Silent Weapons
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File Name: MacArthur
S. Ito
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Birthplace: Los
Angeles,
CA |
Rank: Corporal
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Primary Military
Specialty:
Infantry
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Secondary
Military Specialty:
Intelligence
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Status: Killed in action
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First Appearance:
G.I. JOE #45 (March 1986)
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Quick Kick was born to a
Japanese
father and a Korean mother who owned a grocery store in the Watts
district
of Los Angeles. As a child, he found it difficult to be accepted by
either
the Japanese or the Koreans because of his mixed heritage. To help
defend
himself, and since he was too short to play basketball, Quick Kick
turned
to the martial arts and became skilled in many of them. He gained black
belts in Tae Kwan Do, Go Ju Ryo, Southern Praying Mantis Kung-Fu,
Tai-Chi
Sword, Zen Sword and Wing-Chun. He eventually put those skills to use
in
Hollywood, where he worked as a stunt man in a number of films. On one
movie set, Quick Kick caught the eye of an Army colonel working as a
consultant.
He suggested Quick Kick could put his skills to better use in the Army,
and he enlisted shortly after.
After enlistment,
Quick
Kick
was noticed and recruited by the G.I. Joe team.
Just after Quick Kick's
arrival at the Pit at Fort Wadsworth, he and
fellow newcomer Alpine
were
assigned to a rescue mission to Cobra Island.
Another Joe, Ripcord, had
parachuted onto the island, and was now missing. Unofficially, Hawk
also
wanted the rescue team to double as a recon team to take photos and
observe
Cobra's activity on the newly-sovereign island. Quick Kick snapped
photos
of Cobra aircraft and their prototype Terror-Drome launch base after
the
Joes climbed the island's volcano. After a fight with Cobra troops, the
rescue team retrieved Ripcord, or so they thought. In reality it was a
wounded Zartan posing as Ripcord. When the
truth was revealed, Quick
Kick
helped stop Zartan as he ran amuck in the Pit. He was later one of the
many Joes who took part in the invasion of the Cobra-controlled town of
Springfield. Shortly after that battle, Quick Kick and other Joes were
training in the Pit when Storm Shadow
infiltrated the base looking for
Snake-Eyes. When he was confronted by Quick Kick, the ninja defated
him,
noting, "You have speed, strength and skill but your weakness is the
compassion
at the core of your warrior's heart."
A disastrous
mission into
Eastern
Europe led to the toughest five months of Quick Kick's life. Along with
Stalker, Snow
Job and Outback, Quick Kick travelled to the Soviet bloc
country of Borovia. The mission was top secret and they were told that
the state department would disavow all knowledge of their mission if
they
were captured. A series of events led the Joes to be captured, with
only
Outback escaping into the sewers of Borovia. He had been ordered to get
out of the country and ask for help. Stalker stayed behind since Snow
Job
and Quick Kick were injured, and they were his responsibility. The
government
did in fact disavow all knowledge and the three Joes were thrown into a
Borovian gulag for five months. Quick Kick may have died in that prison
if not for an illegal rescue mission led by Snake-Eyes,
Scarlett and
Storm
Shadow. When the Joes returned home, Outback felt guilty for leaving
the
others in Borovia. Quick Kick and Snow Job told Outback his job was to
get out and tell everyone back home what had happened, and he did what
was right. Some time later, Stalker, Quick Kick and Outback went on
vacation
to Mexico where they ended up fighting a group of terrorists who
hijacked
a tour bus.
A few years
later, Quick
Kick
was part of a mission sent into the middle eastern country of Trucial
Abysmia.
It was to be his last. The plan was to perform a hit-and-run mission to
destroy Cobra Terror-Drome bases in the desert of Trucial Abysmia. The
operation started out being fairly easy. But, the group was
ill-prepared
for the large contingent of Cobra's military who were in the area. Many
of the team members were wounded, and the Joes were forced to
surrender.
The captured Joes were held for a short time, and then a Cobra S.A.W.
Viper
mercilessly gunned down a number of them. Quick Kick was among the
survivors
who escaped in a captured Cobra vehicle. They were tracked down,
however,
and the vehicle was fired upon and exploded. Quick Kick and several
others
were killed in the blast. Only Duke, Falcon and Cross Country survived.
Quick Kick and his teammates were given an "open boot" ceremony in the
desert. By the end of the Joes' war in the middle east, fifteen Joes
had
lost their lives. Quick Kick and the other Joes killed in action were
buried
in Arlington National Cemetery. Years later, Quick Kick's name was
added
to a new memorial honoring the fallen members of the G.I. Joe team.
Artwork: G.I. JOE: Battle Files #1
(interior) by Steve
Kurth; G.I. JOE #46
(interior) by Rod
Whigham
and Andy Mushynsky.
Appearances:
- G.I. JOE: #45-50, 52, 61-63,
66, 67,
83, 108,
109
- G.I. JOE Special Missions: #6, 27
- G.I. JOE: Order of Battle: #2
- G.I. JOE: Battle Files: #1
(compiled with help from Bryon Hake)
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Action
figure/filecard links at YoJoe.com :
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