CRANKCASE. The code name used by U.S. Army Corporal Elwood G. Indiana, vehicle driver for the G.I. Joe team. From age thirteen, in his hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, Crankcase was building hot rods and at sixteen he was street racing. He spent time as a stock car driver, but found himself getting bored and enlisted in the Army. He graduated Ranger School and Desert Warfare School and attended the SAS Tactical Driving School under the NATO exchange program. He eventually was recruited for the G.I. Joe team to drive the A.W.E. Striker. Crankcase has a love for speed, and has a tendency to get irritable when having to deal with slow or inefficient people.

On Crankcase's last training mission before joining the Joes in the desert outside of Las Vegas, he and several other new recruits led by Lady Jaye were ambushed by a group of Cobra's Battle Android Troopers. The BATs ran straight into the Joe vehicles as they headed down the highway. When they collided, canisters on their backs broke open, relasing Dr. Mindbender's creeper vines. The fast-growing vines clogged the vehicles' wheels and released a sleeping gas that knocked out the Joes. When they awoke they were trapped in a junkyard maze and forced to fight more BATs and the vines. Crankcase and the others eventually found a way to defeat the vines without weapons and sent Cobra into retreat. Crankcase later participated in the Battle of Springfield, when nearly the entire Joe team invaded the Cobra-controlled town. Some time after that battle, Crankcase and a small team of Joes traveled to a wartorn Middle Eastern nation during the battle between Colonel Sharif and those loyal to the overthrown Emir. Crankcase and the others modified a civilian van to serve as an undercover armored vehicle in a mission to steal a Russian plane being used by Sharif. After returning from the Middle East, Crankcase began working with a team of Joes researching and testing new vehicles and weapons in the Utah desert. He was one of those responsible for the security of the testing grounds. After one testing mission, the Joes and their vehicles fought the new Cobra Pogo on a highway through the Rocky Mountains. The next major operation for the Joe team was their involvement in the Cobra Island civil war. The Joes entered the war on Serpentor's side, fighting against Cobra Commander's forces. Crankcase's AWE Striker spent most of the conflict as Hawk's command vehicle. The vehicle was hit by a shell and tipped over, injuring Crankcase's leg. Roadblock carried the injured Joe to safety and medical treatment. Crankcase's final mission began as a supposedly simple raid on Cobra Terror-Dromes in the desert nation of Trucial Abysmia. The mission went sour when the Joes stumbled upon a large contingent of Cobra soldiers and vehicles. Crankcase's AWE Striker was one of the vehicles that was destroyed, though all onboard bailed out beforehand. The team was captured and held prisoner by Cobra. A SAW-Viper, misunderstanding orders, killed several of the Joes in cold blood. Crankcase was one of the first. He and his fellow Joes were given heroes' funerals in Arlington National Cemetary.

(GI 44, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 59, 63, 64, 74, 75, 83, 108, 109; OB 1; SM 3; Figure: 1, 2)