Robert Young Pelton
On a sunny day in California, I walked into an orchard of grapefruit trees and over-sized lemons. Canadian-born Robert Young Pelton cleared away the rocks in his backyard, making room for more fruit trees. I stood by Linda, his wife. As his guest, I was honored to share this moment with Robert and his wife, the brave woman who stood by her daring husband as he entered the world of madmen and militias. (Born in Canada, Robert moved to fruit-filled California, where he resides with his wife and two daughters, who are now grown.)
Robert traveled because he wanted to know the truth from people on the ground.
His burning desire for the truth–the stuff behind the headlines–has been dangerous and sometimes, deadly. Linda told me how terrified she was when she heard her husband was kidnapped by Columbia’s militia, only to be found alive days later.
Robert with Gen. Dostum
Since I have known him, Robert is a captivating storyteller. He will tell you about his time in Afghanistan, where he traveled the barren country with one of the world’s worst killers, General Abdul Rashid Dostum and later found a “blackened face of [an American] Taliban John Walker Lindh staring out at [Robert] from the far shadows.” Traveling with the warlord and discovering America’s first Taliban fighter must have been thrilling. And makes for a spectacular story for years to come. Robert wrote about his experiences in Afghanistan in The National Geographic, and later recounted the same harrowing stories when I invited him to the RAND Corporation in Washington, D.C. But I’ll never forget his first story. We met at a U.S.-government-sponsored conference. Robert had been invited with a man who called himself “Abu Mujahid” to speak about his escape from Grozny, Chechnya as the Russians dropped bombs, killing innocent civilians, and destroyed a hospital and entire villages. At the time I met Robert, I had seen the world through intelligence reports, but meeting Robert allowed me to see the world as it is. Years ago, he told me:
You have to step outside your comfort zone to see the world.”
In his first book, The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Robert tells his readers how to travel (and see) the world as an “adventure superhero.” At my home in Virginia, over a lamb-rice dish I prepared, Robert slowly instilled in me the courage to travel and talk to real people. I remember him saying:
When you go to a place, you have to talk to the people on the street. The people in the marketplace. The man in the taxi cab. Go talk to people that no one talks to and then you will understand. You can’t just trust one side of the story. You have to hear all the stories and then decide for yourself what is the truth. Once you find the truth, you’ll stop drinking the Kool-aid–a reference to U.S. government-fed and media-forced news.
Robert was right.
I had to take a chance. And so I did. It was only after meeting Robert that my world started to change. In 2007, I dared to cross the border that separates Pakistan and India and ventured into the disputed valley of Kashmir. On a King Fisher airplane, I landed in the city of Srinagar, a place unknown to most Westerners. I discovered a people I would never had met, if it were not for Robert and his you-must-go-see-for-yourself guidance.
On his website, Robert offers guidance to thousands of his followers on how to “come back alive” when traveling the world.
Today, Robert helps rescue migrants on the water. He helps families reach their destination safely so they can rebuild their lives. To learn more about Robert, you can visit his website for the latest news and updates on his work.
Thank you for sharing.
