G.I. Joe Headquarters
P.I.T. III, Utah
May, 1996
Jarhead stood near one of the Quonset huts that formed part of the aboveground portion of the Joes? home base. The distant sound of the Tomahawk?s rotors was getting closer. Hawk, General Flagg and Duke were standing nearer to the landing zone. Whilst Hawk was the commanding officer, Flagg was his new Executive Officer. Flagg?s father had once been CO of the Joes, alongside the near-legendary General ?Iron Butt? Austin. Flagg was one of two new staff officers added to the Joes since the unit had been reformed.
As he awaited the arrival of the Tomahawk, Jarhead?s attention wandered back to his own history with the Joes.
Jarhead had volunteered for Joe selection in 1989, after learning, much to his disgust, that only four US Marines were serving with the Joes. After completing selection, he and some of the other successful candidates had instead been assigned to a secret joint GI Joe-CIA programme called ?Steel Brigade?. That was a five-year assignment as an undercover operative in a non-friendly nation to set up and maintain safe houses and equipment caches that could be used by the Joes or other Special Operations Forces in a given country. The Steel Brigade troopers were promised a position in the main Joe unit once their assignments were complete.
Four years into his assignment, Jarhead had nearly quit when DOD bureaucrats and misguided Generals had conspired to shut down the Joes, claiming Cobra was no longer a credible threat. Jarhead?s cell leader had persuaded him to stay. That had proved to be a lucky break for the Marine as the following year, his cell had been tasked to assist in locating the headquarters of the Red Shadows, a European terrorist organisation which had perpetrated the worse terrorist attack in American history with an assault on Washington DC. The GI Joe team had been reactivated by Presidential decree. When the Shadows? base had been assaulted, Jarhead had been part of the multinational assault team. He and his fellow Brigade troopers had since been promoted to the main Joe force.
Instead of being one of six Joes, he was one of five. Whilst Leatherneck, Gung-Ho and Mainframe had returned and two new Marines joined ? Jarhead and the marksman Hollow-point ? the infamous drill instructor Sergeant Slaughter had opted to remain at the USMC training depot at Parris Island to see out the rest of his hitch before retiring from the Marines.
Now, though, the US Marines were about to get their biggest boost yet in the Joes.
The Tomahawk helicopter descended smoothly to land amid a cloud of sand before its engines whined down. The dust cloud settled and eight new Joes stepped from the helicopter.
Jarhead moved closer to watch as Hawk greeted them.
The first man was a Black man who looked like he should be playing defence for the Vikings, Jarhead thought.
?Technical Sergeant Guardian Angel, sir,? he introduced himself. ?Pararescue.?
Hawk returned his salute. ?Welcome to the Joes, Tech Sergeant. Pararescue is role we?ve sadly not filled before.?
Guardian Angel smiled, ?Glad to rectify that for you, sir.?
The pararescueman moved aside, to show the next man in line, a white man in similar green camo. Unlike Guardian Angel, though, his beret was scarlet rather than maroon.
?Senior Airman Steel Rain, sir. Forward Air Control and Combat Air Control.?
Again, Hawk returned the salute. ?Welcome to the Joes. Congratulations to both of you; you?re the first enlisted Air Force personnel we?ve had in the Joes.?
?Thank you, sir,? Guardian Angel said.
?Who?s been doing your forward air control, then?? Steel Rain asked.
Jarhead noticed Duke cough and look away, seeming embarrassed.
?Uh, no one,? Hawk replied.
Steel Rain grinned. ?Well, then I can guaren-goddamn-tee your air support?s effectiveness is going to go through the roof with me on board, sir.?
?That?s why we recruited you, Airman,? General Flagg put in.
Steel Rain stepped aside. Next up was the first of the new US Marines, Jarhead saw. A burly white guy who looked no-nonsense, wearing a drill instructor?s campaign hat over his close-cropped black hair.
?Sir, Master Gunnery Sergeant Devil Dog, reporting as ordered, sir.?
?At ease, Master Guns,? Hawk said as he returned Devil Dog?s salute. ?Kindly introduce General Flagg and Sergeant-Major Duke to your team.?
?Sir, yessir,? Devil Dog replied, barely shifting his stance to ?at ease?. ?As well as myself as Raider team leader, my team includes Gunnery Sergeant Buccaneer, our machine-gunner.?
Buccaneer was another white guy, with brown hair. He looked like he worked out, but was nowhere near as burly as Guardian Angel or Devil Dog.
?Gunnery Sergeant Bullseye, our designated marksman.?
Bullseye was a slimmer, more athletic looking Black guy who saluted so slowly it was like watching a glacier move. He was the only one of the new Joes with a weapon, his rifle slung over his shoulder.
?Lance Corporal Long Wave, our signaller.?
Long Wave was Hispanic, with close-cropped black hair. Unlike everyone else, he carried his kitbag. On his back, he wore what was clearly a radio pack.
?Lance Corporal,? Duke cut in, ?Why are you carrying your radio? We have all your gear here.?
?Sir, my radio is not standard issue, sir.? Long Wave set down his kitbag and removed the radio pack. ?Sir, I am not just a signaller, I specialise in Radio Recon, which is tactical signals intelligence and electronic warfare. My gear is modified to suit my job, sir.?
Duke nodded, ?Fair enough.?
?Lance Corporal Landmine,? Devil Dog went on, ?Raider demolitions and EOD.?
Landmine was another white guy, with brown hair and a air of cynicism about him.
?And finally, but not least, Petty Officer First Aid, our Corpsman.?
First Aid was the only one not wearing Marine camouflage uniform, instead he wore tan fatigues and his blonde hair was slightly longer than the Marines. Jarhead figured this was unsurprising since he was a US Navy NCO rather than a Marine. The US Marines relied on Navy medics, rather than having their own. Which was something of an oddity, it had to be admitted, Jarhead thought.
?Welcome to the Joes,? Hawk said to all of them, ?Our new amphibious recon unit, the Marine Raiders.?
Hawk led the Joes toward the Quonset hut with the entrance to the underground portion of the P.I.T. III complex. As they passed Jarhead, he snapped to attention and saluted. Hawk, Flagg and Duke returned the salute, but Jarhead held it for Devil Dog. The Raider leader stopped.
?So, who?s this?? he asked, taking in Jarhead?s Marine issue fatigues and the Eagle, globe and anchor emblem on his cap.
?Sir, Sergeant Jarhead, Force Recon Marine, sir,? Jarhead answered.
Devil Dog looked over to Hawk, who?d stopped and looked around. ?You already got a Recon Marine here?? he asked. ?How come he ain?t in my team??
Hawk turned around properly to address Devil Dog. ?We have a few other Marines, here. I recruited you and worked with you to put the Raiders together to be a coherent, semi-independent group. Jarhead?s already spent time with the Joes, like the others. We might look at putting the others with you on ops as necessary, but for now, your Raiders team operates alone.?
Devil Dog shrugged, an unusual response. He looked back to Jarhead.
?So, how come you?re out here, son?? he asked.
?Sir, I came to welcome our new Marines and to celebrate the USMC finally reaching double figures on the Joe roster, sir.?
?Ten Marines?? asked Bullseye. ?Is that all??
?Yes, gunny,? Jarhead answered. ?Myself, you five, plus four others. Leatherneck and Gung-Ho, two riflemen. They?re both Master Sergeants. Sergeant Mainframe is a computers specialist and Staff Sergeant Hollow-point, a sniper.?
Steel Rain pushed past the Marines. ?So how many Air Force guys we got??
Jarhead threw a look at Hawk before replying, ?With you and the tech sergeant: seven.?
?Seven?? Steel Rain asked, incredulously. ?You got five flyboys in this outfit plus us two??
Hawk nodded. ?We did have more. We lost one pilot in Benzheen a few years back. Another was killed during the Red Shadows War. Our three astronauts were all Air Force, but they?re busy with NASA and didn?t return to the Joes. We?ve added one new pilot since the reformation; Freestyle, our first female pilot.?
Steel Rain and Guardian Angel exchanged incredulous glances. ?Damn, I thought the Joes had loads of fly-boys.?
?We had Navy aviators flying Skystrikers for us from the aircraft carrier USS Flagg,? Duke put in, ?But since she was transferred to the Navy, we don?t have access to them. Those pilots were never on our roster, anyway.?
?How many Navy personnel you got?? First Aid put in.
?You make twelve,? Duke replied. ?Six SEALs, one UDT specialist, a deep-sea diver, a Swick and two Naval assault specialists. The only Naval Joe we?ve lost is Admiral Keel-Haul, the CO of our carrier. He retired. The rest of the crew were never on the roster. We?ve added three new SEALs and the UDT specialist. Shipwreck, our sailor, retrained as a Swick during the year off.?
?What?s a Swick?? Guardian Angel asked.
?SWCC crewman,? Duke replied, ?Special Warfare Combatant Craft. Basically fast, heavily armed boats designed to operate in rivers and shallow coastal waters to deliver SEALs or other commandos to their drop off points or to extract them from a hostile area.?
?If we?re done lallygagging,? Hawk said. ?I?d like to brief the Raiders for their first mission. Jarhead, make yourself useful and show the newbies to their bunks.?
?Sir, yessir!? Jarhead barked.
Hawk led the way into the Quonset hut, heading down the hidden staircase to the underground portion of the base.
In a conference room, Hawk introduced the Raiders to Colonel Courage, the team?s operations officer.
?Colonel, kindly brief the Raiders in on the current global situation the Joes are facing.?
?Yes, General.? Colonel Courage was a Black full-bird colonel dressed in a neatly pressed Army service uniform, all his buttons shiny and his boots gleaming.
Colonel Courage explained how Cobra had been defeated by Action Force in Europe in 1994, forcing the survivors to relocate to Cobra Island, how the main threat over the last year had been the Cobra splinter group known as The Coil; how the Coil had been attempting to acquire nuclear and chemical weapons, only to be thwarted by both the Oktober Guard and Action Force. The colonel went on to explain how the Coil had kidnapped an American weapons designer, who was rescued by the Joes and how in recent months the Coil had taken hostage EU defence ministers in Sweden and Russian diplomats in Armenia.
He then explained that Cobra had been quiet except for hijacking an oil platform late the previous year.
Hawk stepped up to take up the briefing.
?This is where you come in. I don?t trust Cobra. They?ve been too quiet for too long. We expected them to spend time licking their wounds and rebuilding after the kicking they took in Europe, but not this long. You?re being sent into Cobra Island for a covert recon, see what you can find out. You insert via boat and will extract via same. If anything goes wrong, we might have to try pulling you out by air. Your rules of engagement are to only fire if fired upon. This is a black op, if you can get in and out without being seen all the better. Long Wave, you?re especially going to be trying to crack Cobra?s encryption on their communications and listen in on them,? Hawk explained.
?Sir, why us?? Devil Dog asked. ?You?ve got SEALs and Army Special Forces guys, why not use them??
Hawk smiled, ?I thought you Marines would be itching to prove how hot you are? It?s for two reasons, really. One: this mission is projected to last for several days, if not over a week. You?re going to have to sneak around across the island to investigate the airfield, the Cobra city and other facilities. That?s all going to take time. Time I don?t want us to be without either the SEALs or the Green Berets. Two: in the event this mission goes south, I want the SEALs and the Green Berets available to pull you out.?