GREEN BERET by Roger Hike -
After WWII the US ARMY recognized the need for a Special Operations Force. In April of 1952 this project was given a green light.A base was established in Fort Bragg, North Carolina where training focused on the development of individual skills within the framework of a small detachment of men including two officers and ten enlisted men, known as the A-Team. In 1957 the 1st Special Forces Group (SFG) Airborne was deployed to Vietnam in an advisory role to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). In the 1960's, the role of the Special Forces shifted to counter-insurgency largely because of president John F Kennedy's concern over the success of guerilla movements in Indochina. Soon, elements of the 7th SFG (Airborne) replaced those of the 1st SFG and later the 5th SFG (Airborne) were deployed to Vietnam and elements of the Special Forces remained there until the early 1970's. In 1961, president Kennedy officially authorized the Green Beret as the official headgear of the Special Forces, thus creating the elite status of the Special Forces within the ARMY. In 1964, in a remote area of South Vietnam, close to Laos, Camp Nam Dong Detachment A-726 staffed by twelve Special Forces men and three strike companies came under attack by an estimated 900 Viet Cong. The battle raged for five hours. The camp was totally destroyed but the Green Beret held out. However, the cost was high! Fifty three men from the strike companies were killed and another 58 were wounded. The Green Beret lost two and seven were wounded. For their courageous action the A-Team became the most decorated small unit in the history of the ARMY. Captain Roger Donlon 7th SFG became the first soldier since Korea to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. To his team went two Distinguished Service Crosses, five Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with the V for valor and nine Purple Hearts. This event caused the American public to go crazy with patriotism! Everyone loves a hero!
I remember, as a boy of ten years old, that I was totally intrigued with the Green Beret and soon began playing ARMY pretending I was a Green Beret. On Christmas day, in 1964, I received my first G.I. Joe and most of the equipment that was available at the time. I loved these new soldiers and my friends and I began acting out battles of WWII, but I wanted a GREEN BERET because he was a hero of my time. I would soon get more fuel for my fire. In 1965 Robin Moore (48k) wrote a novel entitled "The Green Berets", which became an overnight sensation and eventually reached the top of the best seller list. I must have read that book ten times in the first month after my dad bought it for me. Now, worse than ever, I had to have a Green Beret G.I. Joe! I asked my mom to make a hat for my G.I. Joe, which she did out of cloth. As I now think back... it didn't really look that good, but at the time it was fantastic! Finally, I could now act out the exploits of the Green Beret with my Joes. It was GREAT!
In January of 1966 Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler US ARMY 7th SFG came out with the hit song The Ballad Of The Green Beret. This song instantly hit the top of the Billboard charts. A few months later the album came out and, for the albums promotion, the Green Berets were touring the country signing albums and distributing recruiting information. They came to Omaha, Nebraska only 14 miles from where I lived, and my dad took me to get an autographed album and pick up the recruiting brochure. I was just thrilled. Incidentally, I still have both of these items today. A short time later I walked into our local department store in Gretna, Nebraska with my allowance in hand with the intention of buying G.I. Joe stuff and there it was! I was shocked! It was a Green Beret Equipment card (32k) . I instantly bought one and ran home to show mom, dad and my friends. My friends also bought some and together we could now play Green Beret with real Green Beret G.I. Joes! That year, for my birthday, I received a Green Beret Bazooka set (32k) . It was so cool! Before the end of the year I had six complete Green Beret figures.
In July of 1966 our newspaper began carrying The Tales Of The Green Beret comic strip. This enhanced our playing due to the fact that it gave us many more scenarios for our G.I. Joe Green Berets to act out. The comic strip was written by, non other than, Robin Moore and drawn by a gifted artist Joe Kubert. (Joe Kubert currently provided the art work for G.I. Joe's newest line of ...SGT. SAVAGE - Ironic or Planned?)
In 1967 I turned 13 and lost my interest in playing with G.I. Joe when I instead became interested in girls. However, my Green Berets (32k) remained undisturbed on my bedroom shelves for years afterwards.
In 1976 I was at a garage sale and saw a G.I. Joe basic Action Soldier. I instantly made the purchase and the first uniform that I looked for was (you guessed it) a Green Beret. I eventually found and purchased almost everything that Hasbro made for G.I. Joe but the Green Beret was my passion. In the following years I made a point of collecting as much of the Green Beret as possible including the Action Man Green Beret made in Hong Kong Which has the correct camo pattern for the Vietnam War... the Tiger Stripe. It is awesome. I will always be a big Green Beret fan and will continue to seek out G.I. Joe to fill my hungry appetite. Happy hunting on your quest for the Green Beret!
GI JOE THE NEXT GENERATION by Jason Metzger -
Since this issue of G.I. Joe’s...Headquarters Quarterly™ is dedicated to the Green Berets I have decided to write a short little something about Lt. Falcon.
Falcon is a grade 0-2 (1st Lt.) with the Joes since 1987. When he originally joined the Joes he was part of the main body of troops, but it was soon discovered that he had that special something that put him a little above the rest. He was shortly thereafter chosen to lead a select group of troops who specialized in covert missions carried out under the blackness of night called Nightforce. As if this responsibility wasn’t enough a few years later he was placed in charge of yet another elite group of Joes called the Sonic Fighters. This troop is equipped with the most advanced weapons systems available today, So Falcon not only has to be a great leader but also have the technical knowledge to maintain these highly sensitive pieces of equipment. All this may seem like a huge load but in Falcons eyes he¹s just doing his job. He leads by example, and what an example he gives.
The description above is what Falcon is like based on the toy line. If you only knew Falcon from G.I. JOE THE MOVIE you were probably thinking where did he get that information from? In the movie Falcon was a lazy, woman chasing, wet behind the ears new recruit that needed a major kick in the butt! By the end of the movie however, he not only saved the world but still found time to start a meaningful relationship with Jinx and become an all around better person. Well I guess that's fiction for you. As far as the cartoons produced after the movie Falcon was a character used quite frequently but as with the rest of the characters used at this time there was basically 0% development of them. These cartoons were really bad!! But I won't get into that.
Back to the toy line. The first Falcon figure made was the best one. He has green clothing with black camo stripes, a cool backpack that has a holder for a knife, a shotgun, and of course a green beret. The Nightforce figure of Falcon is the exact same as the original except all the colors were changed to browns, blacks, and grays. The third Falcon produced, as part of the Sonic series, also has the same design with color changes. This time he has on gray clothing with black camo. The weapons he comes with however are completely different than the first two.
All in all I think Falcon is one of the neater Joes Hasbro has made. The only thing that could have made him better would have been a little more development of his character in the comic book.
THE ORIGINAL RETURNS by Thomas Wheeler -
In 1994, the 30th Anniversary of the original G.l. Joe, Hasbro decided to do something special. For several years, familiar characters from the 3 3/4" line had been transformed into a reasonably close equivalent of the original G.l. Joe, under the banner of the Hall of Fame line. Popular characters such as Duke, Stalker, Snake-Eyes, Flint, and Storm Shadow, and more infamous ones such as Cobra Commander, Destro, and Major Bludd, suddenly found their proportions expanded massively to a 12" size, with cloth uniforms and in some cases, flocked hair.Now it was time to turn the tables. Hasbro would release a wide variety of commemorative material during the anniversary year. The original head mold to the original G.l. Joe was found (packed in a box being used as a doorstop at the Hasbro archives, of all things!) and was used to tool a new head for a reissue of the original Joes, in both 12" and 3 3/4" size.
One particular figure would not even be available in the stores. He would only be available, at both sizes, through a special mail-order campaign. This was the Green Beret G.l. Joe. Ads appeared early, in comic books and action figure magazines. For 5 proofs of purchase (no Flag Points this time, boys), you could own, for the first time, a 3 3/4" version of an original Joe. His larger counterpart would require 20 proofs of purchase.
There were some mishaps. I distinctly remember going into a comics store where the owner had brought in a box of packaged Joes for a ridiculously discounted price - all of their proofs had been carefully trimmed out, of course. There were reports of people taking scissors into toy stores with them. Usually they steal the toys! I've seen any number of empty toy packages. Now, it was snipped up cards on the shelves! I doubt G.l. Joe would approve. He has always stood for honesty among other admirable traits.
The Green Beret G.l. Joe was given a special position, even above the other 3 3/4" commemorative counterparts. He was given a name, and declared to be the first G.l. Joe. His name was Lt. Joseph Colton, named after Hasbro executive Kirk Bozigian's son Colton Joseph. His filecard card was extensive, and reads as follows: G.l. JOE File Name; Colton, Joseph B. Birthplace, Central Falls, Rhode Island
LT COLTON, THE GREEN BERET A TOY OR OBSESSION? by Scott Fritz -
It was the middle of December l993. What had been a very busy and exhausting year trying to obtain all of the new Hall of Fame merchandise that had been released that year, would become an even more exciting, tiring, and downright frustrating 1994. It was then that I first found out about the new Green Beret figure that was to be available (as it was in the early years) from mail order only!A telephone call to the Hasbro consumer line was all that it took for me to begin my year long trip down the road of delight and pure misfortune! I asked the friendly woman on the other end of the line if there was to be any new G.I. Joe products to be released in the upcoming year. I was then told about the soon to be available mail-in LT. COLTON promotion starting in January 1994.
My heart started to beat rapidly as I knew that I MUST have one, or as many of these that I could get for my collection. As she went on, I was told that you needed $1 and 20 proofs of purchases to get just one. Great! I thought, I have many boxes of old 3 3/4" Joes with proofs that I could use and also many uniform cards that I could cut the codes from and not have to destroy my mint H.O.F. boxes.
It was then that my heart sank, “Proofs from figures only sir.” “What!” I exclaimed, “I can’t cut up my perfect boxes for this! I’ll send you people my cash register receipts with photo copies of the U.P.C.’s on my boxes.” She replied, “I’m very sorry sir, those are the rules, no photo copies and they must be from figures only.”
What was I going to do? If I wanted to get a low serial number I had better act fast! I then jumped in my car and started to go to every toy store in my area and buy 3 3/4" figures at a dizzying rate, and to also ask the managers if they would be kind enough to give me all damaged or pilfered boxes just to make it easier for me to get the required amount that I would need in this arduous task.
I was overjoyed and totally obsessed as I collected 20 proofs in just 2 hours! I went right to work cutting them out and sent them to Hasbro Direct as soon as I got back to my house.. It was well into January that I began to see advertisements for these Coltons in various toy stores and in collector magazines and I realized that I had better start saving up for another one very soon. Cotswold Collectibles Inc. ran a sale on some carded uniforms to get more UPC's for these mail-in figures and so I called them to inquire about the “figures only rule.” What I found out was that many people had sent in codes from their uniform cards and were getting them all back! FIGURES ONLY! That was the rule! I really was lucky that I talked to this woman from Hasbro on the phone in mid December and got the facts correct. It was January 30th as the UPS truck pulled up in front of my house. A small box had arrived.
What I found inside was a black haired Colton all bagged and taped, with that fresh plastic smell. I was like a little kid again. What number did I get? What hair color? These were my first thoughts as I opened the bag very carefully and lifted the shirt. I was not prepared for what I saw next! I almost passed out when I saw the serial number 000003. I couldn't believe it. Would Hasbro actually offer the general public such low numbers first instead of the Hasbro exec's or employees? I didn't care, I had my first Colton and with a very low number to boot! As time went on, I soon became compelled with getting all the various hair colors for a complete set of four.
I mailed out for one in March and two more in May, hoping to get maybe a red, blonde, or brown haired Colton, only to receive a letter in June stating that they would be delayed until September and to please sign the card if I still wanted them. Still wanted them? Are these people for real? I waited months for these. I signed that card and mailed it faster than you could say Hasbro Direct!
June came and went, and July was in full swing, the convention was on my mind more than ever and the GREEN BERETS quest had been put on the back burner. I was more interested now in getting hold of all the 30th anniversary products that were to be had within the next few months and to also get my special limited edition pilot and M.P. from the upcoming blowout party in New York City on the Intrepid. The lieutenant could wait for me. I then found out soon enough that the lieutenant does not wait for anyone! I called Hasbro Direct at the end of July and was told that if I wanted to order more of the twelve inch dolls that I had better send in my proofs quickly as they were running out of them, and to also hurry as they could not confirm when they might also run out.
Well, off to the toy stores again, this time purchasing 60 discontinued Eco Force and D.E.F. figures on clearance for my elusive Coltons in waiting. One dollar was very affordable but it was still a shame that I had to cut these cards up. After a full Sunday afternoon of cutting up the packages and filling out the forms on my living room floor with my ever helpful wife and daughter, I now had enough ready to receive three more of these twelve inch figures. Out they went the next day and for Young America, only to return to me three months later in October with a letter of apology thanking me for my interest in G.I. Joe and to use them for other Hasbro promotions in the future. The steam coming out of my ears was hotter than the barrel of a Howitzer. This Lesson taught me that if you want something, get it as quickly as possible as you may not get a second chance, especially on such limited merchandise as this.
Well, I finally received my three remaining Green Beret Joes in November and December and I am now in the process of trying to find a redhead to trade for my duplicate black haired one. I can’t complain as I did finally get a total of four Coltons. Some people probably didn't get any at all for their collections and now have to buy them at extremely inflated prices just because they happened to wait a little too long in sending away for them. Some prices that I have seen at the time of this writing are in the range of 250 to 350 dollars!!!
The 60 UPC’s that were sent back to me were promptly re-returned to Hasbro Direct so that I could get at least l2 of the small Lt. Coltons to end my bittersweet adventure. Few people out there can actually say that they have one of these very hard to get items in their personal collection and now I can actually say-I OWN ONE! YO JOE!!!!!!!!
