Flying Hellfish

The Flying Hellfish (also referred to as just "the Hellfish") was the military unit Abraham Simpson, Charles Montgomery Burns, and several other Springfieldians served in during World War II.
==Flying Hellfish Members==
*Platoon Leader/ Senior NCO: Master Sergeant Abraham Simpson (Homer's father)
*Private Charles Montgomery Burns (expelled post-war for greed, repeated attempts to murder Abe by proxy, and attempting to murder Abe's grandson Bart)
*Radio Operator: Sheldon Skinner (Seymour Skinner's father) †
*Private Fifth Class Arnie Gumble (Barney Gumble's father) †
*Commanding Officer/ Commander: Nedwynn Flanders (Ned Flanders' Granduncle) †
*Asa Phelps †
*Iggy Wiggum (Clancy Wiggum's father) †
*Milton Haas †
*Etch Westgrin †
*Griff McDonald †
*Private Homer Simpson (The Simpsons Game; non-canon)
*Private Bart Simpson (The Simpsons Game; non-canon)
==Origins==
Abraham Simpson II and Arnold Gumble were in The Naval Reserve before the army. Arnie Gumble and Abraham Simpson II were in the same squad before the Flying Hellfish. However, after Private Leonard was killed in action the other two members retired to being a Clown Sidekick and a Miner. Gumble and Simpson were move to the Flying Hellfish as the two highest ranking officers.
==History==
Presumably, the Flying Hellfish was first dispatched to Normandy for the Invasion of Normandy.
Burns was always the unit's troublemaker. The Hellfish got stuck with Burns because he obstructed a probe from J. Edgar Hoover, thus resulting in his demotion. He faked his own death several times and even ruined Simpson's chance to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
At one point, near the end of the war, the unit stormed a German castle. While searching through it, Private Burns found a collection of stolen paintings. While discussing what they should do with them, Burns mentions the idea of tontine, where the members must enter into a contract of when the last surviving member inherits the paintings if the others pass away. The unit agrees for their own personal reasons (Gumble wanting to buy his way into high society, Abe not wanting to end up "in one of them old folk's homes"). Everyone signs and shakes on this prospect.
Ox was the first member to die because of a hernia he got while taking the crate out of the castle. Five more were killed in a parade float accident in 1979. After Asa Phelps died, only Burns and Abe remained. Later, Simpson gave Burns a dishonorable discharge from the Hellfish for trying to kill him and his grandson Bart, expelling him from the tontine and declaring himself the sole possessor of the paintings in default, much to Burns' dismay. Unfortunately for Grampa and Bart, their victory was cut short when the U.S. State Department arrive and took the paintings, as they have been searching for them for 50 years to avoid any international incidents with the German government. The State Department then returns the paintings to their rightful owner's descendant, Baron von Herzenberger.
==Non-canon==
===The Simpsons Game===
The Flying Hellfish appear in Medal of Homer, owing to the World War II setting. Homer and Bart, who traveled through time to access the world and hold the rank of Private, encountered Abe Simpson, their father and grandpa, respectively, alongside Private Burns.
In the first mission, Sergeant Abe briefs Homer and Bart about how they have received intelligence that the Nazi Germans are planning to invade the French township Ville de St. Capitulons, which was vital to the war effort due to it providing the snails that feed the entire French Resistance, and thus ensures the French Resistance continues to resist the Nazi occupation (and implies that he has witnessed something like that happen before). He then tells Homer and Bart that they are to parachute out of a UB-40 Redwine Flying Fortress over the township and then regroup with Private Burns and himself for further instructions. He then bids them good luck and tells them they are his "favorite privates", and ends up going into innuendo about his "privates" and how he's concerned for them.
Upon regrouping, Abe, when witnessing Privates Homer and Bart mocking the town for surrendering due to a German boy merely throwing a rock, proceeds to sternly scold them and remind them that they're supposed to protect the French (while derisively referring to them as cheese-eating surrender monkeys), and that means they need to remove the white flags before the French have the chance to "kiss German butt." Private Burns then proceed to suggest that they remove the paintings from the village to prevent the Germans from having them while Bart and Homer remove the flags. Sergeant Abe finds Private Burns' overall behavior to be very suspicious, although he decides he's trustworthy due to being an American like himself. He then leaves with Private Burns to get the paintings while telling Homer and Bart to retrieve the flags. Sergeant Abe then leaves to secure the paintings, with Private Burns then mutters that he intends to secure them "all the way to the Swiss Bank" before correcting himself and praising Abe for the idea.
After Privates Homer and Bart succeed in confiscating the surrender flags, Sergeant Abe then proceeds to brief Homer and Bart on another mission: After praising Homer and Bart for stopping St. Capitulons from surrendering, and admitting that he was planning to send them back home in pine boxes and had even begun to write obituaries for them, he tells them that they are now off to Africa. He explains that Private Burns had secured French paintings (implied to feature some nudity due to Abe referring to them as having "high-class nekkid bazooms") and that they are to take the paintings to a secured Allied storage depot within Jabba al-Hutt in Algeria, with Sergeant Abe riding shotgun with Private Burns to deliver the paintings. He then explains that he anticipates the possibility for needing help, due to the canyons near Jabba being heavily fortified. He then confirms their suspicions of it being an Escort Mission before dismissing the briefing with "deal with it." While Homer and Bart are getting rid of the heavy fortifications throughout the path, Sergeant Abe and Private Burns enter a small argument regarding how to fight a war, with Private Burns suggesting they run away and hire mercenaries, while Sergeant Abe suggesting they use what they have regardless of the odds. Private Burns then tells the Simpsons to leave him behind as he intends to make sure the paintings don't get sent into the Black Market, though Sergeant Abe shoots his request down, stating that, even though he's technically younger than Private Burns, he's still in charge, with Private Burns suspiciously noting the paintings value, causing Sergeant Abe finding Burns suspicious and snaps at him, in particular implying that Burns finds more interest in the paintings themselves than the actual mission. He then apologizes, and says it must be the war getting to him. After Privates Homer and Bart managed to get rid of all threats, Sergeant Abe then congratulates them, and even implies that they impressed him enough that he is going to renounce getting a vasectomy after the war, while Burns lets slip that he intends to sell the paintings and get a really nice car before covering himself by claiming that he'll donate them to a museum. Along the way, however, Private Burns turns traitor by kicking Sergeant Abe out of the truck containing the paintings and drives off.
His true colors revealed, Sergeant Abe then briefs Homer and Bart on what happened: After exposing Private Burns' treason and theft of the paintings, he then explains that Private Burns moved the paintings to his own private aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Reel Crazy. He then explains that he has the entire warship guarded by his own private cadre of muscular sailors, and that they fight for neither God nor country, more accurately, they fight for love. He then explains that he himself will personally lead a sortie of warplanes belonging to the rest of the Flying Hellfish to provide heat from the air while Bart and Homer are to stow themselves aboard the ship when it reaches dock, with Homer specifically being relegated to demolition duty to take out its defenses while they are out at sea. He then tells Homer that he's supplying him with just enough C4 for him to complete the mission objectives, before admitting that Homer really has an infinite supply of them, citing that he "wouldn't finish the damn thing" if he had a limited supply. He then asks questions before bluntly dismissing them. Sergeant Abe then tries to ram his plane into Private Burns, only for Burns to dodge and then taunt him by saying he'll now have to kiss him. However, Sergeant Abe tells him to eat deck, while calling him a double-crossing "nancy-boy." Eventually, Homer and Bart managed to complete the mission objectives and knock out Private Burns. The unit then returns to the Village of St. Capitulons, where Cesar proceeds to thank them as Mayor for hiding their cowardice and retrieving the paintings, which they called the pride of their village.
==Trivia==
*The name changes from Fighting Hellfish to Flying Hellfish throughout the episode "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"".
*In heaven, a tombstone has the words "Flying Hellfish" written on it, written over it is "Flying HeavenFish".
*Even though Ned's father is supposed to be a Major in the Army, Abraham Simpson explicitly referred to him as "Commander Flanders" when scolding Private Burns for trying to steal paintings.
*In the scene where Fernando shoots at Grandpa in the Retirement Castle, an animation error occurs in which there are bullet holes in Grandpa's body, instead of the wall.
* As we find out in The Principal and the Pauper, Seymour Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian and only assumed this identity when he failed to deliver the bad news of the real Seymour's supposed passing to his mother. But due to the fact that he still looks very much like Sheldon Skinner, this leads to the possibility that the real Seymour Skinner and Armin are in fact half-brothers.
* Despite Abe being Sergeant, in flashbacks, his war hat has the Master Sergeant logo.
==Appearances==
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de:Fliegende Höllenfische
es:Flying Hellfish
pl:Latająca Diabloryba
pt:Peixes Infernais
Category:Character Groups
Category:Abe Simpson
Category:Military personnel