John Grider Miller

On Easter morning 1972 Marine captain John Ripley, the sole U.S. adviser to the tough Third Battalion of the South Vietnamese Marines, braved intense enemy fire to blow up a bridge and stop a major invasion form the north. The story of "Ripley at the Bridge", a legend within the Marine Corps, is captured by a fellow Marine who lays bare Ripley's innermost thoughts during his desperate struggle to keep 20,000 enemy soldiers and 200 tanks at bay. The introduction to this first-time recording, Ripley talks about what drove him to singlehandedly attempt such a feat and tells how he now views the act that brought him the Navy Cross.

"Depending upon where and when they served, Americans in the Vietnam War had vastly different experiences. Among the more distinctive were those of the advisors who worked closely with their Vietnamese counterparts, sharing the dangers, privations, local politics, tactical victories, and ultimate defeat that constitute the saga of the Vietnam War. U.S. Marines worked more closely than other advisors with the Vietnamese and were often on their own to deal with the vastly different culture and difficult cause. Despite these obstacles and arduous circumstances, the advisors, called "co-vans" in Vietnamese, did a credible job in a war far from home, upholding the honor of the Corps and infusing their allies with an esprit de corps that made the Vietnamese Marines a potent fighting force.". "John Miller, a co-van himself, has captured their experiences in this book. More than a combat memoir, this is an introspective and thought-provoking look at an unusual mission within an inscrutable culture, near the end of a war most other Americans were trying desperately to forget."--BOOK JACKET.