Summary: Two hundred recruits enter the G.I. Joe training program at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The group is quickly cut down to less than fifty candidates, including Lightfoot, who was forced to reapply after being injured during his training mission in Trucial Abysmia. Duke, Zap, Grand Slam, Roadblock and other Joes run the recruits through grueling tests and exercises. Eventually, only three soldiers make the final cut: Budo and Repeater. They are quickly assigned to a real mission that will serve as their final test.

The new recruits join a team of Joes responding to a Cobra raid on the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal. After a battle that leaves Grand Slam injured, Lightfoot leaps on the attacker’s truck as it is about to be carried away by a Cobra transport helicopter. After a short struggle, he falls from the truck, tearing a Viper’s uniform to reveal an Iron Grenadier uniform underneath. The helicopter lifts off, but explodes shortly after due to a magnetic mine attached to the truck by Lightfoot.

• G.I. Joe team: Budo, Repeater
  

Reprinted in:

• Classic G.I. JOE: Volume 9 (September 2010). A trade paperback collection from IDW Publishing. Includes issues #81-90.