Biography
Dave Smith, born about 1946 on a Texas dirt farm, joined the United States Army at 17 and became a Russian-language specialist. As his opposition to the Vietnam War grew, he accumulated disciplinary trouble. In 1969 he went absent without leave for 30 days, served six months in the Army stockade and was reduced to private. When ordered to Da Nang, Smith instead traveled under a friend’s name to Denmark and then Sweden, where he received humanitarian asylum and later became a Swedish citizen. Exact stockade entry and release dates have not been located.
