John Ripley, Vietnam War hero, dies at age 69

in my entire command was I ever surprised by the enemy,” he said. “On the contrary, we surprised them. We would ambush the enemy. So we were by far the best.”

During his assault on the bridge, Ripley called on his skills gleaned during his Ranger training.

“That could not have happened had I not had the training I had at Ranger school. I was exhausted, at night, freezing cold and when I got there you had to rely on just your adrenaline and your staying power,” Ripley said.

After he retired, Ripley worked in education for a number of years before he served as the director of history and museums for the Marine Corps. In that position, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Triangle, Va.-based National Museum of the Marine Corps.

About two dozen Marines currently attend Ranger school each year, with about a 50 percent graduation rate. That attendance is down from a historical average of approximately 85 Marines annually going to the grueling school, Knudson said. The strain of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan translates into fewer opportunities for Marines to attend the 10-week course.

Asked if there were Ripley protégés serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today, the legendary Marine spoke of the sacrifice today’s Marines are making for the country.

“I would dare say there are a number, and God bless them,” he said. “Every service has dozens of them who are just solidly performing, doing the hard work and serving their country.”

CITATION

RANGER JOHN W. RIPLEY
Colonel , U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)

Colonel Ripley is inducted into the Ranger Hall for Fame in recognition of his extraordinary and illustrious military career both in combat and command. During 35 years of military service, Ranger Ripley lead troops with distinction at every unit level from Rifle Platoon through Regimental Commander. As a Reconnaissance Officer with the 2 nd Force Reconnaissance Co., Ranger Ripley attended the Ranger Course as member of Class 5-65 and was recognized as the Distinguished Honor Graduate.

Commanding a Rifle Company with 3 rd Marines in “I” Corps just below the DMZ, Ripley saw extensive combat from the famous “ Leatherneck Square “ area of Dong Ha to the ‘Rockpile’. He was involved in warfare at every DMZ Fire Base from Laos to Khe Sanh. Wounded four separate occasions, Ripley refused evacuation on the first three events while managing to avoid the paperwork and 3 Purple Hearts which would have mandated his removal from the fight. Seriously wounded a fourth time, Ripley was forced to evacuate and upon recovery insisted he be returned to his Company to complete the mission of leadership to his men. In addition to the Purple Heart, Ripley was awarded the Silver Star Medal and Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V” for Valor.

Ranger Ripley next served as an Exchange Officer with Royal Marine Commandos and saw action in Singapore with the 3rd Commando Brigade; in Northern Malaya with 40 Commando and campaigned with the famous Gurkha rifles. Ripley was privileged to command the RM’s Recce Troop (Reconnaissance) in the Artic and Malaya as well as ‘Yankee’ Commando, Royal Marines, a light infantry company deployed throughout Great Britain and Norway .

Ripley’s most famous tour of combat duty was as a Senior Military Advisor during the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Invasion. NVA troops and Soviet T-54 tanks had crossed the DMZ and were approaching a strategic bridge over the Cam Lo River. For over two hours and under withering small arms fire, Ripley swung hand-over-hand out to the spans and stringers under the bridge setting over 40 pounds of explosives. Exhausted and with enemy troops and equipment on the bridge, Ripley blew the bridge. It is written that, “ What Ripley did was simply impossible” . Ripley was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism.

During his two years of Vietnam service, Ranger Ripley participated in 26 major operations and holds the distinction of more field combat command experience than any other Marine commander of that era.

In retirement Col. Ripley was President and Chancellor of Southern Virginia University and served as President of Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham , Virginia . In 1999 Col. Ripley became the Director of Marine Corps History and Museums, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. Col. Ripley’s exploits have been chronicled in the book The Bridge at Dong Ha ; His action is forever memorialized at the US Naval Academy with a diorama titled “ Ripley at the Bridge “; Col. Ripley was the first Marine officer to be honored with the Naval Academy’s Distinguished Graduate Award ; The Naval Academy Prep School dedicated a dormitory as “ RIPLEY HALL ” in perpetual honor of their former graduate; Ranger Ripley’s heroic actions in Vietnam are a subject of Oliver North’s “ War Stories ” titled “ The Furious Fight for Dong Ha ”; “ Ripley’s March ” was written honoring Col. Ripley for his military service, valor in combat and contributions to the United States; “FOB Ripley” is a Firebase located in south central Afghanistan named in honor of Ranger Ripley.

Ripley decided to cut the girders loose at the first pier, a hundred feet from the abutment. His problems began immediately. The Sea Bees, to prevent sabotage to the under section of the bridge had constructed a chain-link fence on the river side of the abutment topped with three coils of razor wire. Ripley had to crawl over the razor wire.

He chose to work on the downstream side of the bridge. Most of the infantrymen on both banks had dug in upstream, where they had more open space. The Marine captain climbed the fence and grabbed the bottom flanges of the I-beam. He then swung his feet up and hooked his feet on the flange.

He began to inch himself along the beam. His legs took a beating. The razor wire sliced numerous cuts into his legs which bled profusely. Through the wire he went. He was sweating heavily. The sweat rolled into his cuts and they began to burn. At last, he was through the wire.

With 90 feet to go, Ripley let his feet drop free and proceeded by hand-walking down the girder, swinging forward hand to hand. Arriving at the pier, he made an attempt to catapult himself up into the space between the outboard girder and the next one upstream. His legs would not cooperate. His energy was gone. Hanging only from his hands, they began to ache. Either he flipped up between the two beams soon or he would fall into the river. Once again; he almost made it that time. On the third try the heels caught the flanges. Then he twisted around until his body was spread-eagled between the two beams. He set the two haversacks of satchel charges and crawled on his elbows and knees back to Major Smock and the fence.

The major passed the first two boxes of TNT and two more haversacks through the razor wire, which cut the major’s hands and arms. Spread-eagled between the two girders, Ripley placed the boxes on the flanges and dragged the load, which weighed more than 180 pounds, back to the pier, where he set the charges to the first boxes of explosives.

Once more he dropped down, holding onto the bottom flanges with only his hands. Swing back and forth, build momentum, leap, grab, catch the heels and then muscle into the channel opening between the next two girders. When his legs and lower body fell below the beams, the communist riflemen fired up into the steel girders, with rounds ricocheting all over. Nothing hit him. Once up into the channel he was safe.

For the next two hours, Ripley worked his way back and forth setting the charges. When he finished, he crawled back through the razor wire, dropped to the ground and lay there for a while gasping for breath. Yet he had only accomplished the first part of the heroic undertaking. The exhausted Marine had to go out there again and set the detonators.

Ripley would have preferred to use electrical blasting caps and wire, but none were to be found, only the old-fashioned percussion caps and primer cord. To make things more difficult, they could not find any crimpers. Ripley had to crimp the caps onto the cord with his teeth. Since the shiny cylinders would explode if gripped too hard in the wrong place, a slight miscalculation would blow his skull apart. He remembered that back in Ranger School an instructor had placed a detonator inside a softball and set it off. The explosion blew the cover, stuffing and string all over the place.

Carefully he placed the cap into his mouth, open end out and put the primer cord in the open end. He slowly bit down. It worked. The second time would be easier, but he had to fight off overconfidence, so he remembered the softball. Now the Marine captain was ready to go back out again.

This time the enemy was waiting for him. He crawled through the razor wire and dropped below the girder. The communists immediately opened fire, far heavier than before with hundreds of rounds bouncing off the girders. Over and over, he prayed to Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother, “Jesus and Mary, get me there! Jesus and Mary, get me there...”

Just as he reached the upstream box of TNT, a tank shell hit the girder about two feet away. The angle was too flat and it bounced off and exploded on the south bank with a violent crash. The vibrations almost knocked him into the river. He set the detonator into the plastic explosive and lit the other end of the cord with a match. He had measured enough cord to allow about thirty minutes.

The girders of the Dong Ha bridge were three feet high and about three feet apart.

Ripley worked his way over to the downstream side and repeated the process and then hand-walked back to the fence. He realized that he had exceeded all normal human endurance, so again turned to God and His Mother: “Jesus and Mary, get me there! Jesus and Mary, get me there...” He climbed back through the razor wire once more and fell to the ground near the abutment in a bloody heap. He was so tired that he could hardly lift his arm.

The major tapped him on the back. “Look what I found. But you won’t need them now.” He pointed to a box of electrical detonators. Ripley looked at the caps and realized that he had to go through the ordeal under the bridge once again. He had always been taught to rig up a backup charge if one was available, At this point, the substance of a man takes over. His moral integrity triumphs. In fact, throughout the entire ordeal, it was the guiding principle. So he returned again simply because to do the job right demanded it.

While Ripley was again risking his life crawling around underneath the Dong Ha Bridge setting up the backup charges, Smock ran a couple of boxes of TNT down to the smaller bridge and ran back again. Ripley had completed the wiring and lay on the ground next to the abutment, too tired to move. Painfully, he pulled himself up and, with a roll of detonating wire hung over his shoulder, staggered along with Smock back to the bunker where Nha was waiting. The South Vietnamese Marines unleashed a barrage of fire to cover them, yelling encouragement as they went, “Dau-uy Dien! Dau- uy Dien!” (Captain Crazy! Captain Crazy!)

At the bunker Ripley was glad to be reunited with Nha. He looked around for a way to trigger the explosion since they had no blasting box. Nearby was a burned-out truck, but the battery appeared to be in good condition. Ripley tried several combinations to set off the explosives. Nothing worked. The terrible thought of failure came over him.

The captain would have to warn headquarters to give time to others to regroup farther south. He would stay with the Third Marine Battalion. Binh would never pull back. He had already made that clear. The battle-scarred warrior would die at his post with no forethought of death. From across the river, Ripley heard the tanks starting up. The massive assault was ready to begin.

Then the bridge blew. The shock waves came before the noise. The noise arrived, growing louder and louder in a series of explosions that became one huge roar. The entire hundred- foot span dropped into the river, leaving a huge gap in the bridge. The time fuses had done their job after all.

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