Luther Dappen
Bio
Luther Dappen grew up on a small farm in South Dakota, attending a one-room “farm schoolhouse” before graduating from high school in Gregory. Coming from a family of veterans, he joined the Army in 1949 and served for a year before deploying to Korea in November 1950. While there, he served as a mortarman in a Reconnaissance Company with the 25th Infantry Division. After returning home, he used the GI Bill to continue his education and became a teacher.
Video Clips
Impressions of Korea
Luther Dappen explains how he received his orders and began his journey to Korea by way of Japan. He first traveled by train across the country toward Seattle, but officials redirected him to Tacoma so he could report to Fort Lewis. From there, he sailed to Yokohama, hearing both MacArthur’s promises that troops would be home by Christmas and reports of the growing Chinese invasion.
Share YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTmL63YJzgI&start=126&end=266
Share from this page:
https://koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/luther-dappen#clip-1
Embed:
Impressions of Korea and Withdrawal from Seoul
Luther Dappen describes arriving in Korea and moving north from Inchon. As his unit withdrew before Seoul fell to the Chinese, he saw not only retreating troops but long lines of civilians carrying what they could from their homes. He recalls that his company was the last to cross the Han River bridge, and they then destroyed it to slow the Chinese advance.
Share YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTmL63YJzgI&start=331&end=535
Share from this page:
https://koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/luther-dappen#clip-2
Embed:
The Eyes and Ears of the Division
Luther Dappen describes reconnaissance work as constantly assessing enemy fire, often being told to “go find out what they’re shooting at you with today.” He recalls one mission where his unit accidentally walked into a concealed group of Chinese soldiers lying in wait. Moving quickly, his unit captured them and brought them in as prisoners, demonstrating the unpredictable and dangerous nature of reconnaissance.
Share YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTmL63YJzgI&start=710&end=790
Share from this page:
https://koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/luther-dappen#clip-3
Embed:
Video Transcript
Dappen, Luther
22:42
Revised Transcript by Jennifer Morgan on 11/29/2025
[Beginning of Recorded Material]
Luther Dappen: Well, my name is Luther Dappen and I was born in South Dakota, actually out on the farm in South Dakota. And I went to grade school in the country school and high school in Gregory, South Dakota. And then I joined the Army. And you asked about the family.
Interviewer: Yes.
D: I come from a family of four other brothers and
0:00:30
two of my older brothers were in the service. So, I guess that’s why I joined the Army.
I: What were you doing at the time that Korean War broke out?
D: Um, I had been in the Army for a one year and then they released me through the reserves. And when the Korean War broke out, I was with my family at home. My dad, I was helping him farm. I had two older brothers that
0:1:00
were in the service. and well here we go again, I guess.
I: So you were nothing afraid of anything like that?
D: I wasn’t especially afraid. Oh yeah, you have to get a little bit uptight, but that’s the way it was I guess.
I: Had you heard about Korea before you actually were headed to Korea?
D: Now we’re talking about 60 some years ago so
0:01:30
I don’t remember what I knew about Korea before the Korean War broke out. I I just really don’t know.
I: Did you learn anything about Korea from the class?
D: Probably in history they probably well during them. . . the old books you have in history, well they didn’t even get into World War II yet and so
0:02:00
I knew about Japan and I can’t remember if I knew much about Korea. My orders read report to Fort Lewis, Washington and I got on a train and headed across country and landed and I think I am I think I made the ticket to Seattle, Washington, and then when I got on the train they said oh, you’re going to Fort Lewis you better get off at Tacoma, so I got off at Tacoma, and
0:02:30
I think there was a bus there waiting for a few of us there.
I: How many were in the train the soldiers who were headed to Korea?
D: [Pause]. That was a long time ago. I can’t remember if they’re with anybody, but they must have been some more because I know when we got there we got on a bus and we went out to Fort Lewis, and. . .
0:03:00
I: So did you guys talk about you’re headed for Korea to fight in the war?
D: Oh, yes. We knew what was happening and then you see we they set up a kind of a, I believe it was a seven-day refresher course, basically kind of like a refresher of the basic training back in Arkansas, and we got on the boat. It was some time
0:03:30
before the Chinese come in because we were listening to news on the ship and they said okay MacArthur made the big talk about “I’ll have my troops home for Christmas” and. . .
I: That’s what you actually heard from the radio?
D: Yeah, that was the news on the ship over there, and so it was also on the trip about that time
0:04:00
the Chinese entered, so that’s that was the sailing time. Now when we say we sail we sailed for Yokohama in Japan and we were there in Yokohama for three days. And I don’t know if it was the same ship or another that in three days later we got on the ship again and we sail for Incheon.
I: So, probably would have been between September and October
0:04:30
that you left. You don’t remember the exact date that you left?
D: I think I think the Chinese come in the last part of November, so it had been close to November
I: Close to November? But actually the Chinese crossed the Yalu River and hide it out there in the middle of October so but yeah but you you’re talking about
0:05:00
official sort of a recognition of Chinese soldier crossing yellow and being Korean Peninsula around November right?
D: Yeah.
I: Okay. Can you describe about three days in Yokohama. What did you do?
D: We didn’t get a pass to go downtown, I remember that. And I remember it was raining in I took off across the courtyard got in the water about that deep [Laughter].
0:05:30
We were issued live ammunition on the ship and we went overboard on these rope ladders into what they call these some landing boats. And so, I didn’t know what I expected. I got my live ammunition, so what well whatever will be, will be. So we got into Incheon. And this stuff, they call it a repo depot, I don’t know where they got that type of a name. It just
0:06:00
looked like the end of the world. There was empty barrels of fuel. And I guess they’d be calling off our names. Okay, you’re going here, you’re going there. It’s kind of a wonder anybody got to where they were supposed to. And anyway, I was then assigned to the 25th Division, that was a reconnaissance company, so you get on that train and, and ok
0:06:30
we got on the train. And my first night duty I was on guard. I was guarding on the train the c-rations because if you didn’t have a guard there the c-rations would disappear.
I: Oh, yeah. So you took the train from Incheon to where?
D: Um, somewheres up north up around Pyongyang. Pyongyang comes to mind. I don’t know exactly
0:07:00
where it was.
I: So you directly shipped from Incheon to Pyongyang?
D: Yeah, they had this train.
I: Right.
D: I don’t think I ever spent the same night the same place ever. We were always on the move.
I: Oh really, so please tell me about it, from when to where and what did you do?
D: Okay, we got way up north there and well, we had that that retreat. And one of the things that I can kind of remember not only were we
0:07:30
retreating, the civilians they had their a-frames on probably everything they own and just lines of them just heading south and and so we had this orderly retreat and about Christmas time of 1950 we were coming through Seoul, Korea, and there were three
0:08:00
army divisions that pulled through, at that time there was only one bridge across that Han River. And we were the last company, and we blew the bridge up. Our company did.
I: You did? Your company did it?
D: Yes, that was a Reconnaissance Company of the 25th Infantry Division.
I: What did you use? TNT or what?
D: We, we
I: Did you do?
D: I tell you what, I wasn’t in the group
0:08:30
that put the dynamite there, but it was our company and we were the last company across that bridge, tried to slow the Chinese down a little bit.
I: How about other people? The civilians? Were across the river or. . .
D: Seoul, Korea was evacuated. There was nobody.
I: So, there were no civilians?
D: I didn’t see any. No.
I: You didn’t see any?
D: And I remember the P-51s
0:09:00
coming down the street with on their strafing runs. They’d open up about right straight over top of our heads and down the street and um. I had a revisit to Korea in the year 2000. When I saw Korea in 2000, I said those P-51s wouldn’t be able to get down through the streets and their strafing jobs now.
0:09:30
But, okay, let’s go back to 1950. I had in the 25th Division in the reconnaissance company, there was a follow by the name of David Hackworth who was in our company. And he wrote this book about faith, and he tells about when we come through Seoul there about Christmas time in 1950 how we,
0:10:00
his squad . . . they set up in the bank, and he said that he ordered a bazooka to blow the safe open. And there was some worthless Korean money, and he says well I take all you want. But my squad at that particular time was in the jewelry store next door and there was a safe there but we couldn’t get into it
0:10:30
I was in the motor squad of the reconnaissance company. A typical day that that first couple months, we were in retreat. Like I said we’d ever stayed in the same place twice in the night. We finally got some more support, and we started advancing and I’m not sure
0:11:00
exactly the dates and so forth, but we we got up to about where the lines are right now on the DMZ. Then, we stopped. We were waiting for that armistice come along about two years later. It was just kind of a stalemate there.
I: Right. So you were around the DMZ or the 38th Parallel as a period of stalemate, right?
0:11:30
D: Yeah, at the end.
I: Have you ever faced real enemy, North Korea? Have you ever seen those. . .
D: Have ever shot at one?
I: Yeah.
D: Well, a lot of the motor work. . . we had them. . . being a reconnaissance company that means we’ve kind of the eyes and ears for the division well in a lot of a lot
0:12:00
of our assignments was well why don’t you go up and see what they’re shooting at you with you today. And I remember one time we moved up to see what was going on, and we sat there probably. . . We were kind of in the open field, I thought. And we were sitting there for about an hour and finally one of our soldiers just about stepped on a Chinese soldier. He jumped up with his hands up and when he jumped up, then there was about a dozen more
0:12:30
we’d been there an hour or so. And we had no idea. We were. . . surprised me.
I: So, what happened to him?
D: What happened to us those? Well, we took them back to our MP unit and they shipped him back to wherever they’re holding prisoners. But you know both sides had these propaganda leafs, but it was no it’d be a a Chinese soldier or North
0:13:00
Korean with that give up slip. Hey, hey, hey! Here I am! And so I I know one time we had a prisoner we just kind of kept for a couple days. He was a good worker for us. They had the point system to be rotated, but when I left they said okay I’m who’s been in the company the longest? Okay, you get to go home so I I got to go home it might come up the same
0:13:30
time my R & R come up, so I got cheated out of R&R.
I: Oh!
D: but, well you know, like that whole 3rd Platoon, that was about a third of our company was captured there in Seoul and a few other casualties. It didn’t take all that long before I was the oldest member there, soI got to go home.
I: Can you describe the scenery of
0:14:00
Korea when you arrived?
D: Oh, I think I mentioned earlier when we hit that repo depot there an Inchon. Man, I thought this is the end of the world. I never saw anything so gloomy.
I: Gloomy, and. . .
D: Well, I don’t know it was probably cloudy and cold and. . . and there were oil barrels strung all over and people trying to get on a train
0:14:30
to go north and south or wherever they were heading. We were alongside the Turkish troops for a while, and they were, they were pretty brutal. They had them lined up and that old sergeant to come up and he knocked this one soldier down. He got up and stood up there. And he knocked him down a second time and he got back up. And he had gotten down a third time did he
0:15:00
that kind of discipline the Turks used.
I: Americans didn’t have that kind of discipline?
D: No, I didn’t. I never seen it.
I: You never seen it. Wow! So must be a shock to you. [Laughter]
D: Also there was a period that we were assigned to the British soldiers and we drew their rum rations.
0:15:30
you know there’s many of the Korean War veterans that mention that they never had a parade or a welcome home. But well, when I got there in 1951, they had the band and USO girls down there. I was one of the last ones off, so I was up on top of the ship looking down
0:16:00
at the first soldier aboard and he grabbed that USO gal, and I nudged my buddy, “good thing I wasn’t the first one off because I wouldn’t know what to do”. [Laughter]
I: Wow. That’s nice because many of the Korean War veterans that I have interviewed they said there was nothing arranged for them.
D: Uh-huh. That was very true.
I: What was reaction from your family? Did you go directly to your home from
0:16:30
Tacoma or what happened?
D: Well, they they give us our service DD 214 and give us some some mustering out money. I think it was about 400 bucks, and I got on the train and headed home.
I: Oh, what happened? Did you receive the salary?
0:17:00
while you were in Korea.
D: Yep.
I: What did you do with that money? there wasn’t actually the cash dollars and that, it was. . .
D: They had that script what they called it.
I: Yeah.
D: What I do with it? I don’t think there’s enough to really worry about it, but I didn’t have anything to spend it on either. I don’t know you could find a poker game once. I probably lost some up in a poker game.
I: Have you had ever sent it back to your family?
0:17:30
D: I never won any, so I don’t know. I didn’t know the only money I had when I went home with my mustering out money
I: That’s it?
D: Yep.
I: So you spent all the money there?
D: Yeah, I didn’t have any extra money. The GI Bill come out and no I said I think I’ll just take my money and I’ll go to college, go to school. So I went to Northern State University up in Aberdeen, South Dakota
0:18:00
and spent four years there and come out in education.
I: Education?
D: Yes. And I was a teacher, and then in the summers I didn’t have school, so I continued my education. I got a master’s degree from the University of Wyoming in counseling. For a while when I first got backhome, you know was really, really different is it you know
0:18:30
on the year that I spent over there like in the evenings we always had somebody on guard. I mean that feeling it you have to secure them, but you’re back home and get to thinking, and it was before. . . hey I don’t have to do that, you let out a breath.
I: Oh.
D: but that might be considered as a post traumatic
0:19:00
stress. I don’t know.
I: That’s the most mildest form of stress right?
D: Yeah.
I: You’re lucky. Hmm. You said that you went back to Korea in 2010-11?
D: I went back in 2000 even and then I went back twice and in 2010.
I: Um.
D: I’m proud to be a Korean War veteran I guess that that’s that’s my feeling.
I: Would you
0:19:30
be willing to shake hands with the North Koreans or Chinese soldiers if somehow arranged?
D: You know. . . I wonder about the Chinese. You know right now were in fairly good standing with the Chinese, but the North Koreans they don’t really want to behave do they?
I: What if it was arranged then somebody come up?
0:20:00
Are you willing to shake hands with them?
D: Oh sure. Yeah, I would.
I: You know next year will be a 60th anniversary of armistice.
D: Yeah. We’re going to celebrate that in Washington. I’ll be there.
I: Yeah, and have you heard any war lasted 60 years after the official ceasefire in 20th century human history?
D: That’s quite a while.
I: Quite a while isn’t it?
D: Yeah.
I: There are still a lot of problems in the
0:20:30
DMZ and in North Korean side, but would you be willing to sign the petition if there is one to end the armistice and replace it with the peace treaty?
D: Would I be a willing to sign it? Yeah, yeah. Yes, I think that’s what should happen and hope that the North Koreans mean it and abide by it. We did, we did keep the North Koreans from
0:21:00
taking over the South Korean people. You wonder what if the United Nations wouldn’t have agreed to do that, I wonder what Korea would look like now. You wonder.
I: So what is your message?
D: So the message would be, what would
0:21:30
it be? Now you know the biggest mistake was when they decided to after World War II, when you know Korea was under the domination of Japan, but then so we defeated Japan but they allowed Russia to have the North Korea. And so the Russians, they armed and equipped North Korean and then they said
0:22:00
sik’em and then they disappeared. That’s what I, that’s why I saw it.
I: Yeah, I think you made a real point there. The American government overestimated the capacity of Japanese soldier in Manchu area you know. So that they had to invite the Russians to occupy North Korea to reduce the damage and casualties of American soldier, but it wasn’t necessary actually.
D: No, it wasn’t.
I: Great! Any message to young generation?
0:22:30
D: Young generation? Ahhh. Study your history.
[End of Recorded Material]