I used to think all Joe could pilot any air-craft like in the cartoons. Now I realize just how incredibly hard if a soldier was cross-trained on every vehicle and weapon in the entire Joe arsenal.

And I used to think that an army of Cobra's size was somewhat plausible and that grand and epic battles could take place on a regular basis. Now I realize that Cobra Commander would have to be holed-up on some small country with a select cadre of operatives working smaller cells.

I also thought we weren't that far away from utilizing JUMP jetpack technology. It seems like we got a long way to go before it'll be a reality. But from a kid's imagination perspective, it's been a staple of what Joe is to me: a mix of real-world stuff with a little pixie-dust of imagination.

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One of my goals is the get my 'verse characters fully fleshed out. One of them is the 'Recruiter' who is responsible for the Reserves Corps. Military personnel are reviewed to find potential candidates (aka Greenshirts) that could be brought onto the team. My theory is that they all were Greenshirts at one point.

Case in point, just look to Marvel GIJOE #1 with all those computer screens. The thirteen JOEs were part of "...the basic read-out standing by on the display board..." If you look at that panel there are at least 20 possible computer screens. That means there were more and the 13 we know were the ones chosen for Operation Lady Doomsday. Again my theory.

Now, as part of the Reserves, each person would be trained to drive the vehicles. Pick any JOE and they could drive the VAMP or AWE Striker, no problem. Anyone could jump into a vehicle and operate the weapons because they have a basic familiarity with them. I wouldn't have anyone but legitimate pilots flying planes, so no Shipwreck or Mutt jumping into a Skystriker and flying off into battle. I give them some leeway in that any of us has a basic understanding of flight and could carry out basic flight maneuvering if we were in that position where someone had to fly the plane due to something happening to the pilot.

I wouldn't have pilots operating tanks, but like Wild Bill in the Raider, he certainly could understand how to drive the thing or operate the weapons (which he did).

I assume that the JOEs would all be capable of jumping out of a plane using a parachute, have an understanding of how to use SCUBA gear or how a glider works. Who's to say they haven't taken classes or refresher course on how to do something?

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