Well, of course the Marines are sent to the front lines to secure a beach landing for the army troops arrival, but why so few Marines of the Joe Team?

You got the whacky Cajun, Gung Ho,
the rugged Marine, Leatherneck,
and the Computer whiz, Mainframe.

but for even 3 Marines aren't enough to ward off a battalion of Cobra troops.

what gives, Hasbro?

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Well, historically most Special Operation troops came from the Army. In the early 80s Gi Joe was supposed to be Delta, which was Army.
It was only later as the public began to assimilate the idea that other services had special operators, and Hasbro wanted to expand the toy line, that you saw the SEALs, Airforce Pilots, and Marines incorporated. And for kids, it might have been hard to tell the difference between a "soldier" toy and a "Marine" toy. Mostly it was probably the perception that the Army had the elite units.

Also, the Marines only in 2006 created a Special Operations Command and 2 Special Operation Battalions. While the Marines have had Force Recon units for quite some time, for some reason they weren't considered "special forces" like the SEALs and Green Beenies.

If you go by who was in the Mega Marines, Clutch, Mirage, and Blast-Off were also Marines.

Really, when you think about it, very few Joes wern't in the Army. I can only think of 2 off hand, Ace and Slip Stream, who were definitely Air Force.

Its even funnier if you consider that there are more ninja trained Joes on the roster than Marines.

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Here's a list that we complied during a similar conversation earlier this year...

AIR FORCE:
Ace
Barrel Roll
Bombstrike
Dogfight??? (can't imagine the codename "Dogfight" not being an Airforce member)
Ghostrider
Skystriker
Slipstream

COAST GUARD:
Cutter

NAVY:
Deep Six
Depth Charge
Dr. Link Talbot
Keel Haul
Rampart
Shipwreck
Top Side
Torpedo
Tracker
Wet Down
Wetsuit

MARINES:
Blast-Off???- The character was introduced as one of the Mega-Marines...
Gung Ho
Hollow Point
Leatherneck
Mace???
Mainframe
Mirage???- See Blast-Off
Sgt. Slaughter

OTHER:

Action Man- detached from British Military
Big Bend- detached from British Military
Billy- directly attached to GI Joe from civilian life (silly Devil's Due)
Chameleon- civilian impostor, presumedly government trained
Daemon- see Billy
Daina- absorbed from Oktober Guard
Firewall- see Billy
GI Jane???- ex-army, but currently Department of Defense (or similar) scientist?
Mercer- unofficial "off the books" member
Red Dog- unofficial "off the books" member
Shockwave???- attached to GI Joe from (non-military) law enforcement?*
Skymate- detached from Australian Military
Sneak Peek II- attached to GI Joe from FBI
Taurus- unofficial "off the books" member

That's about 40 non-Army members. There are probably a few more names that could be added as well.

What makes you say Mace is a Marine?

I found it a bit odd myself. Maybe a lot of former Army guys and gals work for Hasbro so this is their way of getting one in on the age old debate of who's better.

It's a bit like the SEAL thing. We only get a very few SEALs on the Joe team even though in real life if we were forming a best of the best team then you'd likely have several SEALs on that team. For some reason though when it comes to SEALs Hasbro only thinks of the diving aspect and misses the point that the guys don't need to the water to seriously FUBAR the enemy.

Maybe they think Marine is your specialist thing and you know how they are about only having one of each thing on the Joe team like you can only have one heavy gunner at the time. Perhaps they forget there is more to being a Marine than being that fresh Jar Head off of Paris Island.

You also probably should consider that the organizations are very different in size and composition. Army is bigger, therefore more of a pool of recrutis. Marines smaller, therefore possbilly less rerpresentation.

Another consideration is the Army being such a large organization recruitss often by convincing those who otherwise may not be soldier material to be soldiers. Often this creates a desire for some in uniform to strive for bigger, better, more, elite, etc....

Marines on the other hand often appeal to an individual who is marine material already. Often times those may hestitate to leave their beloved Corps, thereby possiblly fewer recruits.

Just my two cents

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Thats why I create customs : ) - I have added several New Marine Recruits.

Just on the Mega Marines Point it was named that because Gung Ho was the Leader. Blast off came through civilian channels and was brought on because he was Jump certed and a specialist in Flame weapons as a smoke jumper. Mirage's specialty makes it much easier to believe he was a marine first and the fact that he is a Staff Sargent while Blast off is an E-4 Specialist.

Plus one could add that Marines are nasty enough that you only need a few... but thats a whole different argument.

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They've had to keep the number of Marines in GI Joe low, to help explain why GI Joe hasn't wiped Cobra off the face of the Earth yet.


I assume that it is possible, due to his filecard.
It says "From the Colorado Rockies to the shores of Tripoli, Mace is always ready to fight for what's right!"

The "shores of Tripoli" line is from the Marine Corps hymn. So it could bring in to question, if they used that line to insinuated that he is a Marine.

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Missed that line on his filecard.

interesting point on the Marines. You would figure in an elite unit they'd be more.

as for the air force pilots:

Windmill
Countdown
Lift Ticket

are they air force as well?

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Countdown was Air Force. It stated in his filecard that he flew F-16s.
Although its possible, Windmill and Liftticket are more than likely Army helo pilots.

As for the marines, I could understand if they didn't want to leave the corps and join an organization run completely by the Army. Marines are by their nature an independent organization.

I would make the argument that there should be more SEALs on the joe squad. I too have made custom characters to fulfill this role. But my verse is more realistic anyway.

Yeah, Lift Ticket's FC says he qualified for West Point and OCS. Air Force officer school is OTS. He's almost an exact duplicate of Wild Bill.

It says on Windmill's FC that he's in the Army.

As for the Joes being run by the Army, maybe they were, I never really put much thought into it, but people becoming a part of the team wouldn't be leaving their branch of service for the Army. If that were the case, Shipwreck wouldn't be wearing dungarees, Leatherneck wouldn't be wearing an 8 point cover, etc. The GI Joe team is basically a JSOC entity.

Well, they're few. Oh, I hear they're kinda' proud too.

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