See, this is how I use Grand Slam and Flash. They're my Joes' R&D team and resident mythbusters. Psyche Out handles the "mind control" aspect of the Mindbender resume, although for my Joes he's more of a behavioral analyst and interrogation consultant.

I think the difference is I would like to see some joe characters with 0 actual combat capability and a super human strategic or research capability.

Like every joe can basically pilot a vehicle so Ace and Wild Bill are marginalized in their roles as an example.

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Why is a firefighter important? Don't get me started! Firefighters are equal parts damage protection, Forcible entry, emergency medicine and engineers. Beside Barbecue was also an army infantry man with even more skill! Besides even if you take sigma six there were only three Firemen (BBq, Blast Off and Inferno) Blast Off wasn't a marine, just on the Mega Marines it says in his file card that he earned a spot on the team as a Fire-Jumper (Dept of the Interior, natural resources or FEMA funded programs). Firemen also serve on air craft carriers like the USS FLAGG and last I heard there were more than three guys doing that job. In fact the Navy upped their numbers after a fire on a carrier last yr when it was deemed they were spread too thin to adequately respond (something like 1 million dollars worth of equipment damaged in one fire) The joes have allot of equipment and can't afford to loose any to accidental fire or fire due to sabotage. (jumps off soap box)

there are more medics than one might think (Lifeline i, Lifeline II, Doc I, Doc II, Sideswipe, Stretcher, Falcon, Stalker, GI Jane, Manleh (assuming he was a parajumper and that wasnt just a wrong recollection) and Link) and if you don't get rid of people there are about 350 named Joe characters

Engineers: Toolbooth, hardtop and later grunt? Really just two or three guys to build all that stuff?

MPs, CID, JAG: Joes really never did have much criminal justice support.

Assest Protection (Fire suppression), Medical Support, Criminal Justice (MPs, CID or JAG) and engineers and Coast Guard personnel always seemed lacking.

the CG does allot of criminal justice related activities and their inclusion could kill two birds so to speak.

Firemen are listed under Army corps of engineers so add a fireman get an engineer as well! Seabees and Navy Corpsmen were never represented as Joes and both are characters with a lot of potential (Ward Cleaver from leave it to beaver was a Seabee!)

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Build what? It depends on what type of engineers we are talking about: Horizontal and Vertical construction? Civil construction? Combat engineering? Lots of differences and nuances. Tollbooth is pretty much depicted as a combat engineer with some horizontal engineer abilities, but mostly combat trails, route clearance and of course gap crossing. not even sure he had much play in the marvel run except for acameo in the cobra civil war. Hardtop, not really sure, but he might be a horizontal guy too, though his filecard just says heavy equipment operator, and again, not much play in the marvel run.
Tunnel rat, combat engineer, my kind of guy. lots of explosives, coures his primary is EOD, and secondary is engineer.


Hey! They got Airborne!



Yes and no, mainly lots of no. It is true that the firefighting MOS does fall up under the Engineer Regiment, and htey wear our crest, but really you are not getting a combat engineer nor a construction engineer in this double play in reality (fantasy sure, reality no.) I wanted to be one when I first enlisted, they are a very small field, and no dice. Later, my Battalion had a detachment assigned to them, they were great firefighters, first, most and only.

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Firemen in the civilian world are Jacks of all trades and I think a spec ops team would like resourceful people like that. Since I am not an army Firefighter I can't say as that I know allot about their role. From my perspective the GI Joe team leans more to the group we saw in the cartoon and comic with a large central base full of important equipment which needs to be protected from destruction by fire. Now does every joe need to be a fireman... no but Barbecue has proven useful on more than one occasion. Plus I stand by the fact that he is a soldier who just happens to have firefighting skills. Now I don't really see why someone who had knowledge of Firefighting can't also have knowledge in CBR or some form of maintenance/ engineering. (I guess we all defend what we love and I take allot of pride in being a firefighter)
On a Side note I find BBQs foam pack to be a little impractical. In the real world it owuld be water filled and pressurized with maybe a three to five gallon limit (wouldn't put out much fire and foam solution is heavy too! I always looked at them as his Self contained Breathing apparatus and that thing on the front his escape pack (5 minutes of breathing air in case the world took a "LASER BLAST". In addition I always wanted a Joe sized Thermal Imaging Camera.

Also if the Joes had a S+R team BBQ could be on it with Mutt and Junkyard and Lifeline.

Engineers - for me again I see the Joes having a big base with allot of people so you need guys who can put stuff together Like checkpoint alpha, the bivouac and small mobile defenses. In my non-military mind I also see most engineers serving as EOD as well (maybe not practical).

One thing I would like to know is who on the Joe team can speak which languages. it helps me when I think of global area specific missions. I would hate to send a team to the middle east with out someone who speaks Arabic or the regional dialect ir a team to Russia with a knowledge of Russian language.

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exactly, You would figure with the D.E.F. there would be more police oriented troops other than Bulletproof, Bullhorn, Wide Scope, Surefire, and Shockwave. an investigative jag Officer would be cool, with the skills of Chuckles yet operating more like the movie "A Few Good Men". And at least one or two ther Coast guard soldiers (since the Sharc 9000 seems more like a masse produced multi-function border patrol boat.)

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