In March 1972, Marine Captain John Ripley was serving as an American advisor at Camp Carroll; a firebase between Khe Sanh and Dong Ha.
On Easter morning, over 200 NVA tanks followed by 20,000 soldiers were converging on a key bridge located at Dong Ha.
Understanding the incredible odds stacked against him, his men and with the monsoon season limiting air support, Ripley decided to singlehandedly blow up the bridge.
For nearly three hours, Ripley dangled under the Dong Ha Bridge, swinging from one I beam to the next, completely exposed and under tremendous enemy fire, as he tried to rig 500lbs of explosives. To make matters worse, Ripley had no blasting caps, so he had to use timed fuses — fuses with an unknown time, set with his mouth.
With the communists forces closing in, he completed his task and the 500-foot bridge blew up just minutes later. The armored column became sitting ducks for the Navy's ships offshore and A-1 Skyraiders.
His effort on the bridge that day may have been the decisive factor that kept the North from taking Saigon until three years later.
For his actions, he was awarded the Navy Cross and continued serving in the Marines, until retiring in 1992.
He earned the "Quad Body" distinction for making it through Ranger, Marine Reconnaissance, UDT and Britain's Royal Marines training courses.
Ripley contracted a disease that in the summer of 2002 required a liver transplant. Nearing death, with little time left and already having received Last Rites twice, a replacement liver was located. The Commandant of the Marine Corps sent a section of CH-46s helicopters from the Marine One presidential squadron to Philadelphia to retrieve the liver. After further coordination with the Washington D.C. Police to obtain a landing zone in the city, the liver was delivered in time for a successful transplant. #marines #semperfi #stayzero #zerofoxtrot