Dutch-Master was born on July 6, 1947 in Bowie, Arizona to a Native American (Navajo) father (R. Dutch-Master) and an Italian American mother (Marie Drago). Dutch-Master 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. In late 1969, Dutch-Master was re-deployed to Vietnam. In November 1971, he was captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a POW camp, where he and other American POWs were repeatedly tortured. Dutch-Master escaped captivity in May 1972, but was then re-deployed. At some point in his military career he also apparently received training in flying helicopters.