A Korean War Rakkasan Remembers the 1952 Koje-Do Uprising

David Deatherage joined the Army in 1950 and volunteered for service in the Airborne and in Korea. After Basic Training and Airborne School, he arrived in Korea in time to rotate back to Japan with the Regiment while the peace talks were in progress. In May, 1952, he returned to Korea to help quell the riot at the Koje-Do Prison Camp. In this interview, David Deatherage describes suppressing the prison riot at Koje-Do, and the patrol for which Lester Hammond earned the Medal of Honor. These days, David Deatherage spends much of his time supporting various veterans’ organizations, including the Missouri Korean War Veterans Memorial and Mount KIA / MIA, a mountain peak in Colorado renamed to honor all Americans killed in action or missing in action.