Enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1957, Col Ripley graduated from the Naval Academy in 1962. He served 35 distinguished years on active duty. He first served in Vietnam as a Rifle Company Commander with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines in the I Corps Sector just below the DMZ. He was wounded commanding Lima Company 3/3, and returned to action to complete his tour in March of 1967.

He returned to Vietnam in in 1971 as the Senior Advisor to the 3rd Vietnamese Marine Battalion which operated along the DMZ. 

Col Ripley is most well known for his actions at The Bridge at Dong Ha during the North Vietnamese "Easter Offensive" during the spring of 1972. He almost single handedly prevented the North Vietnamese Army advance south by destroying the bridge. He was awarded the Navy Cross for extradorinary herorism.

Navy Cross Citation, USMC Captain John W. Ripley, Advisor, 3rd Vietnamese Marine Corps Infantry Bn. 

    The Navy Cross is awarded to Captain John W. Ripley, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism on 2 April 1972 while serving as the Senior Marine Advisor to the Third Vietnamese Marine Corps Infantry Battalion in the Republic of Vietnam. 
    Upon receipt of a report that a rapidly moving, mechanized, North Vietnamese army force, estimated at reinforced divisional strength, was attacking south along Route #1, the Third Vietnamese Marine Infantry Battalion was positioned to defend a key village and the surrounding area.
    It became imperative that a vital river bridge be destroyed if the overall security of the northern provinces of Military Region One was to be maintained. 
    Advancing to the bridge to personally supervise this most dangerous but vitally important assignment, Captain Ripley located a large amount of explosives which had been prepositioned there earlier, access to which was blocked by a chain-link fence. 
    In order to reposition the approximately 500 pounds of explosives, Captain Ripley was obliged to reach up and hand-walk along the beams while his body dangled beneath the bridge. 
    On five separate occasions, in the face of constant enemy fire, he moved to points along the bridge and, with the aid of another advisor who pushed the explosives to him, securely emplaced them. 
    He then detonated the charges and destroyed the bridge, thereby stopping the enemy assault. 
    By his heroic actions and extraordinary courage, Captain Ripley undoubtedly was instrumental in saving an untold number of lives. His inspiring efforts reflected great credit upon himself, the Marine Corps, and the United States Naval Service.

Col Ripley was the first Marine inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame in June of 2008.

                                 

Marine Vietnam war hero passes away
By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
Capital Gazette Newspapers

Published November 03, 2008 

The Naval Academy graduate and Annapolis resident who single-handedly stopped a column of Communist tanks in 1972 by blowing up a bridge in Vietnam has died.

Marine Col. John Walter Ripley, 69, died at his home on Tuesday, but his body was discovered on Saturday.

One of Col. Ripley's sons, Stephen Ripley, said his father suffered liver illness because of a genetic defect and because he contracted hepatitis while serving in Vietnam. He had undergone two liver transplants.

Col. Ripley was to have gone to Pennsylvania on Wednesday for a speaking engagement later in the week. When he didn't arrive at the event, the family in Annapolis received calls on Saturday and went to Col. Ripley's house. Col. Ripley lived on Hanover Street, near Gate 3 of the Naval Academy.

Col. Ripley was known as "the Marine's Marine," and earned the "Quad Body" distinction for completing the Army Rangers, Marine reconnaissance, Army Airborne and Britain's Royal Marines training programs.

He was the only Marine ever inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.

Col. Ripley, a native of southern Virginia, enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from high school. He attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School for a year before enrolling at the academy.

"He was never a great student," Mr. Ripley said, "But once my dad set his mind to doing something, he would not quit; once he got the bit in his teeth, there was no stopping him."

During his career he headed the NROTC programs at Oregon State University and the Virginia Military

Institute.

After retiring from the Marines in 1992, Col. Ripley served as chancellor of Southern Virginia College in Lexington, Va., and president of Hargrave Military Academy.

Col. Ripley served as director of Marine Corps History and Museums Division and the Marine Corps Historical Center. He also was instrumental in renovation of the Naval Academy's Memorial Hall.

"He was the driving force behind the Marine Corps Museum," Mr. Ripley said of his father. "That's one of the accomplishments he was most proud of."

Col. Ripley will always be remembered for his actions on Easter Sunday 1972. He and a group of 600 South Vietnamese were to stop between 20,000 and 30,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and about 200 tanks at the twin-span Dong Ha bridge.

He told The Capital in an interview two years ago that his orders were simple and to the point: "Hold and die."

While under heavy enemy fire, Col. Ripley swung beneath the bridge and advanced by walking with his hands. He said it helped clear his mind and let him focus on his task, once he realized that he was not going to survive and there wasn't much reason to worry about the situation.

Col. Ripley was able to pack the bridge's steel I-beams with 500 pounds of explosives, he said in the 2006 interview. He crimped the detonator caps onto the primer cord by biting them.

Still convinced that he was going to die, Col. Ripley lit the fuse while still hand-walking under the bridge.

"If he hadn't dropped that bridge, it probably would have been impossible to stop that North Vietnamese advance," retired Maj. Gen. Thomas Wilkerson, CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute, said this morning.

His actions at the bridge were not Col. Ripley's last. A few weeks before the North Vietnamese launched the Easter Offensive, Col. Ripley rescued the crew of one downed helicopter by loading them onto a second copter.

Left behind and wounded, he held off the enemy long enough to extinguish the fire aboard the first copter, and then repaired it so it could be flown to safety.

In 2002, Col. Ripley became the first Marine to be honored with the Naval Academy Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Award. In 2004, Marines fighting in south-central Afghanistan named a forward operating base FOB Ripley in his honor. The Naval Academy prep school, in 2006, dedicated its new dormitory "Ripley Hall."

Gen. Wilkerson said that Col. Ripley should always be remembered for his courage, both physical and moral.

"There are two types of courage in the world," Gen. Wilkerson said, "and he brought both to the table."

Col. Ripley, for example, broke with some older academy grads by saying that women should be admitted to service academies and commissioned as officers.

"They've earned the doggone right to be here," Col. Ripley told The Capital in 2006.

Col. Ripley's awards include the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals with Combat "V," the Purple Heart, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the South Vietnamese Army Distinguished Service Order and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star.

Col. 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 are being handled by Taylor Funeral Home.

Stephen Ripley said details are pending, but his father would be given a funeral with full military honors. Instead of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.


                                 



Recommended Reading:  The Bridge at Dong Ha, The Easter Offensive

Resources:

John Ripley (USMC) on Wikipedia

The Easter Offensive and the bridge at Dong Ha by Richard Botkin on worldnetdaily. 

Farewell to a Legend by Norman Fulkerson.