Baker Team was the codename of John Rambo's special forces unit in the Vietnam War, headed by Colonel Sam Trautman. It consisted of eight members, all of whom except for Delmar Barry, Rambo and Trautman, were killed in action during the war, in various, horrific ways. Barry later died of illness from the war's herbicide.
As a tribute to Baker Team, Rambo machined the grooves on the top of the Rambo III Knife to represent the men that were killed. The big groove was for Barry because he was closest to Rambo and also the largest guy on the team.
The story of the Baker team is unknown because nothing was ever told inside the Rambo movies.
Anyway, David Morrell gives us a little background of it inside the novelization of the second movie of the saga and freesharing fanfiction Rambo: Year One (that will released in March 2015) will completly cover the Baker team's history, from 1967 to 1971.
Members - Rambo II novelization source[]
- John Rambo, the main combat soldier of the team. Expert in firearms, war machine operation, the Vietnamese langauage and survival tactics. Survived the war, and last surviving member of the unit.
- Delmar Barry, the team's engineering and explosives expert. Survived the war, though he later died of multiple melanoma as a result of Agent Orange exposure whilst in Vietnam, Rambo later says that "[He] got himself killed in 'Nam. Didn't even know it."
- Joseph Danforth, the team's troubled communications specialist.
- Manuel "Loco" Ortega, the weapons specialist who liked taking risks. Nicknamed "Loco" (which translates to "Crazy" in English) due to him taking dangerous risks.
- Paul Messner, the team's former sergeant who was demoted after drunkenly assaulting Danforth.
- Delbert Krackhauer, the bigoted German-American team medic.
- Giuseppe "Greasy Cunt" Colletta, the intelligence expert of the team. Nicknamed "Greasy Cunt" because of his thick, oily mustache.
- Ralph Jorgenson, the team's other engineer and explosives expert, nicknamed "the tunnel rat" because of his ability to easily crawl through tunnels.
- Colonel Sam Trautman, the team's commander. Survived the war. Died an unspecified time after the events of Rambo III.
Other Known Members[]
Rambo mentions some other names when he shows the team photograph to Mrs. Barry. These men were likely replacements for those who died in service. During this scene, he only mentions six names, as the other members of the team had presumably either died by the time frame of the photograph, or were simply not in the photograph.
Members - from the 'Rambo Year One' fanfiction[]
- Manuel Ortega, '0-0' (team leader), is the most educated member of the Baker team, very smart and never stopped thinking about strategy and tactics, no matter how bad the situation or desperate the fighting, which is why Trautman chooses him as team leader for the Baker team.
- Joseph Danforth, '0-1' (vice team leader), was a criminal before the war. During his first tour in Vietnam, he enjoyed the military life and decided to join the special forces. He was a very thoughtful man with little conscence problems.
- John Rambo, "shadow man" (reconnaissance, silenced weapons, hand to hand combat) is the youngest of the group, and a silent kind of guy. He opened himself up only with other soldiers, usually speaking only about war related topics. Very little is known about him in the beginning of the book, but he probably had a very bad situation at home, which is why he enjoyed the army the sooner he could.
- Delmar Barry, 'shadow man' is a guy that couldn't for anything while one of his fellow soldiers were horribly tortured. So, he is one of the more enraged ones against the vietcongs.
- Robert Krakhauer, assault, heavy weapons, Krakhauer's past is also unknown, as Rambo's one is. During the third book, we will finally discover that the guy had never had a family at all, thus he lived to 'demostrate' something to the whole world... And he was always searching for more difficult challenges.
- Carl Jorgenson, assault, heavy weapons, was a jarhead that had to re-imagine his life after he fell in love with the daughter of a general. The girl had to leave his family, and then he had to do anything to give her the better life he can.
- Ricardo Colletta, sniper, spotter, land navigation, was a calm guy that used to go hunting with his father since ha was a kid. He choose the life in the army as any other job, and is really difficult to scare, no matter how bad the situation got.
- Daniel Messner, field medic and communications, was a drug addicted medic before the war. After the ending of a very important relationship with a woman, he joined the army to start a whole new life.