If you're like me, you grew up watching cartoons like G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, She-Ra, Voltron, Thundercats and M.A.S.K. everyday after school. It also means your childhood was pretty awesome. The only real issue was, there was rarely (if ever), cartoon and comic book characters from Wyoming. In the late 1980's, that changed!

G.I. Joe introduced a new character, code named "Outback" in 1987. His file listed his government name as Stuart R. Selkirk and his place of birth as Big Piney, Wyoming.

Outback file card - G.I. Joe
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Outback was a pretty cool character that was featured pretty predominately in the many different G.I. Joe comic books over the years and even somewhat moderately in the cartoons. What really made him an awesome, other than his uncanny resemblance to Chuck Norris from the classic movie Lone Wolf McQuade,  was his backstory. He was an Army Ranger (special forces) and a Survival Training Instructor for Ranger School. Part of his uniform, both the toys and in the comics, was a shirt with the word SURVIVAL on the front. It is actually a real acronym from the 1969 U.S. Army Ranger Handbook that stands for:

  • Size up the situation.
  • Undue haste makes waste.
  • Remember where you are.
  • Vanquish fear and panic.
  • Improve your situation.
  • Value living.
  • Act like the natives.
  • Learn basic skills.

Outback has been re-released in the Joe toyline plenty of times over the last 30 years, most recently in 2016.

It's nice to have a bad-ass fictional character representing so hard for Wyoming. Now let's just hope he makes an appearance in the upcoming G.I.Joe live action movie.

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