Greenshirts (G.I. Joe)

Greenshirts (G.I. Joe)

Greenshirts is a term applied to the generic-looking soldiers from the cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The Greenshirts are the equivalent of "extras" in that they are in the story to serve merely as background characters and have little to no speaking parts. Due to the unique look of each G.I. Joe member, it became a problem for Sunbow animators to render the G.I. Joe Team, especially for all-out battle scenes. The solution was to create generic G.I. Joe soldiers. This also addressed a problem not brought up in the comics: Cobra would outnumber the Joes.

The appearance of the Greenshirts are based upon the G.I. Joe team member Grunt, the Joe Team's infantry squad leader.