Hawk and Grunt infiltrate a camp run by a military extremist.
Detailed summary
Operation: Wingfield!
An extreme para-military group has gotten the attention of the FBI and passed the existence of the group to the G.I. Joe Team. The group is led by one Commander Wingfield who may have ties to Cobra, a reason for the Joes to get involved. Hawk assigns Snake-Eyes as back-up man and reconnaissance while he elects himself and Grunt as the insertion team.
Hawk and Grunt join as Wingfield's recruits where they quickly discover that recruits' families are encouraged to join the camp. Hawk surmises this a way for Wingfield to have control over his men. At Wingfield's camp, they begin their training. As seasoned military men, they find some difficulty in maintaining their cover as they try their hardest to not "look too good".
Snake-Eyes discovers the group has a B-29 Superfortress bomber. It is an old plane but still capable of nuclear deployment. This gives him reason to move in the camp later at night to search for any nuclear explosive device. He spies on Wingfield and his officers having a meeting. An extreme plan is being put into action. The B-29 will deliver a nuclear warhead to Vladivostok and another warhead to be detonated in the camp. The Russians and Americans will assume one has attacked the other and succeeding events will lead to World War III.
Meanwhile, Hawk and Grunt have also decided to do some investigation of their own. Investigating one of the warehouses, they discover that Wingfield has more than surviving the collapse of civilization in his agenda with the T-60E tanks. Hawk rationalizes that it is unlikely the Russians are behind this, only Cobra has the means and motives to smuggle these hardware. Unfortunately, they didn't realize they triggered an alarm and while they gave a good fight, Wingfield's men overpowered them. Because of this event, Wingfield is forced to hasten his plan, orders his wife Shary to activate "Plan Alpha" and his right hand man Carruthers to suit up for flight.
Realizing the severity of the situation, Snake-Eyes radios in Joe HQ for reinforcements and then rescues his two teammates from an execution. Not long after, they see the B-29 fly off and Hawk commandeers one of the jet fighters to go after it. However, the radio won't work and Hawk is unable to contact Carruthers to break off his mission. He shoots the B-29's engines to give Carruthers a chance to bail out but the man never took that option and crashes the plane into the ocean.
Grunt and Snake-Eyes were going to engage Wingfield until the latter finds out Wingfield intends to use his recruits' families as armed human shields. Vance Wingfield realizes that he has lost contact with the bomber and the families are resisting his orders. He activates a remote timer. One of the recruits' wives decided she has had enough and is leaving. Just as he is about to shoot the wife in the back, Vance's own wife Shary shoots him in the back.
The rest of the Joe Team arrive, including Hawk. Shary tells him Vance activated a ten-minute timer on a nuclear warhead. Zap and Grunt work together to deactivate the bomb.
Appearances
Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
G.I. Joe | Strike First | Civilians |
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Featured Vehicles & Equipment
Strike First |
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Featured Locations
G.I. Joe | Strike First |
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Memorable quotes
- None yet.
Other Notes
Errors
- Stalker is repeatedly referred to as "Ranger" (which is his specialty, not his code-name).
- Whoever the man leading the team on the cover is, he does not appear in this issue.[1]
- Hawk has to figure out the bomber's target on his own, and Grunt doesn't seem to know about the second bomb. These would seem to be rather salient pieces of information - if Snake-Eyes didn't pass them on when they "compared notes" earlier, what the heck did he tell them?
Items of note
- First Appearances: Shary Wingfield, Vance Wingfield, Captain Carruthers
- This issue was reprinted in G.I. Joe Digest #2, Tales of G.I. Joe #2 and the G.I. Joe vol. 1 and G.I. Joe: The Best of Hawk trade paperbacks.
- This issue was a feature in a Comic Pack that included a reprint of the comic and three action figures: Grunt, Snake-Eyes and Zap.
- It was later revealed that the Strike First training compound was secretly an undercover Cobra recruiting center.
Real-world references
- No references.
Footnotes and References
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