Williamsburg, Virginia
Posted on 11/10/2025 5:11:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The blacktop road in this picturesque neighborhood of Colonial Williamsburg is lined with Southern Magnolias, red maples, and flowering dogwoods, their leaves turned deep shades of red. Near the end of the road sits a red brick, colonial-style house, yellow and purple pansies bordering a path to the front door.
Williamsburg, Virginia
“Planting flowers is my exercise,” says Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, USMC (Ret.), 87.
For 23 years, Van Riper shared the house with Lillie Catherine, whom he called LC, his beloved wife of 53 years who passed away in 2021. He designed the house at the end of a decades-long career, which began with his enlistment in the Marine Corps Reserve in the fall of 1956, continued with his commissioning as a second lieutenant in the fall of 1963, and culminated in his retirement as a three-star general after 41 years of service.
Van Riper, who earned two Silver Star medals for heroic action in the Vietnam War, is known as an independent thinker unafraid to challenge conventional wisdom. In the 2005 bestseller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, journalist Malcolm Gladwell wrote about Van Riper and his performance in a military wargame called Millennium Challenge 2002 to illustrate how brilliant decision makers use intuition to break down complex situations.
“Can I show you the library?” Van Riper asks, motioning me to a comfortable room holding a few thousand volumes on religion, philosophy, and, of course, military history. The library is both a kind of sanctuary and a place where old and new ideas come together in the lap of a quiet, sunlit room.
Though he no longer drives, Van Riper remains busy. He’s auditing a course online about the first volume of The Second World War, Winston Churchill’s history of world events from World War...
(Excerpt) Read more at realcleardefense.com ...
I am glad I read the entire piece. Thank you for posting this.
Thanks for posting. I was surprised by the article’s statement that the average GI in WW II saw 40 days of combat. Does that sound right to the people on Freerepublic?
So you don’t believe the publisher of this excellent article deserves to have people who want to read the whole thing come to their site?
I think the author would be pleased that people can read the article here ... and, there.
There are several photos, at link, that make clicking worth the look.
I wanted to make sure people, here, who tend not to click on links, get to enjoy the entire article.
Is that bad?
It robs the original site of traffic, which equals revenue.
And you wonder why sites resort to paywalls?
I don’t wonder about that.
Ask to have my post removed, then, if it twists your pantaloons.
Semper Fidelis, Marine Riper…
Thanks for posting that, Miss Janie. Much obliged.
And I absolutely love colonial, Williamsburg… I could live there easily.
My son and his reenactment troop, go there regularly for inspiration
I don’t care what you do. I do believe that the publishers of articles deserve the traffic. That’s what the FR consent decree was all about.
You’re welcome, Hale.
I thought you would enjoy.
For every guy on the front line there are seven support guys.
War is a bunch of, get stuff, pack stuff, move stuff, deliver stuff, get yelled at because you have the wrong stuff and filling out paper work.
Lots of people never see a day of combat. And then there were those other poor souls.
But yeah, 40 sounds about right.
Yes. I am aware.
I did not realize this outlet was on the list.
Thanks.
I asked to have it removed.
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