Disclaimer: I don't own G.I. Joe or Murphy's Laws... Cpl. Fred "Fix-It" Johnson, is my own creation, though.
Author's opening notes: This started as an attempted at a seasonal story around Halloween. For some reason, I couldn't really pull off the Halloween vibe, but it was too good to throw out, so it became this.
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A Greenshirt's Guide To G.I. Joe Life
By J.T. Magnus, Turbo
Part Seven: Deception (Or "Halloween Every Day")
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Halloween's at the end of this month...
No, All Hallow's Eve is at the end of this month, Samhain is at the end of this month. Halloween is a holiday where you dress up in costume and make people believe you're something you're not. For me, any day I'm off is Halloween.
I have to convince people I'm not a soldier, not hard since most don't know.
Who's Fred Johnson after all? Just a low-grade mechanic who lucked into a job on the NASCAR circuit with the great Lance Steinburg as his boss. No one knows that he can drive and repair the Fortress America reconfigurable disruptor tank, one of the most advanced weapons in existance, no one know that he carries a machine gun when he's not wrenching in the Motor Pool.
No one knows that when my leave is done or when the call comes in, I shed the costume of Fred and take on my real identity.
Corporal Fred Johnson, codename "Fix-It" of Special Anti-Terrorist Task Unit Delta, Frontline Squad.
I talked about it with some of the others and a lot of them feel the same way. In Frontline we have a freedom to be ourselves.
Turbo is one of the youngest of us, but he can let the knowledge of military tactics and leadership loose without fear.
Rev and Honda are on the side of the angels, as the saying goes, but they can use the skills they learned on the Detroit streets
And I get to mess around with vehicles that most people haven't even imagined yet, X-22 Storm Eagles, the Fort America, VAMPs, RAMs, Assault Gliders and JUMPs...
And then I dress up in cover-alls and an old ball cap and try to blend in every weekend or other with every other mechanic in the pits.
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Murphy's Law of Warfare: "All warfare is based upon deception." -- Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
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Closing Author's Notes: Note my usual addition to the Greenshirt's Guide, but as I said, it was laying around and I didn't want to trash it, and the Law of Warfare fits...
Review Responses:
Tirya: Thanks, I'm kinda partial to that line myself. And MASH is one of my influencing factors.
MariaShadow: I know. Even if the rest of the Guide is lighthearted, that part will always be there to remind us that it's not all fun and games, people do get hurt.
trecebo: You ever wonder if life is just a tv show and Murphy is the director?