Tribute to an American Knight (Colonel John Ripley)

War hero, practicing Catholic and cherished friend of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), Col. John Ripley, died at his home in Annapolis, Maryland on November 1, 2008.

Col. John Ripley was born June 29, 1939 in Radford, Va....Shortly after joining the Marine Corps, he applied for an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. He was ultimately accepted to this prestigious institution and graduated in 1962....

[In 1972] As a column of 200 North Vietnamese tanks and 30,000 enemy soldiers came rumbling down Highway One... Ripley was given the sobering order to “hold and die.” Facing such superior numbers there was only one way out... Lt. Col. Gerry Turley would be the one to give Captain Ripley the order to destroy the bridge but feared he was sending him to a certain death....

Blowing the bridge would not be easy. Captain Ripley had to place more than 500 lbs of explosives in the bridge's underbelly. In spite of the fact that he had almost nothing to eat and very little to drink in days, he made dozens of trips between the river bank and the bridge with 40lb satchels of dynamite in hand each time. He then swung arm over arm clutching the... girders of the structure like a trapeze artist. Enemy fire from the opposite bank continually ricocheted around him as he... placed each satchel under the bridge....

Marines are able to make it through physically demanding exercises, he said, with the use of rhythmic chants. He decided to use his own improvised Catholic version and began a continual [chant] of, “Jesus, Mary, get me there!” They did in fact help him get there since he was ultimately successful in blowing the bridge and thwarting the plans of the Communist North Vietnamese....

As impressive as this story is, Col. John Ripley was not well known outside of the Marine Corps for over a decade, until the release of John Miller’s book The Bridge At Dong Ha. The Naval Academy would eventually honor him with a diorama in Memorial Hall depicting his exploits at Dong Ha and his tale is now 'required reading for every Naval Academy plebe.'"

Col. Ripley would go on to receive the Navy Cross for his heroism along with numerous other awards. At the time of his death he was considered one of the most highly decorated Marines. Obituaries of the fallen hero used such words as 'legendary.' What really defined him however, was something much larger than the numerous medals that adorned his chest; it was the chivalric spirit that burned in his heart. Col. Ripley was in many ways the embodiment of a modern day knight."

"While speaking to a TFP audience about Vietnam he was brought to tears when recalling that among the civilians he saved in the village of Dong Ha, was a school full of innocent children. This tender solicitude for the weak and defenseless was an essential characteristic of the medieval knight but one that is often overlooked when exhibited by an American soldier such as this. A man like Col. Ripley who had seen the worst side of human nature and the most violent aspect of war never lost a tender side capable of caring for the 'little ones.'"

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