The term "G.I. Joe" was popularized during America's involvement in the
Second World War. Combining the abbreviation of "government issue" with
the term for the American every man, the name was applied to the thousands
of average American soldiers fighting for freedom against Nazi Germany
and it's allies. Two decades later, President John F. Kennedy (himself
a WWII veteran) and his military advisors created a new special forces
unit that would answer directly to the White House. Shortly before his
death in 1963, Kennedy placed the Army's highly decorated Lieutenant Joseph
Colton in charge of the elite team of soldiers. Colton had served with
distinction in the earliest years of the Vietnam conflict. A year later,
the team went into operation under the name "G.I. Joe". The name kept the
team anonymous and elusive, and became the unofficial code name for Colton.
The team was involved in missions all over the world, assisting other units
and participating in covert operations throughout the 1960s. In the early
1970s, the team was dissolved and Colton took a well deserved sabbatical,
occasionally working with a civilian group known as the Adventure Team.
THE TEAM REBORN
As the 1970s came to a close, terrorism was becoming a threat to the world.
Seeing the need for an elite unit to combat this threat, the Secretary
of Defense ordered the formation of a anti-terrorist team. Officially named
Special Counter-terrorist Group Delta, the team was nicknamed G.I. Joe
in honor of the legendary team from years before. The team was placed under
the direct command of General Lawrence J. Flagg, who was advised by General
"Iron-Butt" Austin. Flagg chose Colonel Clayton "Hawk" Abernathy as the
team's field commander. Specialist Lonzo "Stalker" Wilkinson became the
first member of Hawk's team, and helped the Colonel recruit the retired
Vietnam commando, Snake-Eyes, for the team. The remainder of the team consisted
of Specialist James "Grand Slam" Barney, Cpl. Eric "Short-Fuze" Freistadt,
Cpl. Anthony "Flash" Gambello, Specialist Robert "Grunt" Graves, Pfc. Alvin
"Breaker" Kibbey, Cpl. Craig "Rock & Roll" McConnel, Cpl. Rafael "Zap"
Melendez, Sgt. Shana "Scarlett" O'Hara, Lt. Ralph "Steeler" Pulaski and
Cpl. Lance "Clutch" Steinberg. The team was headquartered in a secret underground
base -- The Pit -- beneath the Motor Pool of the Army Chaplains' Assistants
School in Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, New York. It was hoped that
no one would ever suspect the team to be based at the most innocent of
Army facilities.
The new Joe team used the latest in advanced
military hardware in its many missions in hot spots around the world. The
young team was often unorthodox, but effective. 
It
was in the early 1980s that the Joes would face their greatest enemy, the
terrorist organization Cobra Command. One of their earliest missions was
rescuing American scientist Dr. Adele Burkhart from Cobra's island hideout.
While the Joes continued to fight various enemies, Cobra -- led by the
enigmatic Cobra Commander and the terrorist known as the Baroness -- became
their primary adversary. They also struggled with the October Guard, the
Soviets' answer to the G.I. Joe team. Cobra used the Cold War of the 1980s
to their advantage, and often played the two teams against each other for
their own purposes. Cobra's forces nearly defeated both teams in the Hindu
Kush mountains before they teamed up to beat Cobra. The enormity of Cobra's
threat was becoming apparent to the military as the Joes began to fight
the terrorists almost exclusively. In 1983, the Joes discovered that Cobra's
secret base was somewhere in the United States, in the decidedly generic
town of Springfield. In response to Cobra's growing threat, the military
expanded the team to include new members from the nation's other armed
forces. Cobra, too, began to expand when Cobra Commander brought Scottish
weapons manufacturer James McCullen Destro into the fold.
THE WAR AGAINST COBRA
After preventing Cobra from poisoning the Alaskan
oil pipeline, the Joes stumbled upon evidence of a major operation Cobra
was planning. Clues led them to the small Central American nation of Sierra
Gordo. Cobra had been secretly operating there for years when a small team
of Joes arrived and found the Cobra scientist Dr. Venom, along with the
Baroness and the mysterious courier named Scar-face. A short skirmish sparked
a chase around the world to uncover Cobra's plan before it was too late.
As the Joes had no idea that Cobra was also in the midst of a power struggle
in their high command. The Commander, fearing Destro's growing influence
hired the mercenary Major Bludd to kill him. It meant little to the Joes,
who discovered that Cobra intended to poison the people of the United States
by adding a toxin to all newly printed money. A battle in Washington, DC
soon followed as the Joes tracked Cobra to the U.S. Treasury. Their plan
was foiled, but the enemy escaped after Cobra Commander shot Hawk in the
back and Major Bludd and the Baroness were nearly killed when the Baroness
tried to stop Bludd from killing Destro. Hawk recovered and Bludd and the
Baroness became prisoners of the Joes. The team then tracked Scar-face
from Coney Island to Tripoli. After a brief battle in the desert, the Joes
captured Scar-face. 
Back
at the Pit, Scar-face -- realizing that his employers cared little whether
he lived or died, revealed that he was Cobra's "Trojan Horse" and was carrying
the toxin in his own bloodstream. His plan, however, was not to infect
the Joes but to cause highly visible quarantine procedures to be implemented,
allowing Cobra to discover the location of the Joes' hidden base. The Joes
used the information and constructed a pre-fab fortress to make Cobra believe
the Pit was only above ground. In the battle that followed, General Flagg
was killed by Major Bludd, and Dr. Venom and the Eskimo mercenary Kwinn
killed each other. Bludd then escaped with the comatose Baroness and left
Scar-face for dead in the exploding fortress. The Joes had won the battle
but lost their commander, and the Pit was severely damaged.
As the Pit was rebuilt and Flagg was mourned,
the Joes added new members to their team, including Duke, their new first
sergeant. Duke led a mission to track down Bludd and the Baroness in Europe.
Bludd brought the Baroness to Bern, Switzerland where she was healed by
the world's finest reconstructive surgeons. 
Bludd
blackmailed Cobra Commander, threatening to tell Destro that the Commander
wanted him dead. When the Commander arrived in Switzerland, the Joes captured
him. He hadn't been in their custody long when the his new bodyguard, the
ninja Storm Shadow helped him escape. Storm Shadow was captured for a time
but again, the Joes lost their prisoner. While Snake-Eyes tracked down
Storm Shadow after learning he had been an old friend in whose ninja clan
the commando trained, the Joes followed evidence of a Cobra operation in
the Florida Everglades. In the swamps, they found the lair of Zartan, the
master of disguise now working for Cobra Commander. A battle involving
much of Cobra's high command followed on land, sea and air. A short time
afterward, the Joes fought off Cobra's attack on McGuire Air Force Base
in New Jersey.
THE NATION OF COBRA
The Joe team completed the renovation of the
Pit only to discover that General Austin had ordered that several of the
original members of the Joe team were to be taken off active duty and placed
in charge of the Pit. Duke replaced Hawk as the Joes' commander in the
field, leaving the Colonel behind a desk at Joe HQ. New team members were
added, including Lady Jaye, Ripcord and Flint. After battling Cobra's newly
formed Crimson Guard at the Arbco Bros Circus, the Joes found evidence
linking the Crimson Guard to a home in Staten Island. The Joes raided the
house and discovered that the home had in fact belonged to a Siegie (C.G.)
named Professor Appel whose daughter, Candy, was Ripcord's girlfriend.
As a small team of Joes again rescued Dr. Burkhart -- this time from Sierra
Gordo -- the Joes analyzed the evidence found in Appel's home and interrogated
his daughter. 
The
information led them to an unknown Cobra operation in the Gulf of Mexico.
The team set up a portable air-sea base to keep close watch on the Gulf.
Cobra hydrofoils arrived and attacked the base. Meanwhile, an underground
bunker built by Cobra started sending out sonic waves which began to kill
off marine life in the Gulf. With orders from the Pentagon, fighters from
the U.S.S. Flagg bombed the bunker and destroyed it. But that was
Cobra's plan all along. The bunker sat atop a fault line, and the bombs
aggravated it, causing a tremendous chunk of the ocean floor to rise out
of the water, creating an island that Cobra now occupied. Cobra's lawyers
and ambassadors were already at the embassies of the nations bordering
the Gulf. They worked to gain sovereign nation status, while a large team
of Joes staged an assault on the island, led by Duke, hoping to push Cobra
off of the island. The Joes had forced Cobra's troops into retreat when
the call came down from the Pentagon: Cobra had been granted status as
a nation and Cobra Island was off limits. It was a major defeat for the
G.I. Joe team. Now, according to international law, Cobra had a legal right
to be headquartered just miles off the coast of the United States. In the
aftermath of the defeat, a very stressed out General Austin had a heart
attack. Though Austin would recover, he was forced to retire from the Army.
His final act was to promote Hawk to Brigadier General and place him in
command of the entire G.I. Joe operation.
Before Hawk could appreciate his new rank,
he learned that Ripcord -- flying aboard Ace's Skystriker during high-altitude
reconnaissance -- bailed out over Cobra Island against orders. He intended
to look for Candy, who had escaped Joe custody with Buzzer the Dreadnok.
What Ripcord didn't know was that Candy has died a short time before. Ripcord
was stopped by Zartan, who switched places with the soldier, hoping to
gain access to Joe headquarters. The Joes staged a rescue mission but rescued
the unconscious Zartan, who disguised himself as Ripcord. The real Ripcord
was brought back to Cobra's headquarters by Prof. Appel, who believed the
Joe to be Zartan. Their was a brief battle on the island, after which Ripcord
and Zartan arrived at their respective enemy's home bases -- Zartan in
the Pit and Ripcord in Springfield. 
After
a complicated series of events, Ripcord reported the location of Springfield
to the Joes and the nearly the entire team staged an invasion of the small
town. As the Joes arrived, Cobra's Dr. Mindbender was performing an incredible
experiment. With the help of Destro and the Baroness and Cobra's backing,
he planned to use the stolen genetic material of histories greatest soldiers
and conquerors to create the perfect soldier for Cobra. Serpentor was born
during the Battle of Springfield. Cobra was losing ground and decided to
evacuate the town, but needed to stall the Joes in order to escape. Reluctantly,
Destro placed Serpentor in command of the troops to fight a holding action
against the Joes. Serpentor rallied the troops and held off the Joes until
the residents of Springfield could evacuate the town. When the smoke cleared,
the Joes were left with a burnt out town and nothing to show for it. The
Pentagon even questioned the validity of the attack and placed the Joe
team on suspension, sealed off the Pit and quartered the Joes with the
Chaplains' Assistants at Fort Wadsworth. A group of high-ranking officers
joined Hawk in the Pit during their investigation. Back on Cobra Island,
a power struggle began between Cobra Commander and Serpentor. The perfect
soldier had turned out to be a great leader and set out to usurp the Commander's
leadership. 
Both
men led an attack on the newly rediscovered Pit, but the Commander and
Destro led a group of Cobra soldiers into Joe headquarters. Hawk and the
officers fought as long as they could while the Joes tried to organize
a counter-attack. They were too late. Hawk decided to destroy the Pit rather
than let Cobra have it, and hoped to take the Commander and Destro with
it. A series of explosions destroyed the Pit, Serpentor and the other Cobras
fled Fort Wadsworth, and Destro and the Commander were presumed dead. The
Joes were taken off suspension by General Hollingsworth and were a nomad
unit for months before established a new Pit in the Utah desert.
With Serpentor in command of Cobra, the Joes
had to contend with their move into the business of selling weapons to
any nation that would pay their price. They emphasized the sale of their
Terror-Drome launch bases, which gave them a foothold in some unstable
regions of the world. The Joes fought the terrorist organization's attempt
to set up bases in Sierra Gordo, Colonel Sharif's Emirate and Frusenland.
At this time, a more personal crisis affected the team. A small team of
Joes were sent into the Soviet bloc nation of Borovia to rescue an American
journalist.
Stalker,
Quick Kick, Snow Job and Outback staged a rescue mission into the communist
nation's security building only to find that the journalist was longer
being held there. Outback escaped, but the rest of the team were placed
under arrest and thrown into a Borovian gulag. Despite the Joes' desire
to rescue their teammates, the Pentagon ordered them not to. The U.S. was
to deny any knowledge of the rescue mission, and therefore abandon the
captured Joes. After five months in the brutal prison camp, Snake-Eyes,
Scarlett and their ninja friends staged an illegal rescue and brought the
three prisoners home. Back on Cobra Island, it appeared that Cobra Commander
had returned to lead. In reality, it was a Crimson Guardsman named Fred
VII who was posing as Cobra Commander. The Baroness learned Fred's identity,
but kept it a secret in return for becoming Fred's partner in retaking
Cobra. As Cobra's power struggles began anew, Destro had resurfaced. He
raised his own army of Iron Grenadiers and began to work independently
from Cobra. He became involved in Sierra Gordo by saving the Joes and the
revolutionary leader El Jefe in exchange for a part in the impending government.
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
The Joes were taken by surprise when the cybernetically
enhanced Star Viper infiltrated the Pit and escaped with a highly classified
"black box" filled with classified military electronics. Hawk and a small
team of Joes headed to the U.S.S. Flagg to stage a recon mission
onto Cobra Island. What they found was an island in the midst of civil
war, split into factions siding with either Fred VII (still posing as Cobra
Commander) or Serpentor. 
The
Joes eventually entered the war on the side of Serpentor after Dr. Mindbender
made a deal with the state department in exchange for returning the black
box. They decided that the Commander represented a military dictatorship,
while Serpentor represented a constitutional monarchy. The battle was the
Joes' biggest operation yet, with most of the team participating. Destro
eventually joined the fray with his own Army, hoping to test out his new
hardware as well as bring the Baroness back with him. After days of fighting,
the Joes were heading toward victory until the civil war ended abruptly
when Zartan killed Serpentor with an arrow. Mindbender immediately came
to an agreement with Fred and Destro. Leaving the Joes disgusted and defeated.
In the wake of the conflict, the Generals of the oversight committee that
watched over the Joes refused to accept the blame of the lost operation
that they authorized. Led by the corrupt General Malthus, the "Jugglers"
ordered the arrest of the Joe team and took Hawk, General Hollingsworth
and Roadblock into custody when they came before them in the Pentagon.
Malthus told the press that the Joes had acted on their own and placed
Hawk and Hollingsworth in a psychiatric hospital for observation. Roadblock
escaped and rounded up the Joes that had yet to be arrested. They all went
underground and with the help of Dr. Adele Burkhart, the Joes stormed the
hospital, now staffed by Malthus' Domestic Operations Agency. A fire fight
erupted as the Joes rescued their wrongly accused commanders. The fight
ended after television cameras showed up at the scene. Disgusted by Malthus'
lack of honor, Destro arrived and in front of a live television audience
handed Malthus his receipt for weapons he bought from Destro to finance
the Cobra Island operation. Malthus was finished and the Joes were cleared
of all charges.
Over the next few months, the Joes recovered
from the civil war and engaged in various skirmishes, while Cobra created
a new American town to call their own in Broca Beach, New Jersey from where
the Dreadnoks fought the Joes several times. A renewed threat emerged when
after Destro's castle was attacked by Cobra forces still under Fred VII. 
The
battle ended in a stalemate, but Destro could have wiped out the invaders,
and instead offered Cobra its own survival in exchange for a merger with
the Iron Grenadiers. The new Cobra was soon embroiled in a power struggle,
with nearly everyone chafing under the leadership of Destro. Soon after,
the Baroness began a personal vendetta against Snake-Eyes -- whom she believed
killed her brother years ago. She tracked him to the Bern Institute of
Reconstructive Surgery where he was undergoing an operation. She shot Scarlett
in the head, leaving her comatose and captured Snake-Eyes. She tried to
hold him at the Cobra Consulate in New York, but the situation spiraled
out of control as Snake-Eyes escaped and caused chaos inside, while Stalker,
Storm Shadow and other Joes staged a rescue mission from the outside. The
Joes saved their comrades, and saw the last of Destro and the Baroness
for months to come.
BACK WITH A VENGEANCE
As the 90s began, Cobra became an even greater threat when the one, true
Cobra Commander returned to reclaim his organization. His first act was
to throw some of his most hated enemies into Cobra Island's landlocked
freighter and bury it under a volcano. The Commander enslaved the town
of Millville with the Brain-wave Scanner, nearly being stopped by Spirit,
Mutt and Junkyard before hiding the town's true nature and left those Joes
to be arrested. Meanwhile, Snake-Eyes' grief over Scarlett's failing health
was too much for him to bear, so Storm Shadow placed him in a ninja fighting
trance and saw to it that he was given a new mission. He forced the Jugglers,
now led by General Thurston Crowther, to give his old friend a dangerous
mission into Borovia. Back home, Crowther placed the Joes under investigation,
hoping to disband them. Thanks to Hawk, Crowther was ousted and the Joes
were again saved from their supposed leaders.
The Joes biggest and most tragic operation
yet began when Cobra Commander began building Terror-Drome launch bases
in the small desert nation of Trucial Abysmia. A Joe assault team led by
Falcon and Duke was sent in for a simple hit-and-run mission, but discovered
far more than they bargained for. Cobra troops were there in force, led
by Tomax and Xamot. 
The
team of Joes was overwhelmed by Cobra and they were all captured. Cobra
was preparing to invade the nearby oil-rich nation of Benzheen. not wanting
to complicate things, Cobra Commander ordered the twins to "get rid of"
the Joes. While he just wanted them dropped off at the border, the twins
misunderstood and ordered a merciless SAW Viper to kill the Joes. Being
held by Cobra in a shallow ditch, the Joes were horrified when the SAW
Viper opened fire on the trapped, unarmed Joes. Doc was the first to die,
followed by Crankcase, Heavy Metal and Thunder. One of the surviving Joes
had a concealed knife and threw it at the SAW Viper, stopping his attack.
The remaining Joes had little time to mourn their friends and escaped in
a stolen Cobra Rage assault vehicle. They radioed for help from the Pit,
but the pursuing Cobras scored a direct hit and the Rage exploded. When
the smoke cleared, Breaker, Crazy Legs and Quick Kick were dead. Only Duke,
Falcon and Cross Country survived. In response to these casualties and
to Cobra's invasion of Benzheen, Hawk led the Joes in their biggest operation
ever, as well as their first non-covert operation. The Battle of Benzheen
was fought throughout the cities of the nation, while Hawk tried to appease
the spoiled, unreasonable Emir of Benzheen. During the long battle, seven
more Joes lost their lives, including all but one member of Battle Force
2000. The conflict came to an abrupt, unsatisfying conclusion when the
Emir came to an agreement with Cobra Commander while at gunpoint.
Over the next few years, Cobra continued to
strike around the world, with the Joes there to stop them. After the Joes
helped to protect Destro from the bounty placed in his head by Cobra Commander,
Destro and the Baroness became occasional allies of the Joes. At the same
time, Billy and Zartan were revealed to be alive. Zartan, too, turned his
back on Cobra. The Joes were then involved in a number of conflicts between
Cobra and Destro at the Silent Castle in the tiny eastern European country
of Trans-Carpathia. New groups -- Ninja Force, the Eco-Warriors and the
Drug Elimination Force -- became part of the team and fought Cobra in various
parts of the world. Cobra Commander became more ambitious than ever and
backed Borovian rebels led by Metz, a dangerous man encountered by the
Joes in the past. The Commander essentially conquered the small nation
and set his sights on neighboring countries. Using various forms of mind
control, he forced Destro, the Baroness, Zartan, Storm Shadow and Billy
to join Cobra. With the added threat of Dr. Mindbender -- resurrected by
the same technology that created Serpentor -- the Commander became as dangerous
as he ever was. 
After
the Joes' Star Brigade headed joined forces with the October Guard to stop
an asteroid from colliding with Earth, they turned their attention back
to Cobra. Hawk, Stalker, Snake-Eyes, Flint and Lady Jaye were advising
the leader of a nation threatened by Cobra. They attempted to rescue Cobra
Commander's brainwashed pawns, but were forced to retreat and failed to
relase the Cobras from their Commander's control. A short time later, the
Joes were sent back home. Feeling that Cobra's activities were now limited
to eastern Europe, certain members of the military decided to disband the
G.I. Joe team after its years of service. Some time later, a unified attack
of regular military groups attacked and defeated Cobra forces. In the aftermath
of the conflict, much of Cobra's high command scattered and disappeared.
NEW BEGINNINGS
In 2001, seven years after the shutdown of the Joes and the defeat of Cobra,
intelligence agents found new evidence of Cobra activities in the Middle
East, Europe and South America, some of which were being led by Cobra Commander
himself. Additional reports claim that Destro and the Baroness had returned
to regain control of Destro's weapons manufacturing business. In the United
States, an organized national gang of militarized bikers led by Zartan
and the original Dreadnoks had emerged. Surveillaince photos taken by a
ninja named Kamakura -- a student of Snake-Eyes -- showed that Cobra Commander
arrived at Zartan's headquarters in the Florida Everglades and hosted meeting
of many former members of Cobra's high command. It was also learned that
Cobra created microscopic machines called nano-mites that can be used to
"infect" both computer systems and people. The military acted quickly and
reinstated the G.I. Joe team. In command of the new team was Hawk, now
a member of the Jugglers. Hawk now serves an advisory role, with Duke in
direct command of the team. Many of the original Joes are a part of the
team and serve as field commanders, leading a new group of raw recruits.
Once again, the G.I. Joe team is ready to defend the world against Cobra.
* The Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary,
Copyright © 2001
)
n.
An
enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army, esp. in World War II.*