RALPH GIBBS

Hello from Charlotte North Carolina. I have lived in the region a fair portion of my life; therefore, I consider it home (the other reason being I currently reside here). I lead a sort-of Vagabond lifestyle.

​

I was born in Naples, Italy to army parents (technically, my mother was discharged before giving birth. Back in 1963, once a woman was pregnant, they were unceremoniously shown the door). Because my father remained in the army for 23 years, we moved a lot, Fort Knox, Fort Bragg and Manheim, Germany being among my personal favorite places to live.

​

Fast forward a bit; I eventually moved to Charlotte in the mid-70s where I spent my golden teenage years, graduated from high school and promptly joined the Navy (point of clarification, I actually joined the Army National Guard first (following in the old man’s footsteps) but got sick of cleaning floors. Therefore, I joined the Navy where I was quickly put to the important tasks of cleaning the decks.

 

I spent twenty years in the Navy and have seen a very large portion of the world (it’s really true when they say it’s not just a job, but an adventure). I calculated it up once and of my twenty years of naval service, I’ve probably spent more than 13 years at sea. I’ve been stationed on the USS Coral Sea (CV-43), USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968) and USS Spruance (DD-963). There were a few others, but those were the noteworthy ships. I’ve also been stationed and lived in Norfolk, Virginia, San Diego, California, Anchorage, Alaska (my personal favorite), and Mayport, Florida. As for my Job, I was a member of navy intelligence (IS1). This job let me do a lot of writing, which came in handy after retiring.

 

Once retired, within a few months of moving to Concord, North Carolina I became a sports reporter for the Concord Standard and Mount Pleasant Times local newspaper. Sports reporting was sort of a way to clear my pallet after all the muck I was forced to report on in the navy (if you think the world is a terrible place, believe me, it’s worse than you realize). After a few years, I was ready to do a little more Muckraking, so I moved to Kodiak, Alaska and became a conservation, court and general information reporter for the Kodiak Daily Mirror. If you look, you can still find a few of my articles online. I did some fairly noteworthy reporting, whereas several of my stories and photos were picked up nationally. The most prominent was a sex and abuse story concerning the Orthodox Church of America. Many of my stories were picked up nationally and I was interviewed twice by NPR. I wrote a lot of conservation-related stories my favorite being Bristol Bay Under Siege, a three-part series that examined the environmental and industrial factors affecting Bristol Bay. I discussed ocean acidification, the Pebble Mine and Bristol Bay itself.

​

As the old saying goes, life happens and when the newspaper industry drew down, I left with the need to reinvent myself. Heading back to school I earned my bachelor’s degree in History. I have since become employed in the wireless industry.