Millions of Americans and foreigners see G. I. 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 G. I. was the【C2】_____man grown into hero, the poor 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. G. I. 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 Palooka, Joe Magrac…a working class name. The United States has【C10】_____had a president or vice-president or secretary of state Joe.

G. I. 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 G. I. 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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