FLASH. The codename used by U.S. Army Sergeant Anthony S. Gambello. As a teenager, Flash played quarterback for his high school team in Lodi, California. After enlistment and his specialized training in Army Electronics School, Chemical School, and Covert Electronics, Flash was assigned to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds' covert electronics division. It was there that he developed a laser rangefinder that caught the attention of General Lawrence Flagg. Flash was a very logical and methodical person, and was sometimes called "the genius" by his teammates.

Flash was one of the original 13 members of the G.I. Joe team. He was part of many of the Joes' major missions including the rescue of Dr. Adele Burkhart, on which he and Breaker knocked out Cobra's radar station. He was on the first mission in which the Joe team met the Soviets' October Guard. When Cobra attempted to destroy a United States space shuttle, Breaker and Flash became temporary members of the shuttle's crew. In a spacesuit outside the ship, Flash grabbed on to a Cobra missle, forcing it to change course, thus saving the shuttle and its crew. He was involved in many other important operations, as well.

After the re-dedication of G.I. Joe headquarters, aka "The Pit", Flash and many of the other original Joes were taken off active duty. Even so, Flash continued to occasionally participate in missions with the team. He was part of the security team during the Joes' invasion of the Cobra-controlled town of Springfield. During the Cobra Island civil war, Flash was one of the few Joes who were not part of the operation. After the team ended up on the losing side of the war, a group of corrupt generals in the Pentagon denied having any knowledge of the debacle and announced the Joes had gone rogue. When many members of the team were unrightfully arrested, several others including Flash went underground. He and the other Joes who had escaped arrest organized a mission to rescue Hawk and General Hollingsworth when they were arrested for acting without orders and entering the civil war. During the rescue, Hawk and Hollingsworth were cleared of all charges and the corrupt generals responsible were exposed.  Flash was later one of the many Joes involved in training new recruits for the team, and was a member of G.I. Joe until it was disbanded in 1994.

Years later, Flash began participating in missions for the reinstated G.I. Joe team, including the mission to stop Tyler Wingfield's terrorist plot. On what was to become his final mission, Flash joined much of the Joe team in its battle against the forces of a revived Serpentor on Cobra Island. To allow for the start of the invasion, Flash and Mainframe infiltrated a radar station to rig up explosives to destroy the facility. The two Joes were delayed by Serpentor's troops and were unable to get out in time. Flash and Mainframe were both killed in the explosion that followed. Some time later, at Arlington National Cemetary, Flash's name was added to a new memorial dedicated to the fallen members of the G.I. Joe team.

(GI 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 17, 18, 22, 33, 49, 50, 57, 78; OB 1; GIv2 25; FL 11, 12; GI:D 1-3; Figures: 1, 2, 3, 4)