. So my house burned down. Is that called the Paradise Fire? It’s called the official name is Campfire, which is a terrible name because it doesn’t make sense. It’s a started by a campfire. No, it was started in a place. I think it was like the location. It was like Campfire Road or something. Yeah. No, not that part of California.
That’s funny. Yeah. So I was surprised that mountain hasn’t burned down. That’s me having to. Yeah. I just like, I just didn’t know what it is. Like I didn’t know what I was dealing with. Right. So you almost need to go through a program as a participant. I think I have like, I’ve gone to counseling. I went to counseling after that, like one -on -one and that was beneficial. And I think, you know, just talking like months later, I was in the office and I was talking with my graveyard partner and he was up there with me. You’re still working. Yeah. Um,
Blaine Holom (01:15:40.622)
And I’m in the office and like Sam and I were sharing a story from that day and like all the guys in the office like had no idea what had happened because they hadn’t been up there. Like Sam and I went up on you lost your house. Yeah. And then like we did a lot of evacuations and we were driving through some pretty sketchy shit. Yeah. So there was a lot of moments when I was like I’m a freaking die by getting burned to death and like that.
That weighed heavily, right? Yeah. And I did like, you know, talking it over with him in front of the other guys and realizing that none of them even knew what had happened that day. I was like, kind of bugged me. Um, but it’s also, you figured out what type of person you are that day. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh, right. Like you, uh, fight or flight. Yeah. Like I, we took, um, we had some guys working like on it, like they were working on a gym that we were building on our little like camp.
And like we took, I was across the camp and we took a, a rocket attack. Like it hit right where they were working. And I, I literally thought my friends were dead. I just sprinted straight to it. I was sprinting over there to see if they were okay. And I was going to get them. And when I got there, they, nobody was there. And I’m like, Oh shit. Like, I wonder where that guy went, dude. And then I’m like searching there and then I go back to the bunker and they’re in the bunker. And I’m like, Oh, thank God. Yeah.
I didn’t even think about it. Like what type of person am I? It’s like, yeah, I know who I am now. Right. You’ll go do like, especially for your friends. Like you don’t think about yourself when you think about other people to get out of sketchy situations. And you showed that you’ll go into the fire to rescue. You know, what’s funny too is I learned that day that courage has like, adrenaline. Well, yeah, no, like courage, like it wears out, like you get tired. Yeah. Cause I hit a point.
When I like, I was in doing evacuations, I was like in the fire and I like drove out and I was right on the edge and most of the people were out of the area that I was at. And I was just like sitting on the side of the road and I’m like, I’m fucking done, man. Like I don’t, I don’t want to go back in. Cause you had adrenaline dump going. Yeah. And I was like, done. I’m like, I feel like a bitch. Like I don’t, I’m not going back in. And, uh, that’s when my partner Sam rolled up and he’s like,
Blaine Holom (01:18:05.166)
At that moment, another chippy had put out over the radio that he crashed his car. He was on foot and he was getting consumed by fire. And now you want to go back in? Well, that’s right where I had just come from. And I knew it was fully engulfed. And I’m like, you will fucking die if you go in there. And Sam’s like, I’m going. And I like physically restrained him. And then, um, you know, he, uh, he like got in his car and tried to go.
He hit the wall and was like, yeah, I can’t. And, uh, but I don’t even know where I was going with that, but it was like a really intense moment. And then right about that same time, um, there was a hospital up there and they were calling for help to go evacuate the hospital. And I, once again, I’m like, I fucking can’t, I know, I know I lived up there, right? I knew the roads and I’m like, it’s thick. It’s like, you’re, you’re not getting in there. And Sam’s like, I’m going, I’m like, you motherfucker dude, like, all right. Cause Sam goes, you go.
Exactly. Right. So I followed them. And I mean, it was like, you know, pitch black shit falling power lines down. You know, everything’s on fire and falling into the road and smokey and, you know, are you going with code? It doesn’t matter at that point. I know. But do you have your lights on? Yeah, they’re all well, I think I had the rear embers on just because like it was like annoyingly distracting. Yeah. Most people were out, but occasionally you’d have a car coming the other way or a fire truck. No, it’s just.
Yeah. So, you know, we made our way to the hospital and then helped out there. Shit moved on from there. But like having that teammate show up and like give you that little bit of courage. Like sometimes you need that. And that was pretty powerful moment. And I was like, all right, I’m back in the fight. I’m back in the fight. And then, and then, you know, it wore off again. Yeah. And then some more teammates showed up. We had a special response team that Sam and I were both on.
And, uh, these guys showed up, they came from Sacramento. So it took them an hour and a half to get up there or two hours or whatever. And, uh, when they showed up, it was like, all right, he’s my boys. Like, right. I’m back in the fight, right? Yeah. It was like, it was like that whole fucking day, dude. And that’s a long, I mean, it’s kind of like, it gets old after a while, you know? Yeah. So when I hear guys, like, you know, in a 10 hour gunfight, I’m like, dude, I understand that is exhausting. I would say it was more exhausting for the Rangers during that.
Blaine Holom (01:20:29.998)
I’m yeah, right. I imagine still like but that that anxiety and that stress. Yeah, I mean, well, to wait to hear that, like to hear over though, because there’s like a loudspeaker on that on that. So like they would come over and like say code words like Angel Blue or something like that Archangel Blue and like that meant like, I don’t know what it’s been too long. But I think that meant like three incoming casualties because we had a trauma center right there. I mean, it wasn’t a big.
So it sounds like it was a big fog, but it, it, we had to like a trauma center for like guys on the front line that got hit that could come and get fixed for a little bit before they went to a bigger fog and like to hear shield black. And I’m like, never heard that one before. I’m like looking at the call sheet and it says like imminent danger, like they’re on the fog or something like that. Something around those lines. And I’m like, they’re on the fog. I was like, so like they’re like outside the door.
Like, Oh shit. Okay. Here we go. Yeah. Uh, you guys had rifles and shit, right? But like, of course the Navy loved to like, I don’t know if the Navy just is so out of touch with what CBs really do. Cause like they issued us M 16th with like no sites, iron sites, no lights on them or no ACOGs. It’s like, thanks. Thanks. I’m going to like, I have a sniper rifle everywhere I go. Like, and like one of them.
He had like a 203 round like a grenade launcher on it. I’m like, yeah with no rounds. Yeah, good luck finding one. Like you’re gonna have to borrow rounds from the Rangers. That’d be a good time. Yeah. I think he actually did end up firing some. We got some. I wasn’t there. I was in OE at the time. OE was it was called Oregon East and it was sat it was a cop that sat at 7 ,500 feet above sea level.
So higher in Denver, I think. It’s a month. Yeah, it’s up there. And it was November and it was snowing in Afghanistan. It was cold. And like a bunch of us went like there was only four of us that went there. And then a little small detachment of Rangers went with us because they had been extended and we were sent there to secure the camp to make sure that the camp was secure. And they didn’t have like giant boys. So like if.
Blaine Holom (01:22:56.43)
if the howitzers were going like, by that time in the deployment, I knew the difference between outgoing and incoming. Like it just, you could tell like you can hear it. And so like, you would take incoming rounds and you’d have no idea like what’s going on really. But then like outgoing rounds, you knew exactly what it was. But there was, it was it was after that attack. So everyone, they’d got Intel that they were going to try to attack that base the same way they did so I don’t know.
And so the first night everyone was kind of on guard, like, oh, like we could, could comp, like potentially we could be in a pretty bad situation. And the, uh, that earlier that day, I guess an MRAP had gotten overrun by the enemy and they got like, they had to like do something like it blow it up because they were going to get away with technology and stuff like that, which.
Who’d have thought it wouldn’t have mattered since in 2000, what 20 we let them have all the technology anyways. Yeah. Something like that. We just left everything and then like, no, we didn’t have, they tried to come out and say like, we didn’t leave anything. I’m like, we’re not that stupid. How does that work? Yeah. You guys can just say it like after your investigation, we didn’t leave anything like, okay. Pretty sure. Look the other way. Pretty sure Hamas had a bunch of M fours with ACOGs on it.
Yeah. Like all the photos I saw was like straight up military, us military weapons that they were using. Gross. So I don’t know. It seems all planned to me, but I’m not a conspiracy theorist. Sure. I might be so, but like, yeah, I just, I think about where my life is today compared to where it was when I was 23 in Afghanistan. It was like, thank God I took the steps I want. I took.
to get where I’m at now because if I didn’t, I would probably, probably do like my grandpa and my uncles. Like, yeah, myself to death. I would be divorced for sure. I’d be some just loser dad drinking. Good for you to get away from that. And I know a lot of guys have a hard time. Like, what do you say to a guy like that, that’s stuck in that rut? You can’t, they got to want it for themselves. Like you can tell them, you can tell them like, Hey, this is what it’s done for my life.
Blaine Holom (01:25:18.67)
And like, I’m going to break one of the rules, but one of the traditions, it’s like, don’t go to press radio or film, but you know, I don’t think in the forties, they, they didn’t talk about podcasts. So I know I am going up to the rooms of AA and learning the steps and going through the steps. And like, I’ve, I’ve seen it all the time in the rooms where somebody comes in on court card or somebody just comes in to get somebody off their back. And that’s kind of, that’s kind of how it is. It’s like,
If you don’t go in and want it for yourself, you’re not going to get sober. What’s the first step for somebody out there? It’s like, I don’t even know what to do. Accepting that you have a problem. Accepting that your power of sober alcohol. Yeah. And then there’s so many meetings all day long in this area. Like Fort Sherman. Yeah. The awesome looking church down in NIC. Yeah. That’s a meeting place. Oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah. They have one at like seven, seven 45 in the morning.
I think every so like finding that community. Yeah. They want to haul great. Yeah. But I mean, that’s kind of where I started. I got a sponsor and started doing the steps and learning what I had done in my life and made amends. And that has to be tough because it’s tough for a man to admit, admit like I can’t handle something. Right. Exactly. It’s like the military. Like they don’t want you to ever admit you have a problem. It’s always like go and fuck yourself. Yeah. Like do it. Like be tough.
You’re like, okay, cool. I’ll just go drink. It was like, they’re like, okay, with you drinking yourself to death. But if you say you have a problem, that’s when they have a problem. Yeah. So I think like, and for me, what I tell a lot, I push it all the time. I’m a jujitsu pusher, man. I don’t care if you stick with it, honestly, but like get your ass in the door and try it and meet the people and just try something new. I’m just learning the discipline to, to not, you know,
That’s a huge thing is discipline. Yeah, like staying focused on technique because you could be strong all you want But when I’m like in really good shape, yeah I’m still not very strong, but the muscle guys that come in it’s like I can do whatever I want to them, right? You know when they’re a white belt They have two stripes. No, I’m screwed But that’s the thing is like, you know, there’s so many veterans in Cooney County too. Yeah, it’s a huge community and like I
Blaine Holom (01:27:45.262)
You know, people are always like, well, I don’t know what to do. I’m like, dude, get on Google, like look up where to go. Try something. Yeah. Cause there’s a million programs out there for veterans. That’s why I was kind of curious about first responders. Cause if there’s a million programs out there for veterans, there’s gotta be some for first responders. Yeah. Um, you know, I’d say like, if you’re in the area and you’re looking for some way to connect, uh, I know I push it a lot, but I really believe in it. The, the Patriot poor.
I mean, it’s a free coffee event. There’s no strings attached. You don’t have to do anything. Just show up. I’m sure you DD 214 or your note. Nothing. You just get, you can just say you’re a vet. You like guilt. People would know. Um, people would know there’s like old time Vietnam bets in there. There’s like politicians that are like pulling stolen valor nowadays. Yeah. It’s too easy to pick them out, man. Yeah, but they still do it. I know. I don’t know why anybody would try that. It’s insane. And that’s the thing is like, you know, when somebody does stolen power, you’re like,
It kind of pisses me off because I started thinking of all my guys that I lost like to suicide, you know, and the biggest one that that I lost and it wasn’t even to suicide. It was. Was our doc, Doc Kramer. It was in this is how I found warriors in quiet waters, actually. He he was killed in a drunk driving incident where.
He lived in Chandler, Arizona, her Phoenix, one of Scottsdale, one of those three areas, you know, it’s the same place. He’s driving home from work and there’s this young, I don’t want to say her pronouns, but I’m pretty sure I know who she voted for, but she was wasted three times a legal limit going the wrong way on a one way head on collision. She’s a stripper dude for sure. Yeah. Killed him. Guaranteed. He just, he just had a kid.
I freaking hate hearing those stories, dude. I spun out of control. I was on the road, I was in Missoula and I found out about it and I instantly was like, I went to like three meetings at night, just back to back to back, because I was nervous I was going to drink. Right, because that’d be the temptation, right? That’s when I realized I needed help again. I was like, okay, you need help. So I googled like, veteran programs for combat veterans in this area and like, where’s in quiet water is the first one that popped up. Awesome. I applied, got it.
Blaine Holom (01:30:04.302)
And then my journey has just been insane. Like the people I’ve met, the places I’ve gone. That’s fantastic. It’s absolutely insane. That’s like the coolest thing. And this is something that’s, I don’t know if it’s specific to the area or what, but moving up here, like I just, I find these little things and I say this all the time, but like, I just pull that thread and like see where it goes. Right. Yeah. And then it’ll lead me to something else. And maybe that’s cool. Maybe not, but I find another one and I pull it. Where’s it go?
And like, that sounds like what you’re doing is just like, you’re just following your heart or whatever. And when I’m like, I go to church, I’m a Christian, like I believe in the Lord and like, I truly believe the Lord had a calling on my wife to do something with photography. I don’t know what it is yet, but I keep going down this rabbit hole to see what happens. Come take some cool jujitsu photos, dude. I’ve been planning on it, but like,
I gotta show up first, right? That’s the first step. I’m still waiting on that. I’m gonna see you in nine, 10, 8 hours. No, that’s not right. That’s not right. No, say 10 hours. That’s the cool part though. Like when I met you, it’s like, what do you need? Like I know somebody, I guarantee it. Like, what do you need? I can find it for you. Because I pretty much know everyone in this area. It’s pretty handy. I don’t know all the new people. I know all the true people.
Yeah. No, you’re good at that. You’re good. You’re a good connector. Yeah. Just damn handy skill to have. It’s, Coeur d ‘Alene’s the most beautiful place ever. Yeah. Like I lived in Gulfport, Mississippi for a little bit for the military. Yeah. That place is shit hole. I imagine. So I remember one night I was in Afghanistan and I was looking up at the stars and like you can see the stars because there’s no city lights over there. So it’s like, I was like, damn dude, this guy’s amazing.
I just remember saying to myself, like, Lord, if you let me get through this, like I will go back to Coeur d ‘Alene and I’ll never leave. And then the Lord told me COVID was going to come. No, I’m just kidding. If I didn’t know COVID was going to come in this place with triple insides, I probably wouldn’t have made that deal. But I got to stick to it now. I just said, I love everyone moving here, too. Dude, it is true, though, like, like the people moving here add so much to the area. I think so.
Blaine Holom (01:32:21.87)
And people don’t realize that because we’re getting opportunities that we would never have. Right. Without the population, we’re not going to have, you know, some of the stores that are coming here. There’s some cool stuff coming. I’m pretty stoked about. Are you? I mean, that’s Rungies. Yeah, like that’s grown up. Rungies was like the key furniture store and walkers. Right. It’s like, it’s weird seeing it turning into Trader Joe’s. And I’m still confused. It’s like they’re doing a half Rungies, half Trader Joe’s. I’m like, really?
I feel like Trader Joe’s is a good deal. That’s what I heard, dude. There’s no way it’s not big enough. No. That’s what it said in the paper was like, they’re going to do a split it. Like it would be a little furniture store. I don’t know. Maybe that’s BS. I don’t know. Well, I wonder if they’re thinking of doing something kind of like what Fred Meyer did, you know, they have like furniture section, they have a grocery store now. I mean, it’s big enough to do it. I still think Trader Joe’s would go with that, though. I mean, have you been to Trader Joe’s in South Hill? It’s not big. No, I have not.
I’ve only been to it’s super small. You’re right. Actually. The only one I’ve been to is in Chico, California and it was not very big. See, I’m still waiting really small. You’re right. So you could, that building’s big enough. You could totally do half and half. Well, unlike everyone moving here from California, it’s like, all right, who has a connection to in and out? Like get it up here. Yeah. What’s going on? It’d be a lot of happy people with that. Yeah. I mean, I’ll throw down some in and out. I don’t get the bun. Yeah. I get the rap though, dude. I do the bun animal stuff. Yeah.
I made one time in Vegas, we were down on the strip and the shuttle driver taking us back to this like time traverse thing that I talked to everyone into having him go through in and out for us. And like there was no argument. So there’s your sign. We need one up here. I was like, dude, we’ll even tip you. Chick -fil -A. Chick -fil -A is coming to here. Well, we have Chick -fil -A on the south or on north side of Spokane. Not all of us go over there very often. But Chick -fil -A, I mean, it’s good. It’s all right.
I always tend to be near it on a Sunday. Yeah. Oh, dude, you’re right. Yeah. Almost 90 % of the time I’ve tried to go there is on a Sunday and it’s always I’m like flying. It’s in the airport and I’m like, Oh, it’s Sunday. Come on. Like you can’t bend the rules in the airport. It’s very frustrating. Yeah, dude. It’s been an hour and a half. Has it really? Yeah. Do you believe that? Yeah, I do. It’s like when you put these headphones on,
Blaine Holom (01:34:44.43)
It took me like 30 minutes to feel comfortable. It’s a mind meld. Yeah, I know. It takes a little while to like, that’s why I just be, you have to do it one time. You’ll have to have like Matt and I, her, Matt and I sure. But just to go on the record, do you want to actually first test true? Do you, I would not want to be trying to compare war stories with him though. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t even try. Yeah. He’s told me a few off the record and I’m like, well dude, just like happy.
happy being a live day photo that he sends every year. I’m like, Matt was a green beret by the way. That’s the friend of ours. And he also like was in a helicopter crash that he was upside down at the end of it. I’m like, how? Yeah. Guys like that make me feel like I didn’t do that much in my life. Yeah, me too. I’m always like, I’ve learned you can’t compare service though. Cause it’s like, it’s a dangerous road to go down.
I just never knew. I mean, why would you? Yeah, I occasionally go there in my mind and then but then you’ll meet somebody, you know, just like a civilian and they’re like, they can’t believe any of it. And you’re like, oh, yeah, it’s just the civilians that want to, like, make the military jokes that never served. It’s like, dude, you didn’t earn the right. I will always make jokes about Marines eating crayons. Yeah. But you served the country in a different way. Kind of like we all signed that line saying we would die for this country. Yeah, it’s a need be mine was in foreign soil.
Yours was against domestic. Never thought it would be in a wildfire though. That’s the close one. That one. Yeah. Well, we just had some fires last year, right? Yeah. They were hopping the freeway that closed I -90 down. I was coming back from Seattle on my motorcycle. It only took me like nine hours to get home because I had to go all these detours. I was just breathing in that. Awesome. It was amazing. Yeah. I felt like crap for like two days.
Yeah, I kind of avoided all that. People get all wound up. I’m like, I’m going to stay out of that. I don’t care. Yeah. Wow. But I think it would be fun to be on a podcast with Matt. Yeah. Not talking about, he can talk about his war stories and I’ll just lead him with questions. That’s a good idea. Yeah. Take pictures of him while he’s doing it. Oh yeah. Yeah. People could watch how portraitures are done live on camera. Dude. Are we live or is this recorded? No, it’s recorded. Okay. Yeah. You are not live. That’d be weird.
Blaine Holom (01:37:05.838)
It would be weird. I’ll send you cat comments popping up. I thought about doing it. That’d be kind of fun sometimes, but you just never know what’s going to come out. And this gives us the opportunity needed to edit something. Yeah. I talked to one of my diving buddies about, um, like a couple of facts of the lake, you know, and real quick, he’s like, Oh, you’re going to be on a podcast. Like, yeah, that’s why I’m asking these questions so I can not sound like an idiot. And he was like, well, what’s the link? I’ll watch.
I was like, it’s not live. I, uh, I sound like an idiot all the time, so don’t worry about that. It’s just normal. Yeah. Most of, most of the shit that comes out of my mouth ain’t real, but, but I will say it’s, uh, later on in life, I’ll think about him. Yeah. Wow. Why’d you say that? But that’s one thing about me is like, you don’t have to worry about what I’m thinking. Like I will say what I’m thinking. We know I’ve never held back and, and it’s gotten me into trouble growing up.
my whole life, but at the same time, I was like, I don’t never want to change it. Like I’ve had to apologize all along. It’s better to be that way. Yeah. It’s better to be who you are and not pretend to be somebody or not. Yup. Yup. Well, I had fun. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for letting me talk about worries and quiet waters. Thanks for coming on and talking about it, dude. We’ll put that name in the description so you guys can find it. We’ll drop the link to their website in case anybody needs it. Um, thanks brother. That was a good, good conversation. I appreciate it. I will see you.
In 10 hours, 10 hours. It’s easy. Later guys.
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