Paul K. Van Riper

Paul K. Van Riper
Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper
Born	(1938-07-05) July 5, 1938 Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1956-1997
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	2nd Battalion, 7th Marines 4th Marine Regiment Marine Corps University, President 2nd Marine Division Director of Intelligence MCCDC
Battles/wars	Vietnam War Operation Desert Storm
Awards	Silver Star (2) Legion of Merit Bronze Star with Combat "V" Purple Heart
Other work	Marine Corps Heritage Foundation

Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper (born July 5, 1938) is a retired officer of the United States Marine Corps. Since retirement Van Riper has served on several advisory boards and panels. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

At the time of his retirement, Van Riper was serving as the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia.

Early life

Paul K. Van Riper was born on July 5, 1938 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.

Marine Corps career

Van Riper enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and underwent recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina in the fall of 1956, joined Officer Candidate Course in June 1963 and commissioned a second lieutenant in November 1963.

In late 1965, Van Riper served in the Republic of Vietnam as an Advisor with the Vietnamese Marine Corps, being wounded in action and evacuated on February 7, 1966. He later served in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Okinawa, on the latter commanding the 4th Marines until December 1986. 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.

Returning to Washington, D.C., 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 last post on July 13, 1995. At this post Lieutenant General Van Riper was an honorary member of the Provost Marshall Office, and spent some of his lunch breaks issuing speeding tickets all across MCB Quantico^{[citation needed]}. Lieutenant General Van Riper retired on 1 October 1997, after more than 41 years of service.

Post-retirement

Van Riper is critical of the current transformation efforts in the military, especially changes originating from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He gained notoriety after the Millennium Challenge 2002 wargame. He played the opposing force commander, and easily sunk a whole carrier battle group in the simulation with an inferior Middle-Eastern "red" team in the first two days.

To do this, Van Riper adopted an asymmetric strategy. In particular, he used old methods to evade his opponent's sophisticated electronic surveillance network. Van Riper used motorcycle messengers to transmit orders to front-line troops and World War II light signals to launch airplanes without radio communications. Van Riper used a fleet of small boats to determine the position of the opponent's fleet by the second day of the exercise. In a preemptive strike, he launched a massive salvo of cruise missiles that overwhelmed the Blue forces' electronic sensors and destroyed sixteen warships. This included one aircraft carrier, ten cruisers and five of six amphibious ships. An equivalent success in a real conflict would have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 service personnel. Soon after the cruise missile offensive, another significant portion of the opposing navy was "sunk" by an armada of small Red boats, which carried out both conventional and suicide attacks that capitalized on Blue's inability to detect them as well as expected.

After the simulation was restarted with different parameters, he claimed that the wargame had been "fixed" to falsely validate the current doctrine of the U.S. Navy. He is also critical of post-war Iraq plans and implementation. On April 24, 2006, he joined several other retired generals in calling for Rumsfeld's resignation.

Decorations and awards

General Van Ripers's military awards include:

Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia
1st Row		Silver Star Medal with 1 gold 5/16 inch star
2nd Row	Legion of Merit	Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V"	Purple Heart Medal	Meritorious Service Medal
3rd Row	Joint Service Commendation Medal	Army Commendation Medal	Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal	Combat Action Ribbon with 1 gold 5/16 inch star
4th Row	Presidential Unit Citation	Navy Unit Commendation	Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation with 2 bronze service stars	Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal
5th Row	National Defense Service Medal with 1 bronze service star	Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal	Vietnam Service Medal with 1 silver and 1 bronze service star	Southwest Asia Service Medal with 2 bronze service stars
6th Row	Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon	Navy & Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon	Vietnam Gallantry Cross with 1 gold star	Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with palm and frame
7th Row	Vietnam Civil Actions Unit Citation with palm and frame	United Nations Medal	Vietnam Campaign Medal with 1960's device	Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia)

He is a graduate of the Army's Airborne and Ranger Schools.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps.

External links

• PBS Interview
• NOVA Interview
• David Margolick (April 2007). "The Night of the Generals". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
• "Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper - Retired". General Officer biographies. United States Marine Corps. Retrieved 2009-03-07. 
• "Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, USMC". Who's Who in Marine Corps History. History Division, United States Marine Corps.