A U.S. Marine colonel, famously known as “Ripley at the Bridge,” was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military award Thursday.
While serving as a captain in Vietnam, John W. Ripley played a critical role in delaying the North Vietnamese Army during its advance into the south in 1972.
As a column of enemy tanks and troops advanced on a bridge at the village of Dong Ha, Ripley placed 500 pounds of explosives. A diorama of his feat is on display at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Exposing himself to enemy fire for three hours, he dangled hand over hand along the steel beams under the bridge. Ripley, a Catholic, prayed over and over again, “Jesus, Mary, get me there.”
The explosives took down the span, stopping the advancing enemy in their tracks.
Years later, he described his thoughts during that moment, saying: “I have got to do something, because the ghosts of 3 million Marines out there, all of whom made the Corps what it is today, are looking at me and asking the same question, ‘What are you gonna do pal? You had better do something because we are watching you!’ To do nothing is dishonorable. That’s the way Marines think.”
On Thursday, at the White House, President Trump presented Col. Ripley’s son, Tom, with his father’s Congressional Medal of Honor.
“These are great men, great people,” Trump said at the White House ceremony that honored several heroes. “We thank you and we will never, ever forget you.”
