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Monday, 25 February 2008 |
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 SLIP-STREAM. The code name used by U.S. Air Force Captain Gregory B. Boyajian. Born in Provo, Utah, Slip-stream was a video game whiz and computer hacker before he discovered flying. As a teen, he joined the Jr. Civil Air Patrol and got his Air Force commission through the ROTC. In flight school, his computer knowledge and quick reflexes helped him graduate at the top of his class. In addition to his piloting skill, Slip-stream speaks Armenian, Greek and French and is also plays a mean game of table tennis. He eventually was assigned to the G.I. Joe team to fly the new advanced Conquest X-30 fighter jet, though his first mission was piloting an Army C-130 transport plane taking the Joes to the Battle of Springfield. Upon arrival at Fort Wadsworth, he promptly impressed Ace and Wild Bill by overloading the base's jet fighter video game, "Mig Waxer". Shortly after that, Slip-stream was sent into Sierra Gordo to bring a disguised Snake-Eyes into the small nation to scout out a newly-built Cobra Terror-Drome. After a dogfight with a Firebat jet, Slip-stream created the illusion that his Conquest had crashed, staged with the help of smoke bombs and some fancy flying.
Some time later, he was one of a small team of Joes working undercover in the war-torn middle east to steal an advanced Soviet jet from dictator Colonel Sharif. Slip-stream piloted the transport plane that flew the Joes and the jet out of the country. During a nighttime recon flight, Slip-stream in his Conquest and Ace in his Skystriker faced the new Cobra Night Raven and it's surgically-enhanced pilot, the Strato-Viper. Ace was shot down, and Slip-stream barely survived a plunge toward the ocean. He eventually regained control and bested the Cobra pilot. Later, after serving as co-pilot on the Joes' space shuttle Defiant, Slip-stream again went undercover, posing as a Soviet pilot being held prisoner in Afghanistan. He continued to go on many more missions for the team, including flying into a dangerous landing zone in Frusenland and giving Joes air cover in his Conquest during the starting phase of the Cobra Island civil war. He even flew his Conquest at an air show with other G.I. Joe pilots. Following the Battle of Benzheen -- the largest Joe operation to date -- Slip-stream and the Stealth pilot flew a spy plane over the desert nation to get photographic evidence of a Cobra Terror-Drome operating there. The spy mission was successful, but the pilots were forced to crash-land their fighter on the deck of an aircraft carrier, making them feel less than victorious. Slip-stream served on many other missions for the Joes before the team's shutdown in 1994. Years later, after the reinstatement of the team, Slip-stream was called upon to help provide air cover for another Joe assault on Cobra Island, this time against a revived Serpentor.
(GI 49, 54, 61, 65, 68, 73, 74, 75, 115; YB 3; SM 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, 16, 20, 27, 28; GIv2 25; Figures: 1, 2, 3, 4 )
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Classic G.I. Joe Guide 
