The Grey Colonel is a character who appears in Army Men events and in the Army Men 3D version of the same events.
The Grey Colonel is a retired colonel of the Grey Nation which is under occupation by the Tan Republic during Army Men events (and Army Men 3D alternate version). Years later a rumor spread that he may have been the first Army Men of his kind (G1), created at some point in the ending of the first Great Army Men War.
Army Men: World War
During the first Tanic-Greeno World War, Cajun Joe was helping the Blues free themselves from the Tan invasion.
Army Men 3D
The Colonel gives the Green army one key of the 3 used to open the first portal (in fact, the last key) and information about its power.
In exchange for helping his nation to liberate a factory taken over by the Tan and help him to escape from the territory around his mansion (Army Men & Army Men 3D). The Tans took the Colonel very seriously, to the point that they deployed 3 tanks and troops in the place, not to let him go out of his mansion or have contact with anyone. Upon rescuing him and before leaving the area in a Half-Track, he gave Sarge the blue key, precisely the last one the Green army was looking for. But after that Sarge is assigned the task of escorting him to a safehouse on the other side of a bridge, since the Tan had blocked the way for the passage of vehicles. After successfully completing this mission, the Colonel gave the Green army the information about the keys: He knew the secrets.
Describing that putting the 3 keys together a triangle shape would create a device that would open a portal with unknown powers, which was nearby, in a Cemetery. But when Sarge approached the Cemetery through a city that led directly there, the Grays began to attack Sarge and the Tan at the same time. The same thing continued to happen during the following events that led to the opening of the first portal. This was the only time in history that the Gray nation attacked the Green nation, specifically just Sarge. Although it is not known with certainty whether these were intentions known by the Grey Colonel, or it was the Gray government that authorized this, presumably to prevent the secret from being known. There were other occasions where we came into conflict with some individuals from the Gray nation, but they were always renegades from their nation: followers of AWOL Colonel or Dr. Madd.
Cajun Joe died
There was one time where the Colonel was considered KIA. Sarge personally sent Gray Colonel’s mother a letter with the remains of his son, after he died. He fail to do it at first, but achieve it in the second. The reason Sarge have done this with a giant letter from Real World is unknown, but the meaning may be simply unknown by journalists.
Anyway this was a hoax and the Gray Colonel had not died. They needed to make everyone believe that this was so, until years later, Colonel Cajun Joe returned on the military stage. Originally it was a personal request from Joe to Sarge, to achieve his intention to retire. But years later, when Sarge returned to active duty, he returned the favor he owed, reappearing to inspire his nation.
The Gray Colonel post Army Men events:
After more than 25 years without being seen, the Gray Colonel was severely damaged after Red Alert events, and underwent many modifications and improvements to keep fighting.
Leader of the Gray Resistance, he needed to come back to the fight during the Red Alert events. With one arm replaced with a cybernetic one, part of his face reconstructed with enhancements on one eye, and vested in full torso, waist, and legs armor, little remains of the original Gray Colonel.
Gray classified documents: Background information about his past (public sample)
The new gray declassified documents shed new information about the Colonel’s past. “Cajun Joe’s mansion” was part of a top-secret transcription, which led us to the lyrics of a Real World song, called “Cajun Joe (The Bully Of The Bayou)”. This proves that the Gray Colonel knew of the existence of the Real World long before the events of Army Men (and perhaps others did too), to the point that he took his name from there, or was named as such after this human “Country ” style song that coincides with events related to the Gray Colonel. Therefore not only is it the name of a supposed previous owner of the mansion, but he himself is the owner of that mansion in the Bayouland. And extrapolating the age of these discoveries… means that this can go back a long time (That’s all I’m allowed to publish publicly this time).