"The Bridge at Dong Ha is
the real story of a Marine Corps hero, John Walter Ripley, who on Easter Sunday, 1972,
almost singlehandedly took on a massive concrete and steel bridge to derail the carefully
prepared spearhead attack of the North Vietnamese Army at the Cua Viet River near Dong Ha.
Ripley was an experienced warrior, alone with the the courage of his convictions. All the
physical and mental and spiritual strength he had built up in a lifetime of service found
application on that Easter Day."
from the foreword by Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale, USN (Ret.)
Book Description (from back cover) First published in 1989,
The Bridge at Dong Ha has been on the Commandant of the Marine Corps's Reading List since 1990. The
author, John Grider Miller, received the 1989 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Book Award
from the Marine Corps Historical Foundation, and was named the Naval Institute's Book
Author of the Year in 1990.
This new Bluejacket Books edition includes for the first time illustrations by Col.
Charles Waterhouse, USMCR (Ret.), many derived from on-scene sketches he made during the
war.