Family, Friends Shaken by Apparent Defection of GI

Relatives and friends of Wade Evan Roberts, a former resident of the Riverside-San Bernardino area, were shaken Friday, but military officials still were not certain that he is the man reported by the Soviet Union to be a defector from the U.S. Army.

“I’m just in shock,” said his mother, Alta Worley of Apple Valley. “I’m numb. I can’t believe it happened. He should never have done that while he was in the Army. . . . He shouldn’t have deserted the Army. It’s very shameful. It’s a disgrace.”

She told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that she was not positive the man identified by the Soviets as William E. Roberts was actually her son, Wade, but “it looks like it might be.”

A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that the soldier had been granted political asylum and was honeymooning in the Soviet republic of Turkemenia with his wife, identified only as P. Neumann, a West German.

Declared a Deserter

In Washington, the Army said that Pvt. 2nd Class Wade Evan Roberts, 21, of San Bernardino, has been declared a deserter after being absent for 30 days from his artillery unit in Geissen, West Germany.

On Friday, the Army could shed no more light on whether the missing Wade Roberts and the purported defector are the same man. “We’re kind of waiting for the State Department and somebody at the embassy (in Moscow) to try to get in touch with the individual,” said Maj. Bruce Bell, an Army public information officer in Washington.

Apparent confirmation that William Roberts is, indeed, Wade Roberts came from Michael Kingston of Montclair, who told The Times that he and Roberts were “the best of friends” as teen-agers and that Roberts changed his name from William to Wade several years ago.

Didn’t Like Name

“He didn’t like the name William,” Kingston said, “so he probably used the name Wade when he entered the Army.”

Kingston said he knew Roberts while both were living in San Bernardino, but that Roberts moved and then dropped out of high school. Kingston said Roberts entered the Army as “a last resort” because things were not going well for him.

The Army said Wade Roberts enlisted and went through basic training at Ft. Jackson, S.C., in January, 1985; went to the Army signal school at Ft. Gordon, Ga., and was assigned to Ft. Carson, Colo., in June, 1985. He was sent to Europe last November.

Roberts reportedly attended Arlington High School in Riverside during the 1980-81 school year and then transferred to Abraham Lincoln Continuation High School. He also attended Nueva Vista Continuation High School. Continuation schools are for students with behavior problems.

No Letters Home

Roberts’ mother told a reporter that she had not received any letters from her son because “we were not that close.”

Patricia Brown, former manager of a mobile home park in the Riverside suburb of Rubidoux where Roberts lived by himself from 1982 until he joined the Army, said the young man apparently did not get along with his mother and his stepfather, Douglas Worley, so he did not want to live with them. He apparently earned his living as a busboy at a Riverside restaurant.

Brown said Roberts visited her last August while on leave from Ft. Carson and that he told her that he liked the Army. “I just don’t believe that it’s him who did this,” she said. “And I’m not going to believe it until it’s proven to me.”

Geraldine Brylski of Riverside said she dated Roberts while he lived in Rubidoux but broke off their relationship when he joined the Army. She said he later came to see her and told her he wanted to be “an intelligence spy in communications.” She said she was not sure what that meant.

She also said Roberts was “unpredictable and did a lot of things for attention. He once wanted me to run off with him to Idaho.”

The Army said Roberts’ job in West Germany was to help install wires for communications equipment.