By Martie Thompson
editor@floridanewsline.com
Ralph Little has seen much of the world, from his days as part of an Army family following his dad (also named Ralph) from deployment to deployment, to his own service in the Army. He was born in Oregon just 30 days after his father left for Algeria during World War II; his father didn’t see his only son until Ralph was a year-and-a-half old. The family lived in places like Korea and Germany before Ralph’s father retired and they returned to the States in time for Ralph to graduate from high school in Vermont. Next, the family moved to Florida and Ralph graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in geography. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army and began working in the newly established military intelligence branch. His seven-year Army career included two deployments to Vietnam during the Vietnam War — one with the First Cavalry and one as a counter insurgency advisor. He worked as a civil servant in Washington DC as a defense analyst of communist forces as well as working with other countries to coordinate intelligence. Upon his retirement 20 years ago, he and his late wife, Jo Ann, moved back to Florida to be closer to his aging parents. As is the case with many children of military members, Ralph never really knew what his father did all those years that they moved around the world, so he decided to do some research and find out. “My career had been as an analyst and in my life, I’m an analyst,” Ralph said. “I analyze everything.” What transpired was an eight-year process of writing a book about his father’s service, entitled “Three Cold Wars,” which is finally being published this month.
Q: How did you meet your wife and can you tell us a little about her?
A: Jo Ann and I met at a friend’s party in Virginia. I worked with her niece. Jo Ann worked at a number of interesting jobs during her life, one of which was her dream as a little girl — to be a flight attendant. She then ran the flight crew center for World Airways and coordinated the company’s move from Washington DC to Atlanta, which involved her relocating there. We had a long distance relationship for about a year and a half, but that situation was not acceptable, so we got married and then she moved back to DC.
Q: What interested you to become involved as a volunteer with the US Coast Guard Auxiliary once you moved to Jacksonville?
A: Jo Ann and I both volunteered with the auxiliary, even though we didn’t have a boat. I appreciated the organization and the procedures from my time in the military and I also liked the good work done for boaters. I became the Public Affairs Officer and, among other things, I wrote 77 columns for Mandarin NewsLine!
[Editor’s Note: Ralph Little did indeed contribute monthly news on behalf of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 14-8 to Mandarin NewsLine for about seven years.]
Q: How did you begin writing the book about your father’s military career?
A: Once I decided to write the book, I found my father’s old leather Army briefcase. It was chock full of documents and they became the outline of my book. I didn’t have a lot of personal papers from him, just a letter that he carried in his pocket from my mother announcing that I had been born. So I had a lot of gaps to fill in. I found an archive company in Virginia that was very helpful plus I did a lot of research on the computer. What was originally intended to be a book for just the family, a military biography/ memoir, turned into much more as I discovered more details. For instance, I found battle after battle where he was in the infantry that no one else had written about. So this will now be of interest to other military historians.
Q: How do you feel to have finished writing the book and what have you learned?
A: It took me seven years to research and write the book and a year to publish it. I had to learn so much, such as how to format and how to do copyrights. I serve as a docent at the Camp Blanding Museum and they will carry the book there once it is finished. Really the best thing to come out of this is all the people I have met and who have helped me along the way. Now, when people visit Camp Blanding I can help them in their searches.
Photo courtesy Ralph Little
Ralph Little
