Eugene Peyton Deatrick

Eugene Peyton Deatrick, Jr. is a retired United States Air Force colonel, test pilot, and combat veteran. He is best recognized for his role in the rescue of United States Navy Lieutenant Dieter Dengler during the Vietnam War. The rescue was recounted in the Werner Herzog films Little Dieter Needs to Fly and Rescue Dawn and the national bestseller Hero Found The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War by author Bruce Henderson.

Eugene P. Deatrick, Jr. was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the only child of Dr. Lily Bell Sefton Deatrick and Dr. Eugene P. Deatrick, Sr. He grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia where his mother was a professor of Chemistry and his father a professor of Agriculture at West Virginia University. Deatrick graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. in 1942. During his first year of college at West Virginia University, Deatrick enlisted in the Air Corps Reserve. He was nominated to the United States Military Academy by Senator Jennings Randolph in 1943.

Source: Wikipedia