GI Defector Heading for U.S. to Face Charges of Desertion, Army Reports

FRANKFURT, West Germany — Wade E. Roberts, an American soldier who defected to the Soviet Union last April, flew Thursday to the United States where he faces charges of desertion, officials said.

Roberts, 22, left the Rhein-Main U.S. Air Base outside Frankfurt on a plane headed for Dover Air Force Base, Del., said Walter Nebgen, spokesman for the 5th Army Corps in Frankfurt. Roberts will go by van to Ft. Dix, N.J.

“He’s being escorted by representatives from the Frankfurt military community and will be released to the provost marshal’s office at Ft. Dix upon arrival,” said Nebgen.

Nebgen said Roberts’ West German girlfriend, Petra Neumann, did not fly to the United States with him.

The Army spokesman said he did not know the exact time of Roberts’ departure or when he would arrive at Ft. Dix.

Roberts, an army private from Southern California, spent his first full day in the West on Thursday undergoing medical examinations.

U.S. military police took Roberts into custody several hours after he arrived in Frankfurt aboard a flight from Moscow with Neumann, who is pregnant, military spokesmen said.

Lt. Col. John Dye, another spokesman for the 5th Corps, said Roberts did not resist arrest when he was picked up on a Frankfurt street shortly after midnight Wednesday. He said Roberts faces desertion charges.