"Joe Dope" was somebody no one wanted on the team - and for good reason. He was lazy, careless, inattentive and a "guy you can’t teach." Of course, Joe Dope was just a fictional character who personified the essence of stupidity.
By pointing to Joe as the poster boy of mistakes, however, the U.S. military could remind everyone else not to do what Joe did. Take a look at some of his more memorable failures:
- Pilots have a problem because Joe didn’t follow instructions
- Lack of precision costs Joe more than the gun
- Joe’s perfectly aimed bomb wasn’t armed
- Because he didn’t properly handle his rifle, Joe is captured
- When he let the battery run down, Joe set a disaster in motion
- And when he fails to inflate the tires...another catastrophe
- Joe checked everything...but not the oil!
- Using the wrong tool he endangers the gunner
What ultimately happened to Joe? "All they could find was his shoes" when he failed to "be kind to a fuze." Of course, fictional characters don’t always die. Joe lived on, reminding other military people NOT to follow his example.
"Jenny on the Job," on the other hand, was a model of perfection for women "production soldiers."