Ronald L. Ridgeway; killed in Vietnam, comes home

The Washington Post tells the story of Ronald L. Ridgeway who was thought to have been killed in action near Khe Sahn, Vietnam as a Marine Lance Corporal. His parents were notified of his death and they attended his funeral in St Louis, Missouri and came home with a folded flag. But while friends and family mourned his death, he sat in a POW camp in Vietnam. This is his listing from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) website;

He had been captured when his platoon was nearly wiped out in an encounter with NVA troops which had encircled Khe Sahn. From POW Network;

At approximately 9:30 a.m., the patrol made contact with an NVA force of unknown size. Although the ambush site was within view of the base, Brellenthin’s unit was pinned down by heavy fire and attempts to reinforce it were driven back by the NVA.

When the Marine unit finally was able to break contact and return to base, they were forced to leave their dead behind. It was several days before they could attempt to recover the dead because of heavy enemy activity. When they were finally able to get back into the area, the Marines found that repeated harassment and interdiction fire had badly scrambled the remains of their fellow Marines. They recovered what they had thought were the remains of nine dead Marines, none of whom could be individually identified. Among them, according to the government forensics experts, were Brellenthin and Ridgeway.

Those sets of remains were combined with the remains of nine Navy men who had died in a separate incident and were interred in a mass grave in St. Louis.

Back to the Post’s story;

He got lice, malaria and dysentery and lost 50 pounds. He wore pink-and-gray-striped POW pajamas and rubber sandals, all of which he brought home with him when he was freed.

He was beaten with bamboo canes and tied up during interrogations.

[…]

Ridgeway said he didn’t dwell on the notion that people back home might think he was dead. They would be fine. His job was to survive.

In January 1973, he was in North Vietnam’s notorious Hanoi Hilton prison when his captors abruptly announced that the POWs were to be freed as part of a peace agreement before the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.

He was released on Mach 16, 1973, he came home, got married and went to college and he just retired as a supervisor for the Veterans Affairs Department.

Welcome home, Mr. Ridgeway.

Category: Marine Corps