Rambo T-Shirts

1. First Blood (1982),
2. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985),
3. and Rambo III (1988).
4. and now... Rambo (2008)

Jonathon James Rambo was born on July 6, 1947 in Bowie, Arizona. His mother was a Navajo and his father was of German descent. He enlisted in the Army at 17 and was shipped to Vietnam in September 1966. He returns to the U.S. in 1967 to began training in the Special Forces/Green Berets. Rambo was re-deployed to Vietnam late in 1969. In November 1971, he was captured by the NVA near the Chinese-Vietnamese border. Along with other American POWs Rambo was tortured but managed to escaped in May 1972. Even though he was free from the nicities of being a prisoner of war, the U.S. Army saw Rambo as fit for redeployment but into the jungle. Rambo was eventually discharged on September 17, 1974 when most of the U.S. ground troops had already been sent home.

Upon his return home, Rambo found that society had changed for the worse when it came down to public opinion of Vietnam Veterens. Incidents such as the My Lai Massacre led many American civilians to take their anger and aggressions out on the returning Vietnam soldiers. Rambo was a recipient of this epidemic of resentment, being subject to humiliation and embarrassment by having antiwar "hippies" throw garbage at him and calling him "baby killer".

First Blood 1982
Upon returning to the United States, Rambo had difficulty adjusting to civilian life and ended up wandering the country as a drifter. In February 1982, Rambo traveled to Hope, Washington in search of one of his SF army buddies, Delmore Barry. What he finds, however, at Delmore's residence is Delmore's little daughter and depressed widow who tells Rambo that her husband recently died from cancer due to being exposed to Agent Orange. To make things worse, Delmore's wife barely gets by as a cleaning lady and on her husbands military pension.

Rambo, gives Mrs. Barry the photograph of Delmore's unit and leavest with a mild sense of survivor's guilt as he is now the last man still living of his once proud unit. He then travels to Hope in the attempt to find a diner and maybe a job. The town does not welcome Rambo because of his long hair and scruffy look. Rambo disobeys the local sheriff's order to stay away from Hope, since he had done nothing wrong, believing that such banishment to be nothing short of unlawful discrimination. The Sheriff procedes to arrest Rambo charging him for vagrancy. You probably didn't know it but the actor who played the Deputy Mitch in Hope was none other than CSI Miami's David Caruso's first big perfmance as a cop. Yeah, no kidding. Well anyway... the cops, being the way cops is, harass the hell out of Rambo because... well.. 'cause they can.

So, this harassment triggers Rambo's POW memories and his mind regresses into thinking he is once again in combat. Rambo fights his way out of the sheriff's department with his bare hands and makes his way into the wilderness. A manhunt follows with cops, dogs, and even a helicopter. The sheriff soon finds that he and his deputies can't win against Rambo while they are in the forest. The Washington State Patrol and about 200 members of the Washington National Guard are called in to help out.

At some point, Rambo's former commanding officer of his SF unit, Colonel Samuel Trautman, arrives in Hope to help out. Trautman warns that if the Sheriff continues the manhunt it'll just lead to more deaths and ruin. Trautman recommends giving Rambo time to return to his senses after which he will presumably drift to Seattle and apply for a job at a car wash (as he did after returning home from Vietnam), where he could then be arrested without incident. However, the authorities reject the Colonel's recommendation and continue the manhunt, causing Rambo's rampage to culminates into the destruction of the sheriff's office and part of the town. Rambo stands poised to eliminate the sheriff, but Trautman finally confronts Rambo face-to-face, and ultimately convinces his former soldier to surrender.

Between the first and second films, Rambo is convicted at a court-martial and sent to a military prison where heavy duty labor is now his lot in life. Despite being a convict, the rigid routine and discipline of prison life provides Rambo with some stability with its own rigid hierarchy.

First Blood Part II
In the second movie of the Rambo series, Rambo is released from prison, with the help of Col. Trautman, (Richard Crenna) and by Federal order is to document the possible existence of POWs that are still being held in Vietnam, under the belief that he will find no evidence where the U.S. government can then sweep the whole messy POW issue under the rug.

Rambo is flown to a remote staging area in Thailand, and is shortly therafter sent, by Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier) the spook mission commander who does not want to expose the truth, into Vietnam to search for American POWs. Rambo's orders are photograph a Vietnamese military base to prove to the American public that there are no American POWs still in Vietnam. Even though these are Rambo's instructions, Murdock knows that there are still American GIs still in Vietnam.

Murdock sends Rambo to a location (where there are not supposed to be any POWs) so that the photos taken of the camp will reveal that there are no prisoners. However, Rambo finds POWs at the camp of interest, discovering that the POWs are actually rotated from camp to camp.

With the assistance of a smoking hot local woman, Co Bao (Julia Nickson-Soul), Rambo locates the American POWs and tries to escape with one. However, during the extraction, Marshall Murdock, orders that Rambo be abandoned, and all documentation of POWs be destroyed, much to Colonel Trautman's dismay. Trautman criticizes Murdock for what he had done, but Murdock ignores him.

Rambo is taken into captivity by the Vietnamese soldiers, and is tortured by the Soviet Red Army. With the help of Co (who is later killed), Rambo escapes, nearly destroys the Vietnamese and Soviet armies, and flies back to Thailand with the rescued POWs.

Rambo becomes enraged at how the United States government has ignored the existence of surviving soldiers being held captive. Rambo then threatens Murdock and tells him to be forthright with the truth of the POWs and spare no expense in rescuing them all, else he will return for Murdock's hide. When Trautman says Rambo will be honored once again, he declines, saying the POWs deserve medals and accolades more than him as they were regular soldiers who endured torture and extraordinary hardships. For his actions in Vietnam, Rambo is granted a presidential pardon and remains in Thailand.

Rambo III 1988 (20 years ago!!)
The film opens with Colonel Trautman (Crenna) visiting a monastery in Thailand to meet Rambo at a temple construction site after Rambo's prizefighting match. The Colonel asks Rambo to join him in Afghanistan where the U.S. is supplying weapons (Stinger missiles )to the Afghan freedom fighters (Mujahedeen) who are fighting against the Soviet invasion. Trautman claims one province of Afghanistan is under control of an organized Soviet military officer who is brutally suppressing the Mujaheddin and the local Afghan populace. Rambo refuses the Colonel's request, saying he is happy to have found a sense of purpose and a peaceful life helping the monks.

However, while in Afghanistan, the Colonel's group, while passing through the mountains at night, is ambushed by the Soviets. Rambo eventually learns of the incident and flies back to Afghanistan, with travel and weapons arranged by Trautman's secretary. When he arrives in Asghnistan, Rambo meets up with a weapons supplier who agrees to take him to a village deep in the desert, close to a Soviet base, where Trautman is being held.

With the aid of the local Afghan freedom fighters and a young boy called Nissem, Rambo infiltrates the base and rescues Trautman along with several other Afghan prisoners. They make their escape in a "borrowed" Soviet helicopter but are shot down by the Soviets along the way. Rambo and Trautman manage to make their escape on foot narrowly avoiding the advancing Soviet troops. Taking cover inside a cave, they manage to fight off some Russians, killing them off one by one, eventually escaping. Later, they are confronted by the Soviets, once again.

In a spectacular finale, just as Rambo and Trautman are about to be overwhelmed by the might of the Soviet Army, the Mujahedeen warriors charge onto the battlefield, overwhelming the Soviets. Rambo is shot through his leg but manages to commandeer a Soviet tank and collides it into a helicopter piloted by the Soviet base commander, killing the commander. Rambo survives and climbs out of the tank bruised and battered. He and Trautman wave goodbye to the Mujahedeen leaders and drive off in a jeep.