Free Republic

Burial of an American Lady Written by Norman Fulkerson    Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Colonel Ripley often referred to Moline as his "queen." On September 25, 2009, a small group of family and friends said their final farewell to Moline Blaylock Ripley. She died at her home in Annapolis, Md., on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at the age of 68. Moline was born in Bluefield, W.Va., on Pearl Harbor day, December 7, 1941, to Arnold Vincent and Edna Pais Blaylock. Her family eventually moved to Radford, Va. where she attended Radford High School and later went on to graduate...

COL. JOHN W. RIPLEY, U.S. MARINE CORPS (ret.), recipient of the Navy Cross and for years one of my personal heroes, has passed away. Ripley, 69, was awarded the Navy Cross – the nation’s second-highest award for valor in combat – for single-handedly blowing up the Dong Ha Bridge in Vietnam, thus blunting the North Vietnamese Army's Easter Offensive on April 2, 1972. The enemy was attacking in great strength – huge numbers of infantry, tanks, artillery – and Ripley's little force was ordered to "hold and die." Dying would be easy. But the only way to hold was to...

Last week, while working on a piece for National Review Online, I had the opportunity to chat with several experts on the subject of armed combat – all of whom have heard the zip and pop of bullets breaking the sound barrier around them. One of those experts was Col. John W. Ripley (U.S. Marine Corps, ret.).