Semper Fi!

[unixronin]

On Easter morning, April 2, 1972, the first battle of Quảng Trị had been raging since March 30.  The 56th Regiment ARVN had surrendered itself and the Camp Carroll firebase to superior North Vietnamese forces.  At Dong Ha, 700 men of the South Vietnamese 3rd Marines Battalion, reinforced by M48 tanks from the ARVN 20th Tank Regiment, had been ordered to hold the bridges at all costs against an advancing column of over 20,000 NVA regulars with supporting armor.  The North Vietnamese column could not be allowed to cross the Dong Ha bridges.

Captain John Walter Ripley, USMC, was at Dong Ha that day as an advisor, along with Major James E. Smock, US Army.  Ripley was a demolitions export who had trained with US Marine Reconaissance, US Army Ranger Corps, US Army Airborne, and the Royal Marine Commandos.  With Major Smock's aid hauling cases of explosives over a concertina-wire fence to him, Captain Ripley climbed out hand-over-hand under the bridge span in full view of North Vietnamese troops on the far bank to place 500 pounds of TNT and C-4 among the bridge girders over the course of several hours, and blew the bridge before the NVA column could cross.  Captain Ripley was later awarded the Navy Cross for this exploit, while Major Smock received the Silver Star.

Captain John Ripley would eventually reach the rank of Colonel, retiring in 1992 after 35 years of service in the USMC.  During his service, in addition to the Navy Cross he earned at Dong Ha, he was also awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit (twice), the Bronze Star with combat 'V' (twice), 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, 2nd Class, and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star.¹  In his final tours of duty he taught at the Virginia Military Institute and the United States Naval Academy.

In 2002, at age 63, Colonel Ripley lay in the intensive care unit at Georgetown University Medical Center dying from liver failure, when a donor liver became available from a gunshot victim in Philadelphia.  There was just one problem — there was no time to get it.  It would take at least twelve hours to get the donor liver from Philadelphia removed and transported to Georgetown, and Col. Ripley didn't have twelve hours.

The USMC stepped up to the plate, dispatching a CH-46 helicopter from the Presidential "Marine One" fleet.  Georgetown's transplant team raced to Anacostia Naval Air Station, where the waiting CH-46 flew them to Philadelphia to retrieve the donor liver.  On their return, a smaller DC Police helicopter met the CH-46, too big to land at Georgetown University, and ferried the transplant team and the donor liver directly to the medical center.  The transplant was successful.

Colonel John Ripley was found dead at his home yesterday, aged 69 years.  But the United States Marine Corps will remember him for as long as there is a United States Marine Corps.

Semper fi, Colonel Ripley.

[1]  Citation list per the Wikipedia article