Early on Easter Sunday 1972, Marine Captain John Ripley was certain that he was a dead man. By that day's end at Dong Ha, when his children—twelve time zones behind—were beginning to rummage through their Easter baskets, he figured he would be lying face down in the mud. Never again would he see his peaceful home in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, a world away in more respects than one.
But when Ripley looked around and saw young Vietnamese Marines ready to face death with him, his mindset toughened and a sense of calm—familiar to warriors through the centuries—began to take hold. As he recalled later, "When you know you're not going to make it, a wonderful thing happens. You stop being cluttered by the feeling that you're going to save your butt." Thus unencumbered, he could face the day and focus on the task ahead.
It was a formidable task, that of destroying a Seabee-built steel-and-concrete highway bridge, capable of supporting 60-ton tanks. This had to be done before the vanguard of a North Vietnamese infantry and armor invasion force could cross.
Ripley was up to the job. After excelling in Naval Academy tests of applied strength and agility, he had proceeded to hone his physical conditioning and experience hands-on demolitions training with such elite units as Marine Force Reconnaissance, the Army's Rangers, and Great Britain's Royal Marines. Of all the captains in the Marine Corps at that time, few—if any—could match Ripley's qualifications. And circumstances had placed him barely a mile from the bridge, with time running out. Deprived of food and sleep for three days, John Ripley was running on adrenaline. But he was ready to give it a go.
Colonel Ripley's retelling of events in the Naval Institute's Americans at War Series
The rest is history—and the stuff of legend. By destroying the bridge in time, Ripley stalled a North Vietnamese offensive and gave the South Vietnamese defenders time to regroup along the My Chanh River—a line they held. Saigon got a three-year reprieve and John Ripley received the Navy Cross.
By the time of his death at 69 last month in Annapolis, Colonel John Ripley had been memorialized by a diorama at the entrance to the Naval Academy's Memorial Hall and by Ripley Hall at the Academy's preparatory school in Newport. He also was an early selectee—and the first Marine so honored—to the Distinguished Graduate hall of fame established by the Naval Academy Alumni Association. The National Museum of the Marine Corps stands in silent tribute to his years of planning and fundraising on its behalf.
Perhaps John Ripley's greatest legacy can be found in his years of principled leadership, before and after 1972. He has been—and will continue to be—an inspiration to Marines of all ranks, as well as midshipmen and other would-be Marines. His full schedule of public appearances continued through the final week of his life, despite persistent and severe health problems.
His basic message, both as a teacher and as a prep school and university president, never varied:
One person can make a difference.
You are never beaten until you quit.
John Ripley lived by those words. As one of his sons said, "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." Yet his hard-driving approach to life did not keep him from fully enjoying his family and his wide circle of friends across the country and around the world.
As the epitome of courage in trying times, John Walter Ripley will remain an inspiration to a great and growing number of people far into the future. He is truly a man for the ages.