Captain John W. Ripley, The Bridge at Dong Ha

Captain John W. Ripley, USMCR

The Bridge at Dong Ha

John Walter Ripley was born in Radford, Virginia on 29 June 1939. In 1957 he enlisted into the U.S. Marine Corps for one year. After that year he received an appointment to the US Naval Academy by the Secretary of the Navy. With a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, he graduated on 6 June 1962 as a Second Lieutenant.

May of 1965 First Lieutenant Ripley joined the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company and completed the Airborne, Scuba, Ranger, and Jumpmaster schools. Quickly promoted to Captain in June 1966, by October he joined the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines Commanding L Company in South Vietnam. He served bravely while in Vietnam, wounded once that took him away from his command for only a few weeks, because nothing would stop him from commanding his Marine Company. During his tour in Vietnam, he participated in 26 major operations. He left Vietnam after his tour and attended the Amphibious Warfare School.

In October of 1969 he became the Exchange Officer for the British Royal Marines. While in England he participated in the Marine Commando Course in Lympstone. He went on to serve with the 3rd Commando Brigade and the 40 Commando in northern Malaya. While in Malaya he spent time with the famous Gurkha rifles. He moved on to serve with the Special Boat Service “Zulu” Company Group in Norway. Cpt Ripley then took commanded of Y Company that traveled to England, Scotland and Wales. Returning for the winter he was able to complete the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Course at Elvegardsmoon, Norway.

At this time in Cpt Ripley’s life, he wanted to get back to Vietnam. He knew that the American military units were leaving Vietnam, but he still had a desire to help. The only way at this time in 1970 was to become an advisor to the South Vietnamese. Cpt. Ripley reached out to his contacts in Headquarters Marine Corps and requested to go to Okinawa, to continue his path back to Vietnam. He knew and understood that he would not be in a command position as they were not available in Vietnam, but he still wanted to go and be an advisor. Cpt. Riley said in an interview “We didn’t have any command jobs. None of the advisors were commanders but as a field advisor you were in a battalion with Vietnamese marines, and it was close as it could be to what I had done before.” 1

When Cpt Ripley returned to Vietnam and was first introduced to the Vietnamese Marines he was taken back by the difference between the Marines and the regular Army. He did not have prior experience with the Vietnamese Marines before when he did his first tour, so he did not know what to expect. Cpt Ripley knew that there was a difference in class status in Vietnam and the wealthy were the officers, and the poor were the enlisted. Ripley was astonished at the very visible differences in classes, and he noted there was no middle class in Vietnam, so he was able to recognize the peasants over the wealthy. Nevertheless, the Vietnamese Marines were different in a way that the officers and the enlisted, even though separated by class, had the utmost respect for each other.

1 John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis. Cold War Oral History Project Interview with Col. John Ripley by Cadet Shelby Sears, June 25, 2004

Cpt Ripley would have to earn the respect of these Vietnamese Marines, because to them rank was all important. Rank to the Vietnamese showed your experience, your training, and your ability to lead. Ripley was only a Captain, he was supposed to be promoted to Major, but headquarters was going to wait until after he returned to the states. The Vietnamese Marines were initially not impressed with only receiving a Captain as an advisor, even though Ripley had more combat experience than any other American advisor they had before. Within a month the Vietnamese Marines were convinced that Ripley knew what he was doing and gave him the respect that he deserved. Ripley knew how to provide the Marines with transportation, direct fire, air support, and advice that worked.

In 1971 Cpt Riley was appointed as Senior Advisor to the 3rd Vietnamese Marine Battalion. The 3rd Vietnamese Marine Battalion worked along the DMZ. On 2 April 1972 the 3rd Vietnamese Marine Battalion along with Cpt Ripley moved to the town of Dong Ha where they told to hold the village at all cost. He was told by command to “Stand and Die” which meant that no matter what do not lose the village. The most important aspect of the village of Dong Ha was a bridge and across this bridge were 200,000 members of the North Vietnamese army massing to attack along the DMZ. The Dong Ha bridge was the only way for many of the North Vietnamese to cross to move to the DMZ. The bridge was originally built by the Seabees in 1967 to support the transportation of American military tanks. Meaning that the bridge is extremely sturdy and built with thick I-beams. Cpt Riley realized that the only way to stop the North Vietnamese Army from advancing was to destroy the bridge. He contacted headquarters to express the dire need to blow up the bridge, however; headquarters could not give him permission as permission had to come from the corps level. Headquarters told him that they could not authorize the demolition of the bridge but to make sure the North Vietnamese Army could not cross. They were giving him unauthorized permission to blow the bridge.

Cpt Riley acquired 500lbs of explosives to blow the bridge. Now, the question was how to go about setting the explosives to be effective. At this time Cpt Ripley had been under constant fire from the enemy causing him to go without sleep for three days. On top of no sleep, he has not eaten in days.

Cpt Riley placed 500lbs of explosives into two different packs and placed them on each shoulder, put on his webbing around his waste and slung his rifle over his neck, loaded with close to 600lbs of weight he set off to rig the bridge to explode. The bridge was under fire causing Cpt Riley to seek a non-conventional means to set the charges. He was going to have to go underneath the bridge and the only way to maneuver under the bridge was to climb hand over hand hanging from the I-Beams.

Weaken with exhaustion and lack of food Cpt. Ripley knew that he had to motivate himself and thought to himself, “do your duty and do it correctly”. With the assistance of another Marine, he started moving across the bottom of the bridge hand over hand, but there were complications as there was razor wire strung right below his waist. His assistant tried his best to move that wire out of the way but unfortunately with every move Cpt. Ripley suffered from cuts across both legs from his calves to his waist. At one point he knew that exhaustion was going to get the best of him he started to chant a cadence to himself in a form of a prayer every time he moved his hands he would chant “Jesus Mary get me there” he kept saying this over and over till he reached the first spot.

He swung his legs up into the channel of the I-Beam where he lay on top and placed his heals and elbows into the small four-inch channel. He set the explosives and prepared to move onto the next section. Moving slowly hand over hand dangling from the I-Beams to the next spot placing more charges.

Consequently, the enemy spotted Cpt Riley and started firing 30 cal bullets in his direction. The North Vietnamese needed to keep the bridge in tact. Now, completely exhausted, weak from lack of food, hanging under a bridge with 500lbs of explosives and now receiving enemy fire, Cpt. Ripely kept chanting his prayer and continued to move below the bridge setting the explosives. When Ripley set the last explosive, he paused for a moment gathering his thoughts and strength, however; his body let him down and he blacked out resting on the top of the I-Beam on the bottom of Dong Ha bridge. Cpt Ripley regained consciousness after and unknown about of time, still receiving fire wondering how he did not fall or get hit by enemy fire collected himself and moved as quick as he could back to the friendly side of the bridge. Right after he gained consciousness an enemy tank fired in his direction. There was a slight bend in the beam of the bridge where the tank round hit causing it to veer off and hit the riverbank on the other side. Ripley thought to himself that if that bend was not in the beam he would not have survived his mission. He did it, he successfully laid all the explosives in their correct places under the bridge and now it was time to detonate. The entire mission of setting the explosives under the bridge took Ripley about four hours. You thought he was exhausted before he set out, but now he was motivated by success and ready to blow the bridge. Cpt Ripley blew up the bridge and stopped the enemy in its tracks, causing a major back up for enemy tanks, trucks, and other equipment. Consequently, the explosive were on a time delay and it took a minute before they blew when he hit the denotator, the Marines held their breath waiting and once it blew they danced with joy.

Cpt Ripley received the second highest medal for his selfless act in stopping North Vietnamese Army from crossing the river and moving 200,000 troops to the DMZ. Ripley received the Navy Cross. The citation stated that “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 different 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 was successful in saving the lives of many innocent Vietnamese. Cpt Ripley did note that if it was not for his assistant Major Smock he would not have successfully destroyed the bridge. When asked why Cpt Ripley went back to Vietnam and took on such a difficult mission, he stated that, “To me it was invigorating; it was what I wanted to do. It was the whole reason of being a Marine. I know that probably sounds like a warmonger to most people, but truth is you join the Marine Corps to be a Marine. Marines do one thing extremely well and that is fight our country’s enemies and that is why I joined and I was getting to do it, so I was a happy camper.” 2

Some might question why Cpt Ripley and Major Smock personally set the explosives that destroyed the bridge instead of the Vietnamese Marines. Ripley stated that he was the only one qualified enough to complete the mission. He completed many combat readiness schools and was successful at being a combat veteran with 36 successful missions completed. Plus, Ripley had the expertise with explosives that the Vietnamese did not, since they did not have any engineers deployed with their battalion. So, there was no question as to why Ripley and Smock volunteered for the mission and successfully blew the bridge. The Marines were extremely grateful and celebrated the success in stopping the enemy.

2 John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis. Cold War Oral History Project Interview with Col. John Ripley by Cadet Shelby Sears, June 25, 2004

Cpt Ripley had a working knowledge of the French language, he was not fluent, but he understood basic military commands. He found that most of the Vietnamese knew and understood French, so this is how he was able to communicate while in country. When he returned from his tour in Vietnam as an advisor, he had a better understanding and was more capable of communicating in French. However, he found when communicating with the South Vietnamese Marines that they wanted Cpt Ripley to speak in English to assist them in learning and becoming more comfortable with the English language. Communication was not a deterring factor for his time spent in Vietnam.

In June 1972 Cpt Riley was promoted to Major after he returned home from Vietnam. He worked as the Marine Officer Instructor at Oregon State University and worked to receive his Advanced Degree in Science from American University. After graduation he was moved to Marine Corps Headquarters where he worked in the Office of the Chief of Staff as the Special Projects Directorate and then as the Administrative Assistant/Aide to the Chief of Staff.

March of 1979 he was once again promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and commanded the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines until 1981. January 1981 his battalion attended training in Norway becoming the first unit to engage in Arctic Warfare Training and winter exercises.

Promoted to Colonel in 1984 after graduating in 1982 from the Naval War College. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy as the Senior Marine and Director of the English Division till 1987. While at the Naval Academy he established a record of successfully recruiting and commissioning over five hundred midshipmen into the Marine Corps. This was quite an established feat to commission that many into the Marine Corps. He left the Academy in 1987 and moved to Japan where for one year he was the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3 with the 3rd Marines Expeditionary Force.

Colonel Ripley found his way to a position at Virginia Military Institute as the commander of the Navy-Marine Corps ROTC. While at VMI he was able to establish one of the most prestigious NROTC organizations in the country. Ripley retired in 1992, but that retirement did not last long when in 1999 he was requested by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps to be the Director of Marine Corps History and Museums Division where he stayed until 2005. Colonel Ripley was presented the Distinguished Graduate Award given by the Naval Academy in 2002 and in 2008 he was inducted into the United States Army Ranger Hall of Fame, being the only Marine at the time to receive this honor. His final resting place is the U.S. Naval Cemetery where he was laid to rest on 28 October 2008.

Many of you maybe wondering why Colonel Ripley did not receive the Medal of Honor for his actions at Dong Ha bridge. The reason is because your actions have to be witnessed by two other Americans and since there was only one other American with Ripley at that time, his actions cannot be confirmed to be presented the MOH.

Colonel Ripley’s decorations:

Navy Cross

Silver Star

Two Legion of Merit awards

Two Bronze Stars with Combat

Purple Heart

Navy Commendation Medal

Vietnamese Distinguished Service Order

Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star