Helena Delgado

## Background

### 1989 - 1996: Helena Delgado

Helena Delgado is the product of two people that never should've been together. When Helena's mother found out she was pregnant, her father dropped off the face of the earth & left her mother to raise a child on her own.

It was just them two for the first four years as they moved further down south until her mother met José Delgado in National City. The two fell in love, got married & had another daughter named Miriam. Their happy family life did not last as her mother followed in her father's footsteps & abandoned the family. José stepped up to the plate, legally adopting Helena & raised the two young girls on his own.

### 1996 - 2007: Helena Delgado

Unfortunately, José wasn't the most well off man. He had started as a boxer & had ended up as a teacher at Davis High School by the time he met Linda. Raising two children alone on a teacher's salary was not ideal, which led to José working many odd jobs to supplement an extra income while he left Helena & Miriam with his friends. When Helena reached her teens, she began working odd jobs herself until she was able to get a part-time job at the local coffee shop. While other kids in her class were using their paychecks to get cool clothes & buy concert tickets, Helena was using hers to help buy dinner for the family. She soon became a team lead at her job due to her dedication & used her pull to get her sister hired there as well.

### 2007 - 2017: Helena Delgado

After graduating high school, Helena felt she needed to do more in order to help her family. So instead of putting a heavier financial burden on her father by going to college, she enlisted in the Navy. Two years after enlisting, she earned her three stripes & was advanced to Seaman due to her satisfactory performance. While women in the Navy was not uncommon anymore, a woman wanting to become a Navy SEAL was. Up until a few years prior, women were barred from becoming Navy SEALs by naval regulation. Less than a handful of women had been able to successfully complete the training & Helena wanted to add her name tot he list.

In 2012, she reported to Naval Amphibious Base Coronado for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training (BUD/S) & graduated BUD/S Class 294 in 2013. She subsequently completed SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) the next year & became the fourth female officer to be assigned to a Naval Special Warfare Group. In her career as a Navy SEAL, she compelted on two tours of duty before she was pulled into the world of the Joes.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Demolitions**
* **Firearms:** She went through extensive training in firearms throughout her time as a Navy SEAL & as a Joe. She is a qualified expert with the M-14, M-16, Browning .50 cal., 20mm Oerlikon AA gun & the M1911A1 Auto Pistol.
* **Hand to Hand Combat**
* **Swimming:** As a Navy SEAL, she has to be skilled in swimming & missions in maritime enviornments.
* **Military Operation:** Becoming a Navy SEAL is extremely strenuous, as even qualifying for the training program is difficult. Helena went through 24 weeks of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training (BUD/S), 5 weeks of Parachute Jump School, 26 weeks of SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) then 18 months of predeployment training before she was considered deployable. She can be successful in missions of any enviornment including maritime, jungle, urban, artic, mountainous & desert.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** Unknown
* **Strength:** Unknown
* **Speed:** Unknown
* **Occult:** Unknown
* **Weapons:** Unknown
* **Range:** Unknown
* **Strategy:** Unknown
* **Combat:** Unknown
* **TOTAL:** Unknown

## Trivia

#### General

* She is good friends with Dial Tone (Jack Morelli) & Mirage (Delilah Blake). The three of them joined the Joes around the same time.
* Shipwreck is the team's grenadier & one of their demolitions specialist. As Navy SEAL officer, she has gone through rigorous training which has led to her getting a reputation for being tough & mean.
* Her philosophy is "see the target, shoot the target."
* She finds Cover Girl attractive & even flirts with her occassionally.
* One time between missions, Helena started a short romance with a popular lounge singer named Satin.
* She is the first member of the Joes to be from the Navy.
* She currently has the rank of Chief Petty Officer (CPO), earning the enlisted grade of E-7.

#### Famly

* On her mother's side, she is of Spain ancestry.
* She sent the majority of her military paychecks back to her family.
* Helena got her sister Miriam a job at the coffee shop when she became old enough to work. The job led to Miriam meeting media mogul Cat Grant as the coffee shop was one of her favorites. Miriam always remembered her order & had made quite the impression on Cat, especially because Cat was confused as to how the young girl had time to be there in the morning instead of school. One day, they struck up a conversation & Miriam explained she did this to make extra money for her family. While most people would simply just say okay or maybe give a hefty tip, Cat went the extra mile & offered her an after school internship at her business CatCo Worldwide Media. She said the girl obviously have a good memory & nice time management skills, which is something she can always benefit from in her business. Miriam's new job eventually led to her father meeting her boss & the two hitting it off. They've been a couple ever since.

## Notes

* Shipwreck/Helena Delgado is a genderbent version of Shipwreck, Hector Delgado, who is an original character from G.I. Joe & its related media.
* José Delgado is Gangbuster, a vigilante in Metropolis.
* Miriam Delgado is Mirage, a member of the Titans. Julienne is Miriam's daughter.
* In the real world, women were not allowed to become Navy SEALs by naval regulation until 2015. The first women successfully completed the program in 2019 but chose another assignment in the Navy. This would make Shipwreck becoming a Navy SEAL in 2016 historically inaccurate but so is a meteor shower raining down & bringing an alien to Earth.