Comment on Leadership of Colin Powell

LeadingMarines — 2010-02-10T00:54:41Z

General Powell has done an about face on Don't ask Don't tell. He has completely forgotten where he came from and in our strong opinion has let down our great military and every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and Coast Guardsman. We currently have the best military in the history of the world. Turning it into the likes of Great Britain, Australia, the Netherlands or Canada. No offense to our Allies, but your militaries are not capable of coming close to ours. This is and will be a complete disaster for those bearing the heaviest burden in this fight. The Grunts, Gunners, Tankers, Combat Engineers - the ones who count on the man in the hole next to him day in, day out for months. So much for combat cohesion. It is a sad day. You should be ashamed General.

Comment on "A Warrior Culture"

Bill Black — 2010-02-07T09:49:18Z

Outstanding. Overwhelming, focused and disciplined agressiveness is the way of Marines. Makes me want to don the CWO-3 bars again! Semper Fi,

Bill Black
CWO-3, USMC (Ret)

Comment on Negative Leadership = Negative Results

Bruce Lanctot 1 — 2010-01-25T01:30:20Z

Great commentary... so true. I hope this post gets read by all. I will keep it in my leadership folder.

Comment on Col Bud Day, U.S. Air Force

Leigh Fraser — 2010-01-17T13:14:00Z

What a tremendous story. We should all be grateful for men such as this. My late husband was a WWII B-17 pilot. he is buried in Arlington, he would have loved this story because he knew others who were a selfless as Colonel Day. As a British service veteran I add my few words of praise to this hero's exploits. Well done sir, thank you.

Comment on Col Bud Day, U.S. Air Force

Roberto E. Benitez — 2010-01-04T19:08:41Z

I had heard that there was a lawsuit filed that addressed the issue of the government's reneging of free medial care for retirees which was overturned on appeal but I never knew who had filed it. It's great to know that Col. Day is a hero both in and out of combat.

Roberto E. Benitez, Major, USAF, Retired

Comment on Col Bud Day, U.S. Air Force

leo ames — 2010-01-04T17:15:10Z

Since our very begining our country has been blessed with real heros like Col.Day. Thank you Col. Day for your life of service to our country.

Comment on Military Briefing

John Costigan — 2009-12-29T18:33:27Z

To the point..I like this very much..
Yes I will be passing it on to my supervisor and on up the hill.
I will also be givin this page to the FFA in our High School.
Thank you
John
"Bet On A Veteran -
-They Gave You Your Freedom"
SEMPER-FI

Comment on EULOGY for COL JOHN RIPLEY USMC by his son

Leading Marines.com — 2009-11-11T03:25:43Z

War hero's family calls book a 'dishonor'

Charge author with using Ripley to push political agenda

By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer

Published 11/10/09

On this, the 234th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, a new book about Annapolis - and national - hero Col. John Ripley is coming under fire from the late Marine's family.

Ripley's children say the author is using their father's image to push a narrow anti-gay, anti-women social agenda.

Norman J. Fulkerson, author of the newly published "An American Knight: The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC," volunteered in an interview last week that he wrote about Ripley because the Vietnam War hero shared the writer's views that homosexuals should not be allowed to serve in the military and women should be banned from combat.

Fulkerson said Ripley, whose funeral was a year ago last Saturday, made an excellent subject for a book because of the Marine's bravery and dedication.

"A knight would fight to defend women and children, those who cannot defend themselves," Fulkerson said in explaining his book's title.

Ripley was famous for his combat bravery, which included slowing a large enemy force's advance by single-handedly blowing up the bridge at Dong Ha, South Vietnam, on Easter Sunday 1972.

Fulkerson recounted how Ripley, who survived withering machine-gun fire to accomplish his mission, risked his life yet again that day when he ran into the open to save a little Vietnamese girl from the explosion.

"He ran toward her and swooped her up and sprinted her to safety," Fulkerson said.

Fulkerson, who writes for the Pennsylvania-based American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, which published the book, said his is the "first cradle-to-grave biography" of Ripley.

Fulkerson also said that his book makes no pretense at scholarship.

"It is an easy read," he said. "My target audience was just your average hero-worshipping American, (the) students and the housewives."

The first 100 or so pages are a glossy morality tale account of Ripley's life, while the second half of the 218-page book is dedicated to demonizing "liberal politicians." The last half of the book repeats time and again Fulkerson's mantra that gays and women don't belong in the military.

Ripley's statements and congressional testimony, made while he headed the ROTC program at Virginia Military Institute and later served as chancellor of the Southern Seminary College for Women and the president of Hargrave Military Academy, provide fodder for Fulkerson's writing.

Women should be "placed upon a throne," wrote Fulkerson, whose book contains idyllic portrayals of rural Virginia of 1957, with its "white-gloved young ladies going on a Sunday stroll with beautiful hats."

Fulkerson, 47, was forthright in saying that he is not a historian, but instead studied mechanical design. He seems to worship the military, but said he never elected to serve in uniform, and he glorifies home and hearth, but said that he is single. As for the 1950s, which Fulkerson idealizes, he wasn't alive then to witness the injustices that fueled some of the turmoil of the 1960s, for which Fulkerson has complete disdain.

Family objections

Ripley's daughter, Annapolis resident Mary Ripley, called Fulkerson's picture of her father "a dishonor" to his memory.

"It is a dishonor to our father to turn the things he said - about women in the military and women in combat, and about gays in the military - into a personal view about a hatred of gays and a misogynistic view of women," Mary Ripley said.

"This is real for us, and more importantly, it is real for my dad," she said. "My dad wasn't against homosexuals in the military because he hated homosexuals, but because he was concerned about military readiness. And that was in a different time and place."

Fulkerson said he wrote "An American Knight" after meeting several times with various members of the Ripley family, and never has heard any objection from them about the book.

The colonel's oldest son, Stephen Ripley, wrote an introduction for the book.

Stephen Ripley said his family cooperated with Fulkerson "with our eyes wide open."

"I wrote the introduction trying to give people an idea of my father; TFP was going to write this book anyway, so we tried to participate to make sure it was factually accurate," he said.

Stephen Ripley said he is disappointed in the book.

"My hope and intention is that this book will slide off into oblivion, and never be heard from again," Stephen Ripley said last week. "My dad took some unpopular positions ... (but) he never belonged to the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, even though he had some parallel beliefs."

Another of the four Ripley children, John Michael Ripley, said of Fulkerson's writing, "It's the little details about the real man that get lost when he creates this fictional evangelizer."

"They don't need our permission to write a book about our dad," he said in resignation, "and they can write whatever they want."

Professional historian

The Ripley children have found themselves in a dilemma common to families of all great historical figures, said University of Maryland historian Julie Greene, who heads her department's graduate program.

"The closer (in time) we are to an event, the more politicized it will be," Greene said of Ripley's life.

Greene noted that the Founding Fathers, and nearly all presidents, get interpreted and reinterpreted continuously, and sometimes the interpretations have more to do with the writer than with the original person.

"People are still using George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt to make different points about what our country should be like," Greene said. "We know that our personal views shape our views of history."

Fulkerson's book likely will not be the last word on John Ripley, a man who loved reading history books himself.

Retired Vietnamese Marine Corps Lt. Col. Le Ba Binh, who was with Ripley at the Dong Ha bridge, said at Ripley's burial that he and Ripley used to enjoy discussing history when they served together 37 years ago, and would analyze historical battles to "come up with ways to fight the enemy."

"An American Knight: The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC," by Norman J. Fulkerson, may be purchased from www.americanknight.org for $14.95 plus shipping and handling.

Comment on EULOGY for COL JOHN RIPLEY USMC by his son

Honor Courage Commitment — 2009-11-10T23:28:38Z

before you conside the above commentor response about his book, read this:

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Abusing a Hero's Memory

http://bostonmaggie.blogspot.com/2009/11/abusing-heros-memory.html

Comment on EULOGY for COL JOHN RIPLEY USMC by his son

Norman J. Fulkerson — 2009-10-14T19:21:05Z

I just published a book about Col. Ripley. It is the first biography of this great man. Go to www.AmericanKnight.org.

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Comment on EULOGY for COL JOHN RIPLEY USMC by his son

War hero's family calls book a 'dishonor'

Charge author with using Ripley to push political agenda

Family objections

Professional historian

Comment on EULOGY for COL JOHN RIPLEY USMC by his son

Comment on EULOGY for COL JOHN RIPLEY USMC by his son