Posted on 11/02/2008 5:38:37 PM PST by buccaneer81
John Ripley, Vietnam War hero, dies at age 69
Sun, Nov 2, 2008 (3:42 p.m.)
Retired Marine Col. John Ripley, who was credited with stopping a column of North Vietnamese tanks by blowing up a pair of bridges during the 1972 Easter Offensive of the Vietnam War, died at home at age 69, friends and relatives said Sunday.
Ripley's son, Stephen Ripley, said his father was found at his Annapolis home Saturday after missing a speaking engagement on Friday. The son said the cause of death had not been determined but it appeared his father died in his sleep.
In a videotaped interview with the U.S. Naval Institute for its Americans at War program, Ripley said he and about 600 South Vietnamese were ordered to "hold and die" against 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers with about 200 tanks.
"I'll never forget that order, 'hold and die'," Ripley said. The only way to stop the enormous force with their tiny force was to destroy the bridge, he said.
"The idea that I would be able to even finish the job before the enemy got me was ludicrous," Ripley said. "When you know you're not going to make it, a wonderful thing happens: You stop being cluttered by the feeling that you're going to save your butt."
Ripley crawled under the bridge under heavy gunfire, rigging 500 pounds of explosives that brought the twins spans down, said John Miller, a former Marine adviser in Vietnam and the author of "The Bridge at Dong Ha," which details the battle.
Miller said the North Vietnamese advance was slowed considerably by Ripley.
"A lot of people think South Vietnam would have gone under in '72 had he not stopped them," Miller said.
Ray Madonna, president of the U.S. Naval Academy's 1962 graduating class, served in Vietnam as a Marine at the same time and said his classmate saved countless U.S. and South Vietnamese troops.
"They would have been wrecked" if the tanks had crossed, Madonna said. He said Ripley also coordinated naval gunfire that stopped the tanks from crossing at a shallower point downstream.
"He was a Marine's Marine, respected, highly respected by enlisted men, by his peers and by his seniors," Madonna said.
Miller said Ripley, who was born in Radford, Va., descended from a long line of veterans going back to the Revolutionary War. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1962, after enlisting in the Marines out of high school and spending a year in naval school in Newport, R.I.
He earned the "Quad Body" distinction for making it through four of the toughest military training programs in the world: the Army Rangers, Marine reconnaissance, Army Airborne and Britain's Royal Marines, Miller said. He was also the only Marine to be inducted in the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
Ripley earned the Navy Cross and Silver Star for his service in Vietnam. He later served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was regimental commander at Camp Lejeune, N.C., among other postings.
After retiring from the Marines, he was president and chancellor of Southern Virginia College in Lexington, Va.
Stephen Ripley said his father had a deep and tenacious love for his country, the Marine Corps and his family.
"My Dad never quit anything and never went halfway on anything in his life," he said. "He just was a full-throttle kind of person and those people that he cared about, he really cared about."
Ripley is survived by his wife, Moline B. Ripley, 67; three sons, Stephen Ripley, 43, Thomas Ripley, 38, and John Ripley, 35; a daughter, Mary Ripley, 39; and eight grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
Amazing. RIP Colonel.
Many thanks to him.
This story wouldn’t have ever made the news at all if a certain other older Vietnam war hero wasn’t running for President on Tuesday.
RIP Colonel.
Your next duty station is guarding the Gates of Heaven.
POST!
This is an extremely abbreviated version of what he did. What he did was carry a total of 500 lbs. of explosives on his back, making multiple trips hanging from the I beams on the bottom of the bridge. All the while being shot at from the opposite bank.
A truly inspiring warrior.
Marine hero ping.
Saluting you Colonel. God bless.
>>>>>>>>Ripley said he and about 600 South Vietnamese were ordered to “hold and die” against 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers with about 200 tanks.<<<<<
Gee, I didn’t know that any South Vietnamese soldiers fought in the Vietnam War. /sarc
RIP Col. Ripley.
There is a nice diorama in Memorial Hall at the United States Naval Academy that depicts the heroic effort at the Bridge at Dong Ha. The write-up beside it is very inspiring, as are all the other displays in Memorial Hall. (Actually, the diorama is just outside Memorial Hall, at an entrance.
RIP Colonel! It is amazing at the caliber of men and women who are willing to come forth and defend and protect this country, and are willing to go forth and help our allies.
Mike
fwded
RIP and God Bless you, warrior!
RIP.
Prayers and God’s love in this time of grief for the family.
Where do we get men like him?
“These were not the deeds of a regular man.”
This brief sentence is an eloquent description of Colonel Ripley’s bravery. Rest in Peace, Colonel.
Although I didn’t know Col Ripley, I was privileged to serve in First ANGLICO alongside the Covans later in 1972. LtCol Gerry Turley, Major Gordon Keyser, Captain Joe Robinson, Captain Wayne Rollins, and Captain Ray Smith were all superior Marines advising the Brigades (147; 258; and 369) of the Vietnamese Marine Corps in Quang Tri province in the latter half of 1972.
Colonel Ripley’s passing is indeed a loss for the Nation.
Semper Fi,
‘The Bridge at Dong Ha’ reads like a Hollywood movie. Except, of course, that this was no movie. He was an amazing warrior.
As a result of combat action, Colonel Ripley contracted a disease that would require a liver transplant in the summer of 2002. On his death bed, with little time left and already having received Last Rites twice, a liver was located. This spurred the Commandant of the Marine Corps to send a section of CH-46s to Philadelphia to retrieve the liver. After further coordination with the Washington D.C. Police for landing zones in the city the liver arrived in time and the transplant was successful.[1]
Wow! Appropriate for him, but still, wow!
An old warrior — dies at peace and at rest in his own bed...
No better way...
Semper Fi
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