WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – One Kansas veteran who spent nearly 30 years serving his country in the Navy and the Coast Guard completed an unbelievable rescue operation in the Bermuda Triangle.
Maryland native Richard Rippert joined the Navy in 1965 and became a hospital corpsman. He did that for almost four years and then took his talents to the Coast Guard, where he served for another 24 years, but one experience stands out.
“I got the opportunity of a life,” he said. “The Coast Guard cutter Northwind had an opening for a corpsman.”
Rippert was the only medical person on board for a crew of 188, and he visited both the Arctic and Antarctic during his adventures on the Northwind…