Who is LtGen Van Riper? Another General who doesn't know anything.

[MSgt213]

Ahh, maybe not.

Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper served his final tour of duty as the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia, and retired on 1 October 1997.

General Van Riper was born on 5 July 1938, in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and underwent recruiting training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, in the fall of 1956. After completing infantry training in April 1957, he was released from active duty and returned home to serve in the 12th Infantry Battalion, USMCR, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from California State College, California, Pennsylvania, in June 1963 and entered the 34th Officer Candidate Course. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in November 1963.

After completing The Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, in June 1964, General Van Riper reported to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He served as a platoon commander, company executive officer, and an assistant operations officer. He was with the 1st Battalion when it was committed to Santo Domingo during the Dominican Republic crisis in the spring of 1965.

In late 1965, he was ordered to the Republic of Vietnam for duty as an Advisor with the Vietnamese Marine Corps. He was wounded in action on 7 February 1966, and was evacuated to the United States Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. After recovering from his wounds in April 1966, General Van Riper returned to the The Basic School as an instructor. Upon completion of his tour in February 1968, he remained at Quantico as a student in the Amphibious Warfare School.

General Van Riper returned to Vietnam in September 1968, where he served as a company commander and an assistant operations officer with the 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Upon his return to the U.S. in September 1969, he was assigned as an instructor at the United States Army’s John F. Kennedy Institute for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was transferred to Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C. in July 1971, where he served initially as a Special Projects Officer in the Office of the Chief of Staff, and then as a training specialist in the Training Division until August 1974.

Ordered to the 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune in September 1974, he was assigned as the Operations Officer for the 3d Battalion, 8th Marines. He became the Regimental Operations Officer in September 1975, and the Executive Officer for the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines in December 1976. From August 1977 until June 1978, General Van Riper was a student in the College of Naval Command and Staff at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Subsequently, he was assigned as a Military Observer with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine. During this tour he served in Egypt, Israel, and Lebanon.

Upon completion of his overseas tour in September 1979, General Van Riper was assigned as the Commanding Officer, Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Cecil Field, Florida, until July 1981. From August 1981 until June 1982, he was a student at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Transferred to the 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California, in June 1982, he served as the Regimental Executive Officer until May 1983, when he assumed command of the 2d Battalion, 7th Marines. In August 1984, he was assigned to the Exercise, Readiness and Training Branch of the G-3 Section, I Marine Amphibious Force.

General Van Riper was transferred to the 3d Marine Division on Okinawa in June 1985, where he commanded the 4th Marines until December 1986. He served as the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, 3d Marine Division from December 1986 until reassigned as the Division Chief of Staff in June 1987.

During July 1988, General Van Riper returned to Quantico, where he was assigned until July 1989 as the Director of the Command and Staff College. He became the first President of the Marine Corps University in July 1989. In July 1990 he was assigned as the Deputy Commander for Training and Education and Director, Marine Air-Ground Training and Education Center, MCCDC. General Van Riper served temporarily as a member of the MARCENT/I Marine Expeditionary Force staff during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from January to March 1991.

From June 1991 to April 1993, he was the Commanding General, 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Returning to Washington, D.C., General Van Riper served as Assistant Chief of Staff, Command Control, Communications, and Computer, and as Director of Intelligence from April 1993 until July 1995. He was advanced to Lieutenant General and assumed his final post on 13 July 1995.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Army’s Airborne and Ranger Schools.

General Van Riper’s personal decorations include: the Silver Star Medal with gold star; Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V”; Purple Heart; Meritorious Service Medal; Joint Service Commendation Medal; Army Commendation Medal; Navy Achievement Medal; and the Combat Action Ribbon with gold star.

http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/hd/Historical/Whos_Who/Van_Ripper_PK.htm

[ShortnFiery]

1. He's no slouch! And he has FIRST hand knowledge ...

Van Riper's vast experience makes his opinion much more credible than that BS line of a thousand benign Generals.

[El Supremo]

2. Absolutely no relation to this general >>>

[Blue_Tires]

5. beat me to it!

best.movie.general.EVARRRRR!

[acmejack]

3. I imagine Flush will label him a Staff puke

And hopefully the Ripper will kick his ass for him. He did this to jerks buying the Strykers (Yes Virginia, the Taxpayers took it in the shorts yet again on that deal!) so I like him!
snip>
For the competition between the vehicles, the Army hired a retired Marine Corps General, Paul Van Riper, to command the Red forces. Red forces, commanded by Van Riper, engaged in some clever tricks that the Blues were not expecting.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htproc/articles/20030905.aspx

[Joe for Clark]

4. It is wierd, isn't it??

But then - I think I understand American History pretty well -

And I understand - we REALLY are a tar and feather country.

Someone might screw with us a while, but we figure it out after a little while - and then God help the guy.

That is where we find ourselves.

And that is why we win, too.

There is a right and a wrong in life, a Karma -

Boy, how'd you like to be this presidents "Karma adviser" you know??

Act like winners - you are.

What did Limbaugh say... " he is not ready to run up the colors"

Fuck you budy, you ran them up the pole a long time ago.

We do win, act like it.

Joe

[caligirl]

6. Personal knowledge of Van Riper,Pronounced like ripe with an r,

Van Riper is a legend, know one comes more strategically and operationally proficient. If you want someone who can defeat an army he can do it. Prior to the first gulf war, Central Command, people responsible for military operations in the middle east and headquartered in Tampa Florida, war gamed a situation of the first Gulf War to validate their plans. Van Riper played the enemy or opposing forces commander and conducted a brilliant campaign defeating the coalition forces led by Schwartkopf. Van Riper's operational brilliance was rewarded by Cent com Commanders, Schwartzkopf and others around him, telling Van Riper that the war game had to be done over, and this time he could not be so smart in his operations as the enemy. So Van Riper was told he had to do the game again and 'dumb down' the enemy operations. Van Ripers brilliantly won war game may have convinced some in the military planning that they had to plan thoroughly with limited objectives. You may recall in 1991 we did'nt advance on Bagdad.

The significance of the establishment telling Van Riper he couldn't play smart is that they planned for the first gulf war as if the enemy was dumb. Once that becomes a cultural part of your institution your headed for defeat.
You can't assume insurgents are stupid people. In the current war Rumsfeld and Cheney characterized insurgents as left overs, and dead enders and trouble makers. If you have acommander and he can't get the job done you fire him. Rumsfeld should have been fired years ago.

One other thing, Van Riper was acting as a consultant, I think, when he fought the war game, he may have quit when they told him he had to fight it again but dumbed down for centcoms coalition forces team. Van Riper is a legend in the Marine Corps. Known for his operational and strategic brilliance.

[MSgt213]

10. I wish you had started a new thread with this. Its absolutely true and it

deserves more then to be buried in this one. Thank your husband for his service and thank you for reminding of this very important point.

[caligirl]

11. thanks, I hadn't considered that, but its now in a separate thread.

[Major Hogwash]

7. Van Riper, a soldier's General, said this back in '02 about that wargame

War games rigged?
General says Millennium Challenge 02 ‘was almost entirely scripted’

By Sean D. Naylor
Times staff writer

The most elaborate war game the U.S. military has ever held was rigged so that it appeared to validate the modern, joint-service war-fighting concepts it was supposed to be testing, according to the retired Marine lieutenant general who commanded the game’s Opposing Force.
That general, Paul Van Riper, said he worries the United States will send troops into combat using doctrine and weapons systems based on false conclusions from the recently concluded Millennium Challenge 02. He was so frustrated with the rigged exercise that he said he quit midway through the game.

He said that rather than test forces against an unpredictable enemy, the exercise “was almost entirely scripted to ensure a ‘win.’ ”


Here's the link -
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1060102.php

[caligirl]

8. cool. thanks. Looks like they went back to Van Riper for the '02 war games

which surprises me after his experience with the first one prior to the first gulf war. He, like Trainer, Zinny and Joe Hoar were known to be very intelligent soldiers. Not Monday morning quarterbacks as the civilians in charge want to say.

[Major Hogwash]

9. An excellent article about Van Riper at Slate from '03, here's that link -

as well,MSgt213


War-Gamed
Why the Army shouldn't be so surprised by Saddam's moves.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, March 28, 2003, at 4:55 PM ET


Much has been made of Thursday's remark by Lt. Gen. William Wallace, commander of U.S. Army forces in the Persian Gulf. Talking about the fierce and guerrilla-style resistance of Iraqi militia groups, Wallace said, "The enemy we're fighting is a bit different than the one we war-gamed against."

In fact, however, militia fighters did play a crucial role in a major war game designed to simulate combat in Iraq—but the Pentagon officials who managed the game simply disregarded or overruled the militias' most devastating moves.

The war game, which was called Millennium Challenge 02, took place over three weeks last July and August. Planned over a two-year period, at a cost of $250 million, the game involved 13,500 personnel from all four services—Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines—who waged mock war in 17 simulation locations and nine live-force training sites. The scenario envisioned a war in a fictitiously named Persian Gulf country that resembled Iraq.

The objective was to test (and, if all went well, to validate) a set of new combat theories based less on massive force and more on speed, agility, highly accurate weapons, and supremely coordinated command and control. These theories—known as "military transformation" and "effects-based operations"—would serve as the underlying strategy of the real war against the real Iraq that's happening now. (Read this.)

The link -
http://www.slate.com/id/2080814/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. Naw - it's a faux resume. He doesn't know anything.

how could anyone with that background EVER think that the Bushistas were wrong? After all, the Bushistas are perfect. They are invincible, they never err, they know better than the whole damned world. Ask them. They will tell you that.