Wild Bill
- Wild Bill is a member of G.I. Joe from the Generation 1 continuity family.
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A genial modern-day Texas cowboy with a love of country music and tall tales, Wild Bill may seem like an oddly quaint, albeit friendly, throwback to an earlier time. Don't let that fool you, however; he served a tour in Vietnam as part of a LRRP (long-range recon patrol) team before going to flight school, wherein he learned how to fly helicopters, such as his beloved Dragonfly, before ultimately figuring out how to pilot everything that can fly and a few things which can't (or, at least, aren't supposed to). He has earned the respect of his fellow Joes several times over for his willingness to mix it up in battle and skill in the air. Typically has fellow Joe Airborne as his gunner.
Howdy, pardner.
Fiction
Generation 1
Marvel Comics continuity
After Power Station Alpha was hijacked remotely, Wild Bill and his Dragonfly were among the Joes who Hawk dispatched to intercept it. He managed to shoot down a Rattler in battle. Power Struggle
Marvel UK
A long-time veteran from Hull, England [1], Wild Bill once flew the chopper in a rescue mission in South-East Asia. They pulled six of their men out and he wanted to go for the seventh; the commanding officer gave the order to withdraw instead, stating that if they tried they'd only sacrifice the lives of everyone else they'd saved. Wild Bill stayed awake at night for years after that, wondering what happened to that seventh man.
Years later, he was a Dragonfly pilot in the European branch of Action Force. At Flint's command, Wild Bill led the Dragonflies against a monstrous robot in the London docklands. Unfortunately, their fire only served to annoy the robot and Wild Bill's Dragonfly was shot out of the sky in retaliation. Luckily, he was saved by another robot, Blades, who informed him about this "Megatron" fella and how indestructible he was... too late for him to warn Flint against sending in the Maulers!
After the resulting carnage, Wild Bill helped pull Dusty clear and then withdrew inside Blades along with Flint. He had flashbacks to his Asian rescue operation when Flint ordered a Skystriker air strike on a gas refinery in order to kill Megatron, at the cost of an Autobot life. Wild Bill viewed this as murder and refused to sit back this time, trying to rally the robot Centurion to assist and growing angry with him when he just stood there. Eventually, Centurion did decide to go in, giving Wild Bill and Blades time to pull Grimlock to safety... but at the cost of Centurion's life. The pilot was left distraught. Ancient Relics!
Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers comics
During G.I. Joe's attack on Cobra Island, Wild Bill piloted one of the cargo planes transporting troops and vehicles to enemy territory. When Duke explained to him that they were doing the right thing even though the higher-ups at the Pentagon were against the attack, Wild Bill cheerfully said that he and the other Joes were well aware of that. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers issue 4
Trivia
- Which South-East Asian war was Action Force Wild Bill in? If Furman was unaware of/ignoring the toy's filecard and was treating Wild Bill was an American character ala G.I. Joe, it'd be Vietnam; otherwise, it could be the Brunei Revolt, or could be related to deniable SAS activity in Borneo or Vietnam.
