Commissioned Artwork created by  hanazawa

Here she is, the gun toting grandma known in the hills of West Virginia as Granny Hall. She is the proud grandmother of Bureau of Superheroes sharpshooter Valerie Hall (aka Gatling Goat).

Gertrude Hall is a minor celebrity and PLEASE don't ask her her age!

Her profile is listed below:

Both characters and Bureau of Superheroes © me

Colmaton Universe ©  train

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Name: Gertrude “Granny” Fisher-Hall

DOB: “Unlisted”

POB: Mayfield, West Virginia

Age: DON’T ASK!

Gender: Female

Species: Goat

Nationality: American

Height: 5’ 1”

Weight: 98 lbs.

Eye colour: Blue

Hair Colour: Gray

Physical Appearance: Average sized elderly goat doe

Occupation: U.S. Army WAAC/WAC, Retired

Special Skills: Excellent physical shape (for a lady her age), close to expert marksfur

Outfits: When Usually wears old time homemade clothes, especially long dresses

Bio: Gertrude Fisher was born to a large farming family in the hills of West Virginia during the Roaring 20’s. Although each of the Fisher siblings were taught how to use a shotgun at a very young age, it was Gertrude (called Little Gertie by her parents) who was by far the best marksfur. This young goat doe had a natural knack for target shooting and hunting. Often, when the family went wild game hunting, Little Gertie would bring home the most meat for the skillet/smokehouse. Even though her older brothers often got jealous of her, they did admire her skill with a shotgun.

After Pearl Harbor, all of Gertrude’s brothers ran off to enlist in the Army. Sixteen year old Gertrude wanted to fight too, but was turned down at the Army Recruitment Office. However, when the WAACs (Woman’s Army Auxillary Corp) was started in May 1942, Gertrude was among the first to sign up. She was among the first 800 females sent for WAAC training at the Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School where recruits were assigned training based on their entrance test scores. Scoring highest in the ‘Mechanical Aptitude’ section, Gertrude was trained in equipment maintenance and repair. One day as she finished cleaning and oiling all the camp’s rifles, she ‘borrowed’ one and went to the Rifle Range. As the commander of the fort looked on from afar, Gertrude got the first perfect score ever on the Rifle Range. When her Master Sergeant confronted the young goat doe, she was ready to drum her out of the service for entering an unauthorized area, but the Commander of the Fort intervened. He commented on never seeing such precise markfurship in his entire life and then sadly said, “it’s too bad you’re not a male, you’d be one hell of a soldier.” Gertrude never forgot that and waited for the opportunity to prove him as well as the male dominated Army Brass wrong.

Her opportunity came almost a year later. Stationed in Hawaii after she completed her training, Gertrude serviced airplanes, artillery and other Army vehicles left at the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Jealous of her near expert abilities at repair and maintenance, her male superior, Major Axelrod (another goat who she turned down many times for a date) had her transferred to temporary duty at a newly built listening post on Kaua’i Island as their new cook. Angry about her ‘new assignment’ but powerless to stop it, a laughing Major Axelrod shipped Gertrude out on a PT Boat for that remote Hawaiian Island. During the daytime voyage the eagle eyes of Gertrude spotted the small wake of a torpedo heading their way. When she couldn’t convince the captain or the crew of the vessel of their imminent peril, the frantic goat doe snatched a rifle, turned and fired directly at the oncoming torpedo. Her bullet struck it in just the right spot to detonate the Japanese projectile. The force of the explosion rocked the PT Boat, throwing all of the crew (including the captain) hard against the opposite side. Gertrude managed to ‘hit the deck’ seconds before the blast, which saved her from any serious injury. With the ship’s crew unconscious, Gertrude slowly rose up and spotted in the distance the top of the periscope of the enemy submarine that had tried to destroy the PT Boat. Thinking that she had to try to coax the sub to the surface, the smiling goat stood up, directly in the line of sight of the periscope, and started to do a slow impromptu striptease. By the time she was down to her undergarments, the huge form of the Japanese submarine slowly rose up. Quickly steering the PT Boat’s torpedo tubes to aim directly at the arising enemy vessel, Gertrude immediately launched a pair of torpedoes that hit the submarine at near point blank range. The explosion was loud but thanks to Gertrude’s quick steering and hitting full reverse on the engines, the smaller PT boat escaped major damage. When the captain and crew revived, they were all stunned to see Gertrude, still only clad in her underclothes, holding a rifle on the only three Japanese survivors from the sunken submarine. Through an interpreter, the three Japanese captives pleaded to ‘get them away from the crazy gun toting goat lady’ that had blown up their submarine.
When the captain’s report on the sub sinking reached Major Axlerod, he condemned it as a hoax and refused to forward it to his superiors. Even after every member of the PT Boat crew confirmed the captain’s report, Major Axlerod in his rage tore the report up and threw it in the trash. However, one of the crew snuck back into the Major’s office during the night, rewrote the report from the torn up copy and then sent it to the Army newspaper ‘Stars and Stripes.’ When the reporters contacted the top commanders in the Pacific Theater about the incident, they were enraged at Major Axlerod for trying to ‘kill’ the story. When the full story of everything that had transpired was exposed, ‘Major’ Axlerod became ‘Private’ Axlerod and was assigned to ‘permanent latrine duty’ for the rest of the war,
Gertrude Hall became an overnight celebrity when the full story of her encounter with the Japanese submarine hit the American Press. The Press dubbed her ‘Gravel Gertie’ for her grit, resourcefulness and courage. She would later receive a special medal from President Roosevelt for her actions. Asked to pose for some ‘cheesecake’ posters, Gertrude agreed to do it on the condition that her images would be used ONLY to promote buying War Bonds or Recruitment purposes. Her terms were accepted and soon Gertrude sported a white one piece swimsuit and photos were produced. She rose to the rank of Sergeant when the war ended. Gertrude returned home to West Virginia, got married and lived a very quiet life. Gertrude never tried to ‘cash in’ on her fame after the war. She did share her story and newspaper scrapbook with all of her children and grandchildren. Her granddaughter Valerie took a huge interest in her past and it inspired the young goat doe to take an active interest in firearms and shooting. Valerie became a great marksfur in her youth, so great that she led the female Rifle Team at West Virginia University to four straight National Championships. She then went to the Olympic tryouts in 2000 but missed qualifying for the team by a fraction of a point. ‘Granny Hall’ (who was in attendance) got SO angry about the situation, she jumped out of the stands and onto the shooting range. Before security could stop her, the furious elderly goat doe grabbed a loaded rifle and went through the entire shooting range, registering a PERFECT score. When the press discovered her identity, her heroic World War 2 submarine tale was rediscovered, making Granny Hall a celebrity again. Her ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ ended quickly, and Granny Hall settled back into her simple life in rural West Virginia.
In a very recent incident, Granny Hall saved her granddaughter from abduction by a group of supercriminals who chose to hideout in a mountain cabin near her farm. Even in her advanced age, the determined elderly goat doe is still a ‘crack shot’ with her rifle. (See “Nandi’s Rescue).

Personality: Granny Hall is a very kindly, motherly kind of lady, unless you make her angry. The elderly goat doe has a ‘hair-trigger’ temper, especially if anyone messes with any member of her family. It’s best to stay on the ‘good side’ of Granny Hall!