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Thread
:
What secrets lurk in the filecards?
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01-13-2011, 04:14 AM
zuludelta
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Blue Ninja
watching the Military Channel the other day, I had some random thoughts pop into my head about Stalker and his Green Beret status. And while the file cards give no definitive answer, some points to consider:
1) He is often shown wearing a green beret. (And when he isn't, he is wearing a "special forces thermal cap"...
... His first figure (and others) show him in an "unofficial" camouflage pattern, which may have been an attempt to depict the tiger-stripe came used by SF in Nam. Or it could be an indication of wearing a "third party" pattern/uniform for deniability, another common SF practice.
I wouldn't put too much stock in the toy's beret colour and BDU camo pattern as an indicator of which branch of the Army Stalker came from. As has been mentioned several times in this thread and others, the original figures were designed by Ron Rudat, and then the designs were handed to Larry Hama to write MOS info and background stories around them. I've never read anything from Rudat explicitly saying whether or not he designed the toy that would eventually become Stalker intending it to be a Green Beret. Contrast this with Low-Light, whom Rudat designed as a SEAL sniper, but Hama wrote Low-Light's file to depict him as an Army marksman and it's the latter version that is considered "canon."
Also, if you take a look at the
the 1982/1983 card art
, it seems like the design was for Stalker to be wearing a two-toned camouflage beret, and not the
deep jungle green
beret that US Army Special Forces soldiers are more commonly associated with. I have a suspicion that the toy's beret was supposed to be coloured in a pattern reminiscent of Vietnam War-era ERDL Woodland, but given the limitations of paint application technology at the time, Hasbro just went with a solid green colour.
The thing is, if we're to take the Stalker design as being inspired by non-standard Vietnam War-era uniforms worn by special operations forces, he could be anything, from a Green Beret, to a Ranger, to a Navy SEAL, to Marine Force Recon, all of whom wore ARVN tiger-stripe or US Army ERDL woodland camouflage patterned BDUs and berets while working as scouts and ARVN advisers.
The ERDL Woodland beret + ERDL Woodland/ARVN tiger-stripe BDU combination was especially common among SEALs operating in the Mekong Delta:
Left: SEAL HM2 Clarke Long wearing ERDL Woodland beret and USMC "duck hunter/frog-skin" patterned scarf, picture dated 1967;
Right: unidentifed SEAL, wearing ERDL Woodland beret and ARVN tiger-stripe BDU, on patrol along the Mekong River Delta, picture dated 1968
Don't misunderstand me,
I'm not saying that Stalker was intended by toy designer Ron Rudat to be a Navy SEAL
, all I'm saying is that it's not even close to a certainty that he was intended to be a Green Beret by Rudat based solely on the colour of the toy's headgear and the patterning on his uniform, especially if we take into consideration that this was a Vietnam War-era inspired design and that Rudat put in a lot of visual research with the earlier Joes. This also means that the colour of the toy's beret and BDU camo pattern doesn't invalidate Hama's decision to write Stalker as a Ranger, and not as a Green Beret, since ERDL Woodland and ARVN tiger-stripe berets and BDUs were also commonly worn by non-SF provisional LRRP units and the later 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger) LRRP units during the Vietnam War:
Left: Unidentifed 3/506 Infantry LRRP marksman, wearing ERDL Woodland beret and ARVN tiger-stripe BDU, undated (circa 1968?) picture taken by Dan Roberts
Right: 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger) LRRP team, undated (circa 1969?) photo; standing (from L-R) John Bedford (wearing ERDL Woodland beret and ARVN tiger-stripe BDU), Steve Curtis (wearing ERDL Woodland BDU); kneeling (L-R): unidentified
Kit Carson scout
(wearing ARVN tiger-stripe boonie hat and BDU), Mike Blymer (wearing ARVN tiger-stripe boonie hat and ERDL Woodland BDU)
I guess what I'm saying is, the fact that Stalker is depicted wearing a two-toned camouflage beret (at least in the original 1982 card art) does not contradict the Ranger background ascribed to him by Larry Hama, nor does it mean that he is SF, since ERDL Woodland berets were commonly worn by non-SF special operations units such as the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger) during the Vietnam War.
__________________
Last edited by zuludelta; 01-13-2011 at
12:46 PM
.. Reason: edited for clarity, pictures added
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