For Special Services ~ GI jOE - FOR SPECIAL SERVICES

In June 1941 General William Donovan was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt to the position of Coordinator of Information (COI), a position that later transformed into the chairmanship of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Upon request by Donovan, Ian Fleming was contacted to write a lengthy memorandum describing the structure and functions of a secret service organisation. Parts of this memorandum were later used in the official charter for the OSS, which was later dissolved after World War II in 1945.

In 1944, Donovan proposed to President Roosevelt the creation of a new agency, "which will procure intelligence both by overt and covert methods and will at the same time provide intelligence guidance, determine national intelligence objectives, and correlate the intelligence material collected by all government agencies." This organization was later established in 1947 as the Central Intelligence Agency; a direct descendant of the OSS.

For appreciation of Fleming's work Donovan presented Fleming with a .38 Police Positive Colt revolver with the inscription, "For Special Services."

In 1982 John Gardner wrote his second novel featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. entitled, "For Special Services".

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GI jOE is a registered trademark of HASBRO. The entire series started in 1964 with a release of 12" articulated action figures. The initial product offering represented a line of action figures representing four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier (U.S. Army), Action Sailor (U.S. Navy), Action Pilot (U.S. Air Force), Action Marine (U.S.Marine Corps). These and all other GI jOE names are registered trademarks of HASBRO.

The term G.I., in popular usage, stands for "Government Issue" and after the First World War became a generic term for U.S. soldiers.

The conventional marketing wisdom of the early 1960s was that boys would not play with dolls. The development of GI jOE led to the coining of the term "action figure". The word "doll" was never used by HASBRO or anyone involved in the development or marketing of GI jOE, "Action Figure" was the only acceptable term. It has since become the generic description for any poseable toy intended for boys.

"America's movable fighting man" is a registered trademark of HASBRO, and was prominently displayed on every boxed figure package.

I received my first GI jOE for Christmas in 1966 and continued to follow GI jOE in the 1970's with the lifelike hair and beard and even later GI jOE with Kung-Fu grip.

When I was growing up, my brothers and our friends had our GI jOEs on a great missions of adventure of some kind or another. Battling the forces of evil and rescuing those in trouble.

When I eventually had children of my own, I purchased the re-booted to 12-inch size, GI jOE Hall of Fame action figures for them. My three sons, and I had great fun with the action figures going out on new missions of adventure. Now they have grown up and have put away their various action figures, but I have a small collection of my favourites.

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I claim no interest of any kind in the interests of the respective companies. I have neither requested, nor been granted any authorization to use the (trademarked) names as indicated herein for any purpose.

This web page is only intended for the entertainment and viewing by collectors of all 12-inch and 3 & 3/4 inch action figures all over the world in the hopes of promoting fun and friendship among all people.

All other mentioned products are trademark of their respective companies/manufacturers.

All scanned materials, are my own or are believed to be public domain.

If I have in some way, inadvertently infringed upon some legal right, please bring this to my attention and it will be removed immediately and accept my sincerest apology for its use in this web page.

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