Over at the First Things blog, Kevin Palischek notes the passing of Col. John W. Ripley, who was one amazing Marine:
In late March 1972 twenty thousand North Vietnamese communists launched an offensive designed to reach Saigon and achieve a military and psychological victory over the South Vietnamese and the few remaining American advisors.
Captain John Ripley having already served a tour in Vietnam as a Marine company commander, for which he was highly decorated, was now serving as an advisor to a battalion of seven hundred South Vietnamese marines. Captain Ripley and those marines were ordered to hold a pivotal bridge spanning a river near the village of Dong Ha. Ripley later said his orders were simply "hold or die."
The story of how Ripley held is the stuff of legend.
