G.I. JOE (j j) n. An enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army, esp. in World War II. The term "G.I. Joe" was popularized during America's involvement in the Second World War. Combining the abbreviation of "government issue" with the term for the American every man, the name was applied to the thousands of average American soldiers fighting for freedom against Nazi Germany and its allies. Two decades later, President John F. Kennedy (himself a WWII veteran) and his military advisers created a new special forces unit that would answer directly to the White House. Shortly before his death in 1963, Kennedy placed the Army's highly decorated Lieutenant Joseph Colton in charge of the elite team of soldiers. Colton had served with distinction in the earliest years of the Vietnam conflict.