Rambo was born on July 6, 1947 in Bowie, Arizona to a Navajo father (R. Rambo according to the last film) and a mother (Marie Dragoo) of Italian descent. However, in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Marshall Murdock states that Rambo is of Indian­German descent. Rambo graduated from Rangeford High School, and then was drafted into the United States Army at the age of 17 on June 8, 1964. He was deployed to South Vietnam in September 1966. He returned to the U.S. in 1967 and began training in the Special Forces (Green Berets) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. At some point he also received training in flying helicopters. In late 1969, Rambo was deployed back to Vietnam. In November 1971, he was captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a Prisoner of war camp, where he and other American POWs were repeatedly tortured. Rambo escaped captivity in May 1972, but was then re-deployed. Upon his return to the U.S., Rambo discovered that many American civilians hated the returning soldiers, and he himself was subject to humiliation and embarrassment at the hands of anti-war hippies who threw garbage at him and called him "baby killer". His experiences in Vietnam and back home resulted in an extreme case of post-traumatic stress disorder. At the same time, inner questions of self-identity and reflectiveness caused Rambo to lash out at society rather than handling difficult situations in a "civilized" manner. This is where First Blood picks up his story.