Photo By Sgt. Khalil Ross | Ray Rippel, director of the unaccompanied personnel housing division, took this photo...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII - A double life isn’t all that common in today’s world. For people going about their day-to-day lives whatever they see is what they get. Marines often say “perception is reality” and for the most part it’s a true statement. For Ray Rippel, the director of the unaccompanied personnel housing division, this statement couldn’t be further from the mark.
During the weekday the 60 year old manages the barracks aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii as well as various hotels on the installation. It’s not the job that makes his heart beat a little faster but the location. MCB Hawaii is rich in history, land and culture. So much so, that Rippel was able to write a book about it.
“What first got me interested in the base was before you (build, repair or renovate) you have to have an archaeological review and a historical review,” Rippel explains. “I always found that background to be fascinating and it quickly became clear that there was an enormous amount of history that has taken place on this peninsula. I wanted to know more about it but there wasn’t a book that could tell me so I decided to write about it.”
The book refers to the peninsula from the first installation to be made until the present day.
Rippel spent 15 years working towards the completion of the book using photos he had taken over the years. Rippel took a deeper look into the Mokapu Peninsula and found history and stories that aren’t common knowledge. Some of the information Rippel collected range from marked crash sites of Japanese planes during the Pearl Harbor attack, old standing stones and buildings which have remained the same for the better part of the century.
The military was a big part of Rippel’s life and founded the beginnings of his thirst for history and stories.
He traveled the world extensively while he was in the military. When Rippel joined the military he set aside his passion for photography and focused on his career. After 28 years he retired as a colonel in the U.S. Army and picked his camera back up and delved back into his passion.
The avid photographer has traveled to many places: Nepal, Thailand, Bangladesh, South Korea, Italy, Ireland, and Tokyo, but it was the lush green land and softly rippling beaches of the Mokapu Peninsula that attracted him the most.
Rippel said he wouldn’t have been able to accomplish his book without the unwavering support of his wife, Kathleen Rippel. For almost sixteen years Kathleen has backed and encouraged him to fulfill his dream of writing.
“My wife was the only one who believed the whole time this thing was going to get published,” Rippel said. She helped push him and was a steady rock through the years.
“I was always encouraging him and supporting his ideas,” Kathleen said. “If he ever felt a little down I would remind him he was making progress and knew his book would be good.”
His “double life” helped shape the man he is today and how he looks at things now, Kathleen said.
“If we ever went anywhere on vacation or even on a little hike (it was as if) he would see things through a lense, always thinking of what would make a good photo,” she said. “He would stop to take a photo and it really has shaped how he views nature and Hawaii in particular.”
Rippel has worked close with the environmental workers on the base in order to tell the story of the land.
“There is a story here worth telling,” Rippel said. “If we don’t tell people who very rarely brush up against the military then we are going to lose those stories.”
| Date Taken: | 11.04.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.01.2015 15:41 |
| Story ID: | 183204 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 121 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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