Well, given that GI JOE is a military unit, any support troops would be regular military, either Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines (I suppose Coast Guard might be involved, in some missions).

As for that gear?

The weapon is the typical laser, of the cartoon, since they couldn't have firearms, without censorship issues. The helmet is the usual JOE motorcycle helmet-looking thing, rather than current issue kevlar "Fritz" helmets. The OD green utilities are because both Hasbro and Marvel didn't bother to research the US military and were using Vietnam-era utilities, rather than current-issue Woodland Camouflage. Plus, it is hard to animate camo and the comic books were pretty lazy about it, except for guys like Stalker, where it is part of the gimmick. The load bearing gear is sort of based on the then-current ALICE system, but the pouches look like WW2 stuff. I assume brown was done to make it more visible, which suggests they are leather, which suggests WW2 Europe, more than anything. Actual US Army issue was ballistic nylon. For an infantry soldier, the usual configuration would be a pair of M-16 ammo pouches on the front, with the suspenders attached to D-loops, at the top of the pouches and grenades in side pockets, on each of the ammo pounches. A first aid pouch would have a field dressing, usually on one of the shoulder harness sections. In the rear, they would have twin canteens and a butt pack, attached to the other end of the suspenders. ALICE (All-purpose, Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment) gear had Y-shaped suspenders.....



You'd also have a folding entrenching shovel, which is the flat looking pouch, on the right read side. A combat knife was often carried on the shoulder harness, opposite the first aid kit, depending on whether the soldier is right or left-handed. NCOs and officers would also have a flap holster and sidearm (M1911 .45 cal pistol or M9 Beretta, starting around when the comic debuted, after the 9mm trials) There would also be a patrol pack and other gear, depending on the mission.

The Vietnam-era harness had a H-configuration, for the suspenders and most veterans preferred it to the newer style, as it distributed the load better.

The ALICE system was replaced by the MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) system, which had a greater variety of carrying options, depending on equipment and mission and also allowed for "camel back" hydration systems, which could carry more drinking water than a canteen and came with a flexible drinking straw, which could be positioned near the mouth, keeping hands free to hold your weapon.

That doesn't take into account body armor, from the flak jackets of the period to the more modern kevlar and trauma plate body armor used by US troops, as well as knee and elbow guards, which are standard issue, these days.

All of that gear adds up, in weight, too. Since I was US Navy, we didn't carry stuff like that around with us, except for things like firefighting gear, during general quarters. However, during my midshipman training cruises, I spent a week at Camp Pendleton, with the Marines and wore a helmet, flak jacket, equipment belt, two canteens and carried an M-16A2, when we were in the field. They did not issue us ALICE gear, nor did they have us carry any ammo. We were issued ammo at a firing range, for live fire and blanc ammunition, for training exercises, as well as dummy training grenades (which had the equivalent of a firecracker in them).

The military, in that period, used a training system, called MILES, which was a harness, covered in sensors, which were activated by a laser, attached to the barrel of a weapon, setting off an alarm, when you hit a vulnerable area. You can see the gear in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, when Gunny Highway and the recon platoon ambush Major Powers and Second Platoon....



The M-16A1s would have been replaced by the A2 model, around that time, though the film is set at the time of Operation Urgent Fury, aka the Invasion of Grenada.  So, it gets a pass.

Second Platoon is wearing standard issue gear, for the Marines; but, Army issue was essentially the same. The recon guys are wearing the boonie hats, which were used for sun cover in no combat situations or jungle terrain. During Desert Storm, they wore the desert camo versions of everything, but had to develop desert-specific boots, as standard combat boots were too hot and jungle boots were designed to let water flow out, but they allowed sand to flow in.

These days, you also have night vision gear that can be strapped to the helmet, protective sunglasses and all kinds of specialty clothes and gear.

By the way, that lighter green shirt was not a standard for even the OD green utilities. Blouse and trousers were the same color, as you can see in any episode of MASH. Pre-Reagan Era, the uniform cap was an OD green baseball cap, which was replaced by the old-style ranger cap (as seen in MASH, but woodland camo). The Marines always had the 8-pointed utility cap and just switched from OD green to Woodland to Digital camo. The cap always had the Marine Corps Globe & Anchor printed on it. Navy issue had no emblem.

The toys, comics and cartoons ignored a lot of the standard uniforms and tended to default to Vietnam-era stuff.

Don't get me started on how wrong Shipwreck was. I will save that for when he debuts, in the comic. Suffice to say, I would have had him at Captain's Mast, for being out of uniform.

GI JOE #8



Cobra has raided the Empire's motor pool!

Roll Call: Herb Trimpe-story & art, Rick Parker-letters, Christie Scheel-colors, Denny O'Neil-editor, Jim Shooter-drinking coffee at the Pentagon

Mission Report: A Cobra SRV (Submarine Reconnaissance Vehicle) is sailing off the coast of Florida.....



They observe a space shuttle on the launch pad and submerge. Meanwhile, the JOEs are freezing their brass off, conducting training exercises in Arctic cold. Clutch playfully hits Stalker with a snowball and a voice rings out, telling him he just lost a hundred dollars pay and we see Hawk, in shirt sleeves, chewing out Clutch.....



Turns out, Hawk isn't impervious to cold, the JOEs are in a simulator and the fans and snow machines are shut down, as Hawk tells them that NASA is launching a new spy satellite that can locate and destroy Cobra's underwater missile sites and Cobra wants to destroy it. The entire JOE team is assembled to provide security and they are told to grab their gear and assemble for the mission briefing.

Meanwhile, we see the Cobra SRV return to base....



Trimpe doing his best Kirby!

Cobra Commander and the Baroness address the Cobra officers with their own briefing, describing what is at stake with this mission....



Cobra intends to attack Cape Canaveral and destroy the entire facility, not just the shuttle and the satellite. Not only that, failure is punishable by death.

The JOEs arrive, escorting the satellite from a transport plane and move it to be loaded into the shuttle (we learn that the shuttle is in the assembly building, which then begs the question, what was the deal with a shuttle on the launch pad?). Hawk briefs the team. They establish a two ring defensive position, with the inner ring within 100 yards of the shuttle, at all times, consisting of Zap, Short Fuse, Scarlett and Snake Eyes, with Hawk in command. The outer ring will be a mobile defense, with Steeler and Grunt in the MOBAT, Rock N Roll on his motorcycle, and Clutch in the VAMP, towing Grand Slam and the HAL. Stalker is given command of the outer ring. Breaker and Zap are detailed to ride shotgun on the shuttle, from launch to recovery. breaker immediately looks a little green around the gills.

P#$$%!

Hawk channels Sgt Esterhaus and tells everyone to be careful out there.



The next morning, at 0100 hours, the shuttle begins its slow trek to the launch pad. Breaker and Flash head into the elevator, with the shuttle crew, to ride up to the spacecraft. Then, Stalker calls in an alert, as Cobra begins its assault on the John F Kennedy Space Center....



The JOES are taking a shellacking and Stalker is forced to call a retreat, as they fall back to the inner ring of defense. The HAL is destroyed, with Grand Slam just abandoning it before it is hit. Cobra Commander observes from the SRV and smells victory, though the Baroness is cautious. He orders his helicopter and they proceed inland, with the SEA Legs and Cobra crawler tanks. The VAMP links up with the MOBAT, which also tows a missile launcher. Stalker is conducting aerial recon in the JUMP. He lets them know that Cobra is coming. The tall grass hides their position. Cobra hits the launcher and Steeler decides it is time to take the fight to Cobra and he buttons up and starts searching for targets. Stalker hits them from the air and then Rock N Roll turns up on his boke and lets loose with his gatling gun.....



The SEA Legs take heavy fire and go down. Cobra Commander pushes on with his amphibious assault guns (the tanks). A "land torpedo" targets the MOBAT and it hits, destroying their electronics. They are still able to use their gun and continue to fire. Hawk sends in his reserves and Zap fires rockets at them, while Short Fuse uses his mortar to drop rounds on them. Scarlett goes on foot and tosses in a satchel charge, while Snake Eyes sneaks up on a tank, kills its commander, and drops hand grenades into the hatch.

Cobra Commander launches a wire-guided Cobalt missile at the shuttle. Hawk shoots it down with his rifle (Alvin York would soil his pants, at that shot). The shuttle launches and Hawk takes reuge in an emergency blast shelter. Cobra withdraws and heads under water.

The JOEs track via sonar, working from their Aqua-Chopper (you mean a helicopter, over the water? We called that a helicopter, in the Navy). They spot the Cobra sea base surfacing....





Cobra launches a missile. In space, the Flash and Breaker get the word. The shuttle's engines can't be fired fast enough to move out of the way. Flash is in a Manned Maneuvering Unit and he accelerates towards the incoming missile and then latches on. he uses his thrust to alter the trajectory of the rocket, then detaches away and it detonates off target.

Down on the sea base, the JOEs are pinned down by fire coming from a tower. Hawk orders Short Fuse to drop some HE on it and he fires off a salvo from his field mortar and hits the target. The JOEs charge at the Cobra defenders......



Cobra Commander and the Baroness take a powder, alerting the JOEs that the base will self-destruct. The Aqua-Chopper was hit in the fight and the only thing they saved was the life rafts. Hawk orders everyone into the water; but, the Cobra goons decline and go up with the base, because they are loyal to the cause, despite their boss not doing the same.

Morons!

The JOEs enter the water incorrectly....



...and then crawl into the liferafts. Cobra Commander's SRV surfaces and attempts to run them down; but Zap hits them with a rocket and sinks it. However, CC and the B get away in the sea plane. The JOEs row for home.

Analysis: This one is pretty much wall-to-wall action, apart from the set-up and it specifically highlights the vehicles and weapons that were part of the toy line, while also showing Cobra with high tech weapons. At this point, the toy line did not have vehicles for Cobra, only a missile base, which was a cardboard playset, sold exclusively at Sears. They didn't even have a Baroness figure; there was just a Cobra trooper and a Cobra officer and then Cobra Commander was a mail-in rebate figure. So, you get a lot of play scenarios out of this, as well as a darn good plot for the cartoon. It does end up being just as bloodless as the cartoon, as we never see anyone bleeding or dead. Cobra remains to die, but the explosion is seen from a distance. Grand Slam has a shoulder wound; but, we don't see blood and he acts like it is a scratch. That's the only real problem I have with this as it lacks the real pain and injury of combat. This is fantasy; but, it is rather naive to think that no one gets hurt because they are so good. Even the best units take casualties and, given the nature of their missions, they are usually outnumbered. Its not a Comics Code thing, as the old war comics were subject to it and filled with blood. It appears to be more of a concession to Hasbro and the perception that this is aimed at kids who will play with the toys. That was certainly a part of the audience; but, there was an older audience, too, and they would look at something like that with a more critical eye.

The combat stuff, lack of blood aside, is pretty darn good and it propels the plot along. We start to worry if the JOEs can withstand the assault, then see them start chipping away at the Cobra assault. Then, they go after the head snake and land on his base, just in time to see the missile launch and realize that the only defense of the satellite left consists of two guys, who aren't trained astronauts. They don't have time to think about that because they have to deal with a heavily armed defense of the base and are in a fight for their lives.

The fanaticism of Cobra belies credulity, as we have no reason to accept that level of commitment of the Cobra troops, to a guy who runs out on them and tells them to fight to the death. Okay, we could point to Hitler ordering his armies to stand fast and deny them withdrawal, when the Allies were pressing in; but, the reality was that commanders in the field found ways to reinterpret orders to save lives. Armies surrendered, rather than be decimated. The Wehrmacht was not the Imperial Japanese Army and wasn't prepared to die for Hitler. For their fellow soldiers, yes; but not a former corporal, in a bunker, behind the lines. Yes, they fought to delay the Allied advance into Germany; but they were defending their homes, by that point, not Hitler. The SS, maybe, was still filled with that "kool aid," but there is evidence that the fight was out of them, too, in different areas. There has to be a reason for following someone. In the early years, Hitler filled the German people with pride in their history and a fire for rebirth and they lapped it up. he centered his message on the middle classes and they responded. The wealthy and industrialists were more skeptical, but saw that his program meant money in their pockets and they went along, especially as they saw the Nazis ending the chaos of the Weimar republic, though force of will (and extreme terror). The military saw Hitler as a chance to regain the power they had under the Kaiser.

So far, Cobra Commander has not been that charismatic a figure that you can buy into, as the driving force of Cobra. The Baroness constantly calls him out on his bravado, he leaves troops behind to die or be captured. he talks a good game, until the JOEs turn up and kick their butts. Troops quickly abandon leaders like that. There must be another reason why they blindly follow him. That reason hasn't been presented to us, yet.

As I said above, Trimpe goes full tilt Kirby with the design of the Cobra sea base. Structurally, it shouldn't really work; but danged if it don't look cool! Funny enough, there was a lot of research, at the time, being conducted into building mobile ocean bases, which could be used as forwward staging grounds for military operations. While serving in the Navy, I had a Popular Mechanics issue, with a piece on such a m artificial facility. Given the nature and history of the magazine, their artists present a more fanciful idea than what the military was really developing....



This is more of what the DOD was contemplating......



This is the Mobile Operating Base, a transportable operating platform, for sea, air and land units, as well as a logistics center. The concept was given great study during the Gulf War, as the US lacked bases in the area. In fact, one of the strategies put forward by the Bush Administration DOD was to set up a system of bases throughout the Middle east and other hot spots, to act as rapid response deployment of troops. Towards that end, they had proposals for invading countries like Iraq and Syria and establishing permanent bases there. the idea was tabled, in the wake of the Gulf War victory and the alliances with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as deals made to put the Kuwaiti royal family back in power. Those ideas got dusted off, in the wake of 9/11 and put into play, under the auspices of fighting the "War on Terror." It included construction of forward permanent bases, using civilian contractors, contracted logistics and support and even private "security" firms (mercenaries). The MOBs are still a developmental idea, with some smaller scale ideas, but one area that was pursued resulted in the USS Lewis B Puller, named for legendary Marine Chesty Puller.....



The ship is designated as ESB-3, Expeditionary Mobile Base (trust the military to pick a name that doesn't match the initials), and acts as a mobile base for special missions. It has landing sights for 3 SH-53E helicopters and can carry two more, as well as launch hydrofoil minesweeping sleds, can carry out underway replenishments, and has magazine storage for armaments. It is built around the design of the Alaska-class oilers, which are big tankers that refuel ships, at sea. I did my first midshipman training cruise on a Cimmaron-class oiler, the USS Willamette (AO-180), which was huge (700 ft in length, displacement of nearly 37,000 tons, fully loaded); but, even though the length is similar, the ESBs displace 90,000 tons, including fuel, ammunition and supplies.

Similarly, there are Expeditionary Transfer Docks (ESDs), which act as a floating pier and also have a side ramp to support 3 LCAC hovercraft, which can be used to transfer supplies to a beachhead or other ships.

Meanwhile, The Chinese are developing their own Very Large Floating Structure concept and have also been building artificial reefs and extensions to island territory to increase their control of areas of the Pacific, basically extending their borders by filling in the ocean!

So, not entirely fanciful.

This story bears a certain resemblance to the plot of a GI JOE storybook, produced by Marvel, for kids, with art by magazine illustration legend Earl Norem (who also did some magazine covers, for Marvel), where Cobra attacks a launch site and the JOE team is scrambled to fight them, culminating in a space battle.....



The book was called Operation Star Fight, and can be seen in its entirety, here....

Norem was perfect for this stuff, after years of producing action illustration for various men's adventure magazines, in the 50s and 60s (and early 70s), which were filled with macho scenes of combats, he-man heroes, and scantily clad women (either victims of Nazi or native torturers or dominatrix agents of Nazi torturers). Martin Goodman, founder of Marvel, was one of the biggest publishers of such magazines.

At this point, we are at the end of the issue that I owned, of the series. So, from here on out, everything is fresh, to me.

ppps The MOB is an old idea that goes back to at least the 1920s or early 1930s, as seen in FP1 Doesn't Answer....

Kind of depends on who is drawing it.  The hood is a little too KKK & HYDRA; but, as you say, looks sinister in close-up, when you can see the Commander's eyes.  The blank mirrored plate is pretty unsettling, when drawn right.  It reminds me of The Walking Boss, in Coll Hand Luke (played by Morgan Woodward)....




and the robot police, in THX1138....



...though even Freddy Mercury defeated them.....



(that was in regular rotation, when we first got cable, in 1982, and MTV was still relatively new)

ps The letters page has a writer who asks about a GI JOE cartoon and they respond about the animated commercials, for the comic, but say a series is up to the networks. The comic was dated March of 1983, the cartoon series premiered with the initial 5-part mini-series, on September 12, later that year. The series would have had to have been in production; but Hasbro must not have been ready to announce it.