HALO Jumper
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File Name: Wallace A.
Weems
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Birthplace: Columbus,
Ohio |
Rank: Sergeant |
Primary Military
Specialty:
Airborne Infantryman
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Secondary
Military Specialty:
Demolitions
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Status: Reserve
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First Appearance:
G.I.
JOE #32 (February 1985)
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Ripcord
grew up in
Columbus,
Ohio, where he joined the Civil Air Patrol while still in high school.
Once there, he fell in love with skydiving and joined the Army to jump
from higher altitudes in even more dangerous circumstances. In Airborne
Infantry, Ripcord became a HALO jumper, which stands for "High Altitude
Low Opening". In order to avoid detection, a HALO jumper jumps from
very
high altitudes, drops for thousands of feet, and then opnes his chute
at
the last second, just enough to break the fall. This is the most
fearless
group in the Airborne Infantry, and Ripcord still loves to jump.
Ripcord
was eager to join the G.I. Joe team, and
when the older Joes were
promoted
and given desk jobs, Ripcord was to be one of their replacements. It
was
soon obvious that the original Joes were not totally finished with
their
previous duties, but Ripcord and the other new Joes remained on the
team.
Soon after joining the
team,
Ripcord soon found himself in a mission that would involve him in
tragedy
and eventually turn him into a hero. While at the Staten Island mall
with
Ripcord and Blowtorch, Spirit spotted a
plainclothes Cobra agent. The
Joes
commandeered a van and what followed was a high-speed chase to catch
the
Cobra agent. The van belonged to, "Bongo the Balloon Bear," a woman who
delivered balloons to children's birthday parties in a bear suit. After
the chase, the van was returned to "Bongo" who turned out to be a young
woman named Candy, with whom Ripcord tried to strike up a romatic
relationship.
They spent some time together and enjoyed each others' company. Candy
eventually
got upset over Ripcord's inability to tell her who he really was, due
to
his classified status as a member of G.I. Joe. After the Joes stumbled
upon a Cobra hideout at the Arbco Brothers Circus, a fight followed and
Ripcord had to save Candy's life from the Crimson
Guard. This was too
much
for Candy to take, and she told Ripcord he never wanted to see him
again.
Ripcord became somewhat depressed, and asked his fellow Joes how he was
supposed to have a real life and be a part of the team at the same
time.
Ripcord had little time to figure it out before he was sent on a
mission
into Sierra Gordo to rescue Dr. Adele Burkhart. Years before, the Joes
had rescued Burkhart from Cobra, and now they had to save her again,
from
the corrupt government of the Central American nation. Ripcord, Stalker, Gung-Ho
and Roadblock
arrived in the country where they met with
Recondo
and local Tucaro tribesmen. They eventually rescued Burkhart and found
their way out of the country, but not before Ripcord got upset with
Burkhart
over her liberal politics and her trouble-making in parts of the world
where she didn't belong. Stalker chided Ripcord for his angry outburst,
but did little to change his mind.
While Ripcord
was in Sierra
Gordo,
Candy was back on Staten Island and had found herself in plenty of
trouble
without Ripcord's help. After a battle at a house in the suburbs near
Fort
Wadsworth, the Joes found out that Candy's father was a Cobra Crimson
Guardsman.
When Candy arrived in the scene, she was arrested by the Joes and
questioned
about her father's secret. Somehow, her father's status as a Cobra
agent
had been kept from Candy, although no one believed she knew nothing
about
what her father really did. While she was being transferred from the
Pit
on an army bus, Candy had the bad luck to find herself on the same bus
as the Dreadnok, Buzzer. Candy could only
watch in horror as Buzzer
staged
an escape attempt, killing both Military Policemen and stealing the
bus.
As Buzzer tried to make his was back to Springfield, he forced Candy to
come along with him. She eventually got the better of Buzzer, forcing
him
out of a stolen pickup truck with a shotgun. The truck broke down and
Candy
had to hitchhike home. She ended up in a car with fellow-hitchhiker Billy
-- Cobra Commander's son. The driver turned out
to be driving drunk,
and
once they got near Springfield, they ran afoul of Buzzer, Firefly and
Scrap-Iron.
The Cobra agents were chasing the Soft Master who had escaped from
Springfield.
In the confusion that followed, the Cobras destroyed the car Candy was
in, killing the driver, the Soft Master and Candy herself. Billy
survived,
but lay in a coma for months.
Back
at Joe headquarters,
Ripcord
learned that Candy was missing, and wondered if she worked for Cobra
all
along as he recovered from his injuries that he sustained in the first
battle of the newly-created Cobra Island, in which he participated
already
wounded. Ripcord got a purple heart out of the battle, but he cared
little
about it as he worried about Candy. After recovering, Ripcord was Ace's
co-pilot during a spy mission over Cobra Island. Tired of not knowing
what
had happened to Candy, Ripcord took matters into his own hands,
ejecting
from the Skystriker and parachuting onto the island. After that
happened,
it was learned that Hawk may have sent Ripcord
on that mission
expecting
he would illegally land on the island, hoping a subsequent rescue
mission
would allow for some detailed recon of the island. Before the rescue
team
arrived, Ripcord fought Zartan, putting up a
good fight, but eventually
losing to Cobra's master of disguise. Ripcord was left seriously
wounded,
and Zartan switched places with the Joe. Candy's father, Professor
Appel,
found Ripcord believing him to be Zartan and brought him to the
island's
medical center. Meanwhile, the Joes rescued Zartan posing as Ripcord,
and
unwittingly brought him into Joe headquarters. Appel soon discovered he
had rescued Ripcord, and learned that Candy was missing. Cobra
Commander
had never told Appel what had happened. He sent Ripcord to Springfield
in his computer-controlled Firebat jet. Ripcord ended up in the care of
the Dreadnoks, at first delirious and enraged at Buzzer. He soon
regained
control of his senses and saw the opportunity he had posing as Zartan.
He waited until they returned to Springfield and then secretly tipped
off
the Joes to Springfield's secret location. He was captured and
subjected
to Cobra's Brain-wave scanner, but his efforts sparked the Joes'
largest
operation to date, as nearly every member of the team mounted an
invasion
of Cobra's secret base. During the battle, Ripcord was finally rescued
by his teammates. Ripcord took some time off to recover from his
ordeal.
After he returned to active duty, the Joe team discovered that Billy
had
survived and contacted the Commander's son in San Francisco. There
Billy
met Storm Shadow and Ripcord, finally
revealing the fate of the
Soft
Master and Candy.
Some time
later, the Joes
were
involved in the Cobra Island civil war. Ripcord was a part of the Joes'
security team, and his team was trapped on Cobra's airfield by Cobra
Commander's
forces. They eventually got out and continued on with the battle.
Ripcord
was one of the Joes taken into custody during the civil war's aftermath
when the Joes were blamed for losing the war and against orders. The
team
was eventually exonerated when the remained Joes staged a rescue
attempt
and revealed the cover-up that a group of corrupt generals had
undertaken.
A short time after that, Ripcord was part of another mission to stop
Cobra
from claiming another newly-created island in the Gulf of Mexico.
Ripcord
and Outback led a group of new Joes and defeated Cobra, only to have
the
unstable island sink back beneath the ocean. Over the next few years,
Ripcord
remained with the Joe team, even becoming part of the short-lived Tiger
Force team, fighting Darklonian terrorists in the heart of New York
City.
Ripcord continued on with the team until it was disbanded in 1994.
After the Joe
team was reinstated in 2001, Ripcord returned to the
team, assisting in the mission to stop a terrorist plot by Tyler
Wingfield. A
short
time later, Ripcord returned to Sierra Gordo on a
mission to assist the small nation's army in fighting off an invasion
of Destro's Iron Grenadiers, who had allied with the country's
neighbor, Sierra Muerte. In reality, the entire operation was allowed
to go forward thanks to Duke, who had let it
happen as a means to
capture Destro. Some Joes were injured in
battle during that operation,
and many Joes were angry that Duke had never told them the true reason
behind their mission and had endangered the lives of his teammates.
Ripcord expressed his anger and disappointment in Duke, who he had come
to trust after serving with him for so many years. A
short time later, members of the Joe team fought Cobra forces that
were drawn into an attack on a train guarded by the Joes, believing
that
Destro was being held prisoner onboard. At the battle's end, Hawk was
shot in the back by Cobra Commander and paralyzed. In Hawk's absence,
the Jugglers began to take control of the team to reign it in, if
not disband it altogether. Eventually, the team's roster was cut down
to only a dozen Joes, and Ripcord was one of many reassigned to
other units. After the remaining Joes stopped a plot by Cobra to
unleash
the weapon known as the Tempest, and defeated a new threat, the Red
Shadows, the military again disbanded the team. One year later, the Joe
team was reformed with a smaller roster of active members. Ripcord,
like most former Joes, is a reserve member of the new team.
Artwork: G.I. JOE v2 #29 (interior) by Tim Seeley and Cory
Hamscher; G.I. JOE #45 (cover) by Mike Zeck;
G.I. JOE #45
(interior)
by Rod Whigham and Andy Mushynsky.
Appearances:
- G.I. JOE: #32, 33, 37-42,
45-50,
65, 74, 75, 80
- G.I. JOE Special Missions: #25
- G.I. JOE Yearbook #2
- G.I. JOE: Order of Battle: #2
- G.I.
JOE vol 2:
#25, 29, 30, 31
- G.I.
JOE: Front
Line: #12
- G.I. JOE: Battle Files trade
paperback
(compiled with help from Bryon Hake)
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Action
figure/filecard links at YoJoe.com :
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