G.I. Joe Inside The Filecards Featuring ‘Steeler’
Story by Staff Writer Shaft
Today we look at G.I. Joe Steeler. His PMS is “Armor” and SMS is “Artillery” and “Transportation”. He is listed as a “Tank Commander”. A tank commander is actually a position in an armor platoon in the US Army (four tanks per platoon, four soldiers per tank). So there are four “tank commanders” per platoon, each leading their own tank. The actual platoon leader would be an officer of the rank of lieutenant and also serve as that tanks “tank commander”. The other three tank commanders would be a Sergeant First Class (also the platoon sergeant) and two Staff Sergeants. So Steeler would be in charge of a tank platoon.
However given his low rank of an O-1 I doubt he could have been a cadre member at the XAFV Project. I would think he would need to be a minimum of a O-2 or O-3. I have not been able to find any such project so most likely something Hama came up with. i would think it would deal with experimental armored fighting vehicles (which is not the same as an actual tank). He could have been placed in command of actual armor units (tanks) and cavalry units (AFV’s) during his time as an armor officer though.
A US Army officer typically focuses on one career path though so the addition of “Artillery” and “Transportation” is problematic. Those are two different branches. My only thought is he went in as an Armor Officer (19A MOS) and maybe he “clashed with a superior officer” who decided to put him in a Transportation unit as part of his punishment. Maybe once he served his time he was placed back into an Armor or Cavalry unit. I do not know how to integrate his Artillery SMS though. Armor is direct-fire whereas Artillery is in-direct fire so doubtful he would in his short military career have time to learn both and to serve on two different types of Combat Arms branches. Although it is a slight possibility that he attended a Joint Fires Observer Course to be able to understand calling in artillery fire. I would need to check the requirements for this course and see if armor officers are able to attend. If so it would cover his “Artillery” SMS.
Like most of the OG13 Steeler has Covert Ops School listed. I again go with the notion that he was sent to Langley to learn tradecraft CIA type skills after he joined the Joes. No reason why an armor officer would need such skills while overseeing an armor platoon.
