Millions of Americans and foreigners see GI. Joe as a mindless war toy, the symbol of American military adventurism, but that’s not how it used to be. To the men and women who【C1】___in World War II and the people they liberated, the GI. was the【C2】man grown into hero, the pool farm kid torn away from his home, the guy who【C3】all the burdens of battle, who slept in cold foxholes, who went without the【C4】of food and shelter, who stuck it out and drove back the Nazi reign of murder. This was not a volunteer soldier, not someone well paid, 【C5】an average guy, up【C6】___the best trained, best equipped, fiercest, most brutal enemies seen in centuries.

His name isn’t much. GI. is just a military abbreviation【C7】___Government Issue, and it was on all of the articles【C8】to soldiers. And Joe? A common name for a guy who never 【C9】it to the top. Joe Blow, Joe Magrac … a working class name. The United States has 【C10】___had a president or vice-president or secretary of state Joe.

GI. Joe had a【C11】___career fighting German, Japanese, and Korean troops. He appears as a character, or a【C12】of American personalities, in the 1945 movie The Story of GI. Joe, based on the last days of war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Some of the soldiers Pyle【C13】portrayed themselves in the film. Pyle was famous for covering the【C14】side of the war, writing about the dirt-snow-and-mud soldiers, not how many miles were【C15】or what towns were captured or liberated. His reports【C16】___the”Willie”cartoons of famed Stars and Stripes artist Bill Maulden.

Both men【C17】___.the dirt and exhaustion of war, the【C18】of civilization that the soldiers shared with each other and the civilians: coffee, tobacco, whiskey, shelter, sleep. 【C19】Egypt, France, and a dozen more countries, G. I. Joe was any American soldier, 【C20】___the most important person in their lives.

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