Sarge

"You just got Sarge'd!"

- Sarge

Staff Sergeant Sarge is a main character in the machinima series Red vs. Blue and the leader of the Blood Gulch Red Team. He is voiced by Matt Hullum, co-creator of the series, and first appeared at the end of Episode 1. A military man with a Southern United States accent, Sarge exhibits more discipline than the other Reds (and most of the Blues, for that matter), but is also somewhat sociopathic, bloodthirsty, eccentric, and the only Blood Gulch soldier on either team that is actually serious about the war (or training exercise). According to Chapter 17 of Revelation, his prefered nickname is S-dog.

Overview
Rooster Teeth has noted that they initially modelled Sarge after Full Metal Jacket 's Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, but, by the middle of Season 2, the character had evolved into, in the words of voice actor Matt Hullum, "every 1950s film stereotype character...melted down into one", exhibiting characteristics of a mad scientist, used car salesman, and "grumpy old dad".

Matt Hullum states that he initially modeled Sarge's voice on that of R. Lee Ermey, the actor who portrayed Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, but by Season Three, the character's voice became more gruff and less nasal. The change in voice is such that people will often ask who voiced Sarge in the initial episodes, believing that Hullum himself did not.

Misadventures in Blood Gulch
Sarge is the gruff and regiment leader of the Red Team. Introduced in the first two episodes, Sarge's disposition (particularly his relationships with Grif and Simmons) is quickly established in a conversation (which the writers modeled on one that they themselves had) regarding the resemblance of the Warthog to a puma. After naming the jeep and informing Grif and Simmons about the arrival of a rookie, (Donut) Sarge leaves to Command for orders. After some time, he radios his team from a Pelican to inform them of his return, only to find that they are being attacked by Sheila. He then launches an air strike, disabling Sheila for some time. In the aftermath, he sent Lopez to shoot Grif, whom he blames for the ruined jeep.

During Tex's first attack on Red Base, Sarge and Lopez corner her, knock her out, and take her prisoner. When the Blue Team launched a rescue attempt, Sarge was possessed by Church, the Blues' deceased unofficial leader. Under Church's control, he knocked Simmons out and escorted Tex out of the base, only to be shot in the head by the Blue rookie, Caboose. He then hallucinates a meeting with Church in the afterlife. Grif revives Sarge using CPR. Sarge initially thanks Simmons; upon hearing that it was Grif who saved him, he berates Grif at length for attempting to treat a bullet wound to the head with CPR.

Later, Donut returns with a voice card for Lopez. Sarge damages the card while trying to install it, causing Lopez to only be able to speak Spanish. Tex later attacks Red Base again, this time with Sheila's assistance. Sarge and Simmons again attempt to fight her, but fail. He then watches proudly as Lopez apparently pursues Tex, believing the act to be a suicide run (in reality, Church had possessed Lopez and was attempting to assist Tex). In Season 2, Sarge is forced to build two permanent robot bodies for the Blues; he implants a microphone in one and a bomb in the other, as well as a voice command which causes one robot to punch Grif when he says "Codeword: Dirtbag".

Into the "Future"
The bomb, however, leads to both teams being blasted into the distant future during Season 3. Once there, Sarge takes charge of assault on a fortress occupied by O'Malley, the common enemy of both teams. His initial ideas for the assault mostly involved sacrificing several team members to ensure his own safety (the first to be killed in his plans would always be Grif, even if this was unnecessary for the hypothetical plan to succeed), but he finally chose a more stealthy and more successful sneak attack. During a battle against O'Malley and his Robot Army, Sarge and the Red Team leave the Blues to battle alone, in order to go in search of the source of a distress signal; they end up returning to Blood Gulch.

Return to Blood Gulch
Back in Blood Gulch, Sarge, Simmons, and Donut attempt to get Grif from down a cliff by firing sniper rounds at him. Sarge has fun with the plan, but manages to confuse Donut and Simmons about the method of turns on who gets to shoot Grif. Grif gets annoyed and eventually comes down, with Sarge managing to get a blast on him before he does. When the Reds make it back to base. Sarge tells them to be alert of any danger that may be lurking inside the base, unaware that Sheila drives past behind him. When Simmons tells Sarge about Sheila, Sarge doesn't believe him and thinks he has gone crazy, due to the fact that Grif lies about seeing her, wanting to mess with Simmons. As a result, Sarge demotes Simmons and holds Red Team auditions to take his place.

Donut eventually wins and is promoted to second in Command. Because of this, Simmons attacks the Red base as a Blue and kidnaps Grif in the process. Sarge, now seeing Simmons as a traitor, is forced to rescue Grif from his clutches. With the help of Donut, Sarge manages to enter the Blue Base, knock out Grif, and hold Simmons at gunpoint. He prepares to eliminate him but is knocked out by Church, who returns to Blood Gulch as well. Church and Simmons have Donut take Grif and Sarge back to Red base, but take their vehicles in the process. At Red Base, Sarge regains consciousness and attempts to make a truce with Grif. That is until Simmons returns to Red base, stating that he has valuable information. After a failed attempt to hold a trial, Simmons, returning to the Red Team, tells them that the Blues have gotten back in contact with their command, worrying Sarge. While trying to figure out what Vic could be telling the Blues, they spot Donut talking to Lopez.

From late in Season 2, Sarge had been attempting to retrieve the orders from Red Command that are stored in Lopez's head. Sarge, in an attempt to translate those orders from Spanish, kidnaps Andy, the Blue Team's talking bomb; the orders turn out to be useless. The Reds are then attacked by the Blues, and Sarge radios command reinforcements. When a ship arrives, the pilot (Sister) informs them that she was sent to replace a dead commanding officer. Sarge's undying trust in command causes him to believe that he is in fact dead, and the other Reds bury him.

By Episode 85, he has disappeared from his grave, having fallen into the underground cavern. He mistakes the cavern for Hell; Donut's arrival confirms his suspicion. The two are soon contacted and rescued by Simmons and Grif. Then all of Red Team goes exploring through the cavern until finding the computer that shows the canyon and after learning the Blues took over their base calls Vic for support so they can take it back, but Simmons interupts the call. They come back above ground and go towards Red Base, but instead they go to the Blue Base when the tank goes towards Red Base. Later they help the Blues in the battle against Wyoming. Once they finished dealing with Wyoming, they chased Caboose until Simmons was infected by O'Malley and nearly killed Sarge but Tex saved him. Then Church asks Sarge to disable the ship so Tex can't escape but instead they put Andy the bomb in there and have him detonate the Ship while it's leaving. He later builds a mongoose out of old Warthog parts and calls Simmons and Grif over to help him pick a name.

Later Adventures
As of Reconstruction Chapter 2, Sarge is the only Red left in Blood Gulch; he vowed not to leave until all the Blues were wiped out (even though the only Blue left is Sister, whom he can't attack because she is a girl), even though his refusal to leave with the rest of his team would be considered going AWOL. It should also be noted that he has repaired Lopez, who now has his entire body. Later on, the Meta deceives him into thinking that the Blue Team has been reassembled under Washington's command.

He appears again in Chapter 8 with Grif and Simmons, attacking Washington and Church on sight in his fanatical attempts to wipe out the Blues once and for all. In Chapter 9, Sarge saves Grif and Simmons from death by firing squad. Sarge couldn't come to terms with the fact that Grif was now the same rank as him, preferring to assume that their real commander was invisible.

After an incident where the Meta threw a Warthog at Grif, he agreed to work with Washington after the latter guessed his secure codeword that only Command knew (which turned out to be "codeword") and also after Washington demoted Grif from Sergeant to "minor junior private negative first class".

They group make it inside Command HQ, and the Reds are ordered to lookout duty. Sarge and the Reds manage to delete the Blue records during that time, but are suddenly attacked by the Meta. Wash tells the Reds and Blues to escape with the Epsilon unit, telling the Reds specifically to protect the Blues, annoying Sarge. When Wash activates the EMP, the Reds' Warthog deactivates, but manage to help Caboose escape with Epsilon just in time. Afterwards, Sarge, Grif, and Simmons are stationed together at Valhalla with Caboose, as a reward for bringing down Project Freelancer.

Stationed at Valhalla
It is revealed in Relocated Part Three that Sarge now understands a bit of Spanish, since he apparently knew that Lopez was giving him an answering machine message and disabled Lopez's lying ability. In previous series, Sarge would just ramble on and assume Lopez was either agreeing with him or complimenting him. In Relocated Part Four, Sarge tests out his new EMP-firing warthog (portrayed as a Gauss Warthog) on some "Holo-Grifs" in the new simulation room built by Lopez.

Grif notices errors in a hologram's appearance, commenting that it's "all lightish red". Sarge tells Grif and Donut to stop talking, since the "lightish red" guy was actually Donut, who then collapses from dehydration. Sarge asks Grif what Donut said. In Recreation, Sarge announces an attack on the Blues. Sarge calls up the new command (the UNSC) for advice, but Command has no files on Blue Team since Sarge deleted them.

Simmons reminds Sarge of what happened; Sarge remembers Simmons deleting the Blues, Sarge killing Grif, and Simmons turning into a Mongoose. When the Reds discover Donut missing, they run towards Blue Base in order to rescue him. Being unable to retrieve him, with Sarge giving away some of the Red Team's secrets, Sarge establishes a plan to get Donut back. Fortunately, Donut returns on his own and the Reds get him debriefed.

The Reds suddenly discover Caboose messing around in the holoroom. Caboose tells them that he is leaving to find Tucker, concerning Grif, believing that when Caboose dies they won't be able to get the Blues back into command's records. As a result, Sarge agrees to join Caboose forcing Grif to tag along.

Restoring the Blues
Sarge, Grif, and Caboose go on the mission only to land in a desert surrounded by landmines. Sarge and company later meet up with C.T. and his group, who tell them to leave immediately. After the group get into trouble caused by Caboose, Tucker rescues them and congregate them inside the Temple. The four have a brief discussion and Sarge and Grif pretend they suspected Church was an AI after Tucker says he knew that.

After that, Sarge and the others find Caboose, who wandered off, with a floating robot who is later revealed to be Epsilon-Church. Sarge gets worried by this after realizing that Epsilon is equipped with a laser. When the dig team infiltrate the temple, the group is forced to take cover. Sarge and Grif later kill an Elite sent into the temple by C.T. and meet up with Tucker, Caboose and Epsilon-Church. C.T., however, steals Epsilon, resulting in the group to make chase. Sarge, Grif and Caboose manage to eliminate 2 of C.T.'s men and allow Tucker to get C.T. C.T. is eventually killed by Epsilon and the group is left at the desert.

Rescuing Simmons
In Revelation, Sarge and Grif are introduced cooperating well with the Blues, though he voices an opinion that Epsilon-Church may be milking his new status as a deity for the Aliens too much. He also retains some suspicion of Epsilon-Church and his newfound powers, particularly after Epsilon-Church has a flashback of Valhalla. To ensure the Blues are not up to something, he contacts Simmons by having Epsilon-Church boost the Warthog's radio. After a brief conversion with Simmons, Sarge displays, for the first and only time, an impressive display of competence by deducing that not only are Donut and Lopez dead and Simmons held hostage, but as correctly guessed through unintended and obscure clues from Simmons that Washington and the Meta are responsible.

He even concludes that Doc is a prisoner as well, though refuses to admit how he knew to Grif. Claiming to have a plan, he and Grif head to Valhalla, with Epsilon covertly following them. In "Upon Further Review", Sarge arrives in Valhalla, seemingly alone.Washington, not respecting Sarge enough to expect a trap, takes the bait and attempts to arrest Sarge alone. After many failed attempts to signal Grif, a Warthog smashes out of the wall and runs over Washington, who survives and tries to shoot the driving Grif. Grif slams the brakes, sending Washington flying and allowing Sarge to steal his shotgun back. As Washington recovers, he finds himself next to some fusion coils, which Sarge aims at and says "Agent Wash, you just got--", before pre-emptively firing. Washington is last seen uttering the classic "Oh son of a" line before being consumed by the blast, leaving Sarge complaining that he messed up his own one liner.

Soon after their confrontation with Washington, Grif and Sarge pulled up to Blue Base, where the Meta was holding Doc and Simmons hostage. The Meta punched Doc into a wall, and Simmons jumped onto the Sarge and Grif's warthog. However, the Meta destroys their warthog, and is about to kill the three Reds before Epsilon-Church appears, giving the Reds an opportunity to flee through the hole in the wall Grif made with the warthog. Once through the hole, the Reds discuss an escape plan, seeing as the warthog was destroyed. Epsilon-Church reappeared, and the Reds saw that the Meta was coming. Immediately, Grif and Sarge attempt to make Epsilon-Church angry by insulting him, trying to get him to activate his laser. As the Meta, and Washington, who survived the explosion, are coming closer, the sight of Washington makes Epsilon-Church angry, then shouts "Washington" in an angry tone and shoots his laser, blocking off the two Freelancers from them.

Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility
Sarge then tells Grif and Simmons to pack up Epsilon-Church, and then they head back to Sandtrap. Later, when Epsilon-Church left to the Freelancer facility with Caboose, Sarge upon hearing where they were headed, decides to follow them so he and the rest of the Reds can put the Blues back in the data base; leaving Tucker alone with the aliens in the process. As Sarge and the rest of the Reds arrive at the facility, they make a plan to pose as Freelancer agents so that F.I.L.S.S. would let them in. This ultimately fails when Grif stated his name was Agent Pluto, leaving Sarge to use his contingency plan, Shotgun to the Face. They walk inside, finding Caboose blocking the door behind him. After some clearly destructive and visible damage appears on the door, Caboose leaves in fear, leaving the Reds alone in front of the door which gets broken down by a newly revived Tex.

The Reds run as fast as they can with Sarge providing cover fire, though it does little to slow down Tex. She begins to beat the living crap out of the Reds, most notably Grif; whose groin is the victim of most attacks. Tucker then arrives and assists the Reds by distracting her while Simmons gets ready to shoot her with a Rocket Launcher, though this fails when Caboose drops a crate between them. Tex promptly and effectively beats down the team of the Reds and Tucker. Epsilon-Church then arrives and challenges but is easily beaten up by Tex, who beats him with his old forerunner monitor body while the Reds watch.

Caboose gets F.I.L.S.S. to activate the safety protocol armor lockdown, which locks everyone's armor into Recovery Mode except for Caboose who's armor does not have that protocol (because his armor is a downgraded Mk V and not Mk VI). Epsilon-Church is let out along with Tucker out of Recovery Mode. The Reds are still in Recovery Mode (although Sarge believes he's died which is bad but also good because Grif is dead too) until Epsilon-Church make them agree not to attack Tex. They reluctantly agree and are set free. Sarge notes his neck was killing him. The Red Team have a debate with Blue Team about whether or not to let Tex free. Epsilon-Church ultimately lets Tex free by convincing her not to hurt anybody but letting her hit Tucker, due to a crack he made earlier.

Learning the Truth
As Church and Tex get reacquainted, Sarge orders Simmons to re-enter the data of the Blues back into the database. Simmons gets right on it while Tex and Church leave the facility to handle something personal. After Simmons re-enters the Blues data, with a little help from F.I.L.S.S., he and Grif go over the records. They reveal that the Reds and Blues only exist to test the skills of the Freelancers and are staffed by the army's worst soldiers. Upon the revelation that the entire Red and Blue war was for nothing, Sarge sadly and angrily walks out of the room and within the next 10 seconds, builds a makeshift Red base out of junk.

He declares that he is done with his role as a Sergeant and that he quits before leaving his teammates to sulk by himself. When Caboose receives a Recovery Beacon from Epsilon-Church (he was shot by Tex to draw out Washington and the Meta), he desperately pleads for Sarge to help him save Church. While Grif and Simmons believe that Sarge would never help a Blue, Sarge, surprisingly, agrees to help Caboose. Grif refuses to tag along, recalling that Sarge quit, but Sarge admits that he wasn't ordering anybody to go with him him, but they can come if they want.

After asking his teammates "Do you ever wonder why we're here?", Sarge proceeds to give a bold and passionate speech regarding the reasons why Grif, Simmons, and Tucker remained in the Red and Blue armies, but can't think of anything to say to Caboose. At the climax of the speech, Sarge declares that he will get back at Command for "taking them from their families and using them all these years." His speech convinces Grif and the others to go with him, so they all prepare to board a transport to go help Church and Tex.

Battle at Sidewinder
Sarge and the others arrive at the Freelancer facility just as the Meta betrays Washington and is about to kill him. He warns everyone to "brace for impact" as Grif crash lands the Pelican, which stops inches from Doc and the edge of the cliff. At first he is angry at Grif for crashing the ship, but then agrees with him when he says it's just a rental and kicks the crashed pelican down a cliff. The Reds and Blues regroup around the storage unit. Sarge is then ordered by Wash to find anything that can be used as a power supply. When the Meta attacks again, he leads the Reds and Tucker to fight back. Sarge manages to land several shots on the Meta with his shotgun, but this does little to slow down the overshielded Meta. As the Meta tries to choke Sarge to death, Sarge attaches the Warthog's tow hook to the Meta's chest piece.

Sarge asks the Meta if the Warthog looks like a big cat before he gets dragged over the edge of the cliff. After seeing Grif get dragged down with the Meta, Sarge talks about Grif's death, mentioning that he will only be remembered until he is replaced. When Tucker suggests that Grif is still alive, Sarge insists that Grif died from the fall, and claims that checking to see if Grif lived would go against Grif's dying wishes, and that it would be a waste of time. When Grif calls out for help, Sarge comments on Grif's "dangling on the job," and that he hates cliffhangers. After the interrogation by the UNSC, the Reds are seen commenting on Blue team's newest member, and Sarge mentions that the new guy may actually be able to shoot. He then suggests that they all go home and asks if the rest of the team had overcome their fear of flying. He is last seen boarding a UNSC Hornet stolen by Grif.

Rescuing Epsilon
Some time later he, along with the other Reds and Blues, were met by Carolina who helped them save Epsilon. He is seen pushing Caboose out of the way during the sky rip to see if he can see Epsilon. When Epsilon is pulled out of the unit, Sarge helps Caboose recap the events that have happened while he was in the Epsilon Unit. After Epsilon makes a comment about Carolina being dead, Sarge tells him he is a ghost, and after Carolina says shes looking for the Director and whatever hole he is in, Sarge starts going on a rant about Dount. When Epsilon brings up the fact that Donut is dead, he and Sarge get into a debate about how soon is too soon.

Later, when Epsilon realizes Washington has completely replaced him on Blue Team, Sarge offers his solution of "using my trusty shotgun to thin out the ranks". As they leave the UNSC Data Archives. Church tells Sarge hes surprised to see him taking orders from a Blue, to which Sarge replies that Carolina was very "convincing". He then says Epsilon seems to have a fetish for mean women, to which Epsilon replies he does. Sarge asks if he wants to talk about it, and Epsilon denies. When Simmons arrives in one of the extraction Warthogs, Sarge tells him only he could make a high speed chase boring. They leave, but make a pit stop some time later.

At Zanzibar, the Reds contemplate on Simmons' theory about Carolina and Washington possibly betraying them. Sarge, at first, doesn't believe that Wash would do such a thing, stating that he is "not too bad", but once he witness more of Carolina's action, he begins to grow concerned, as do Grif and Simmons. The Reds then tell Wash that they are returning back to their base, but quickly have a change of mind when Wash tells them about a possible ambush could be waiting for them if they return. As a result, the Reds continue the mission.

Back at the Desert
The Reds, Blues, and Carolina leave Zanzibar and arrive at Sandtrap, in search for C.T. Sarge gathers the Reds and Blues to discuss their concerns about Carolina. Epsilon tells the group that they should stick together against the two ex-Freelancers. In an attempt to get more information, the team insert Epsilon into Carolina's Mongoose, where Carolina then leaves to a nearby island. Sarge and the others are soon gathered inside the temple. When she (and Epsilon) return, Carolina tells the group that they are heading to Outpost 17-B, much to Sarge's surprise.

Return to Valhalla
The Reds, Blues, and Carolina soon arrive at Valhalla. While Carolina and Wash search the ship, Sarge tells his men that they will now be able to get Lopez back on their team. Simmons tries to convince Sarge that the addition would be pointless, but Sarge does not change his mind. He and Simmons then run off to find Lopez. The two eventually stumble upon a small hut overlooking a garden, where they not only find a scarecrow Lopez, but Donut and Doc as well. After their brief reunion with their teammate, Simmons and Sarge regroup with Grif at Red base. There, the three Reds discuss if the death of the Director will change anything for the better. Sarge points out that now that they have their full team, leaving Valhalla will only make things worse.

After talking to Carolina, Epsilon gathers everyone in the Red team's Holographic Chamber, where the final plan to kill the Director is discussed. However, the group refuse to help Epsilon and Carolina on their mission, with Sarge calling it "their personal vendetta" and adding that Epsilon and Carolina's mission isn't their fight. This causes Epsilon to get mad and blame them for all his problems, which results in the group to leave the Chamber, disgusted by Epsilon's words.

Sometime later, the Blues manage to take all of the Red's equipment. When Wash questions what else do the Reds have, Grif reveals the Meta's Brute shot to them. Doc soon then gives an inspirational speech to the Reds and Blues, reminding them on how much they have changed since they first met. Following Doc's speech, the Reds and Blues decide to go help Epsilon and Carolina but Wash reminds them that the mission will be dangerous and the Director plays for keeps. Sarge, however, tells Washington that despite their troubles with Freelancers, the Reds and Blues have always managed to overcome them, due to having each other's backs. Wash, as a result, agrees to help. Suddenly, a trio of UNSC Hornets surround the group and attempt to arrest them, but the Reds and Blues manage to take the Hornets and fly off to Carolina and Epsilon's location.

Rescue Mission
The group find Carolina being attacked by an army of robotic Tex drones. Donut eliminates three of the drones, allowing Carolina to join her friends. The group soon then go into the battle against the army but are overwhelmed. Epsilon successfully manages to shut down the drones, in which Sarge comends him for. Epsilon then tells the group that he and Carolina must complete the next task alone.

After Carolina and Epsilon confront the Director, they decide to relocate the Reds and Blues to a place where they can call home. At their new bases, Sarge orders around Simmons and Grif to approach him on the double.

Personality
Sarge is one of the most ecstatic characters in the series, as most of his actions and ideas involve violence, even when it's illogical. Being a military man, Sarge is very determined, as he still persists to fight the Blues, despite knowing the truth of both sides. Sarge is also very egotistical as he refuses advice from others, while believing that he is right. However, Sarge has the ability to be a loyal and compassionate leader, as he explains all the positive traits of others with a bold speech in Rally Cap and Reckless and has come to rescue his troops and others from mortal danger as seen in Upon Further Review and True Colors.

Relationships
Sarge has developed many relationships with both the Red Team and also the Blue Team.

Delusions
Sarge's battle plans tend to be delusively grandiose and seriously flawed, and he favors overly complicated plans that involve heavy casualties in his own forces, primarily Grif, sometimes making suicidal plans even when there is no actual problem to solve. Even if his plans rely on the strength of numbers, he may see fit to have Grif killed anyway. He displays frequent periods of nostalgia and compares his plans to notable figures from film, such as John Wayne and Indiana Jones. At other times, he devises plans that take ideas from popular culture, most of which are purely fiction anyway, including the Incredible Hulk, Star Wars and Spider-Man.

Sometimes he makes incompetent blunders in his plans that are not immediately evident to him, but the rest of the team will criticize him for. He is also rather paranoid, and often concocts implausible theories to explain simple events. Many of these will revolve around the Blues as their primary antagonists, as a result of Sarge's intense hatred of them.

Recently, a complete dependence on command has been showcased; when a new arrival in the canyon, who the Reds think has joined their team, informs them that command sent her to replace a dead commanding officer, Sarge at first refuses to believe it, but when Grif makes a few clever comments about how command could be wrong about other things which Sarge staunchly believes in, he believes that he is dead and due to his complete trust in red command, allows the other Reds to bury him alive. Sarge also has some deluded memories when he deleted the Blues. He believes Simmons deleted the Blues, Sarge killed Grif and Simmons turning into a Mongoose.

Weak Passwords
Sarge seems to have a habit of making weak passwords. (i.e. Making his password, "password" or the access code, "access code".) This annoys Simmons greatly. The only time he came up with something original was "Codeword: Dirtbag", which was just so Robot# 2 would punch Grif in the face, as well as using "shotgun" to tell Grif when to crash through a wall in Upon Further Review. He also used non weak passwords to disable Lopez's lying mode and to get root access to the intel message to command (though he still made the access code "access code").

Skills and Abilities
Sarge is a skilled soldier, having managed to capture Tex as well as fight off, with the assistance of Caboose, the attacking hordes of soldiers in Battle Creek. His rank suggests that he is a veteran of combat. In addition, during one of the Episode 100 endings, he is explained to have commanded many Red forces over the years after his tour in Blood Gulch. In the episode True Colors, he (along with his fellow Reds and Blues) managed to eliminate several Tex drones, showing some skill in combat and survived unharmed afterwards.

Mechanics and Engineering
Sarge is also skilled in mechanics, though his skill level and success fluctuates from flawed to almost revolutionary genius, having built three separate robots, two of which were assembled simultaneously in a short period of time from color-coded robot kits. He has also created a fully functional weather control device into Lopez, though he never used it as he was unable to find a set of cheap batteries. Although he initially claims that he is unable to repair their jeep, he later manages to fix a derelict near-identical jeep by installing a solar/cold fusion power source with little equipment in the wasteland.

However, his work is not flawless, as when he turned Simmons into a cyborg, the latter claimed that he would occasionally shoot himself in the foot for some unknown reason, which Sarge claims is "user-error". He has also claims to have developed a levitation device. Sarge has a passion for making ridiculously complicated and impressive devices and often uses any technical problem as an excuse to develop them, only to be disappointed when others (usually Grif) point out much simpler solutions. Sarge had also built a new robot body for Lopez before Reconstruction.

Medical Experience
Sarge also appears to act as the Red Team's medical officer, as he has performed surgery on both Simmons and Grif in a relatively short amount of time, and both seem to be healthy. However, Sarge clearly knows very little about bodily functions, as he uses a diagram of a cow as an aid during Grif's surgery, claims that the body can produce any oxygen it needs when under stress without breathing, claiming that "the chest is strictly reserved for digestion" and advises Caboose to lift a heavy weight with his back as opposed to his legs, although, Sarge maybe deliberately attempting to injure Caboose.

Battle Plans
Sarge seems to be capable of planning out attacks quite well as demonstrated when he and Grif outsmarted Washington during Upon Further Review and when he and Lopez captured Tex in Down, but not Out. However, most of the time, he suggests plans that either protect him, kill Grif, or involve the construction of a complicated device in favor of one that actually achieves their goals. However, the aforementioned succeeding plans Sarge had come up with were not very complex nor did they guarantee victory, suggesting dumb luck may have been a factor.

Attention to Detail
Despite formulating unnecessarily complicated plans and wanting to protect solely him, Sarge appears to be attentive to his own team. As seen in Drink Your Ovaltine, Sarge was quickly able to realize his team was in jeopardy after he noticed several differences in behavior than what he normally expects from them: Simmons not responding to a call with the usual Red reply, Donut missing his daily wine and cheese hour, and being informed of the radio being in a state of disrepair, something Lopez would never let happen. He was also able to figure out Doc was with them, though how he did this is unknown.

He was also able to discern who was responsible for this when given only a description of the weather, being able to figure out that rainier weather was actually a hidden message for Mt. Rainier, the largest landmass in Washington. Going on this, he was able to figure out that Wash along with the largest mass associated with him, the Meta, were the ones responsible for "killing" his fellow teammates and holding the sole survivor hostage.

Kills
Proving his skills and rank, Sarge has killed many opponents: he was able to defend himself against several Grunts and, with the help of Grif and Simmons, was able to kill the Meta. He also killed two Wyoming clones and slayed several Tex drones with his shotgun.

Rank
As shown in Chapter 4 of Reconstruction, when the Meta forges the transmission to Red Base, in the right hand corner it says Sarge is a Staff Sergeant.

Trivia

 * According to the PSA, Planning to Fail, Sarge wields a shotgun at most times in order to be prepared for a zombie attack.
 * According to the Season 2 DVD, Sarge's hometown is Moscow, Iowa.
 * Sarge has appeared on more season DVD box arts than any other character to date (5 total).
 * While Sarge prefers the shotgun, he has used a Magnum many times, particularly during Seasons 1 and 2. He also used it to defend Caboose and himself against the Zealots at Battle Creek. He has continued to keep it as his sidearm throughout the rest of the series.
 * According to The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Sergeant Johnson was once Sarge's mentor (or so he claims). It should be noted that the PSA, in question, was a Gamestop advertisement and is not canon.
 * Sarge has developed a fear of heights from jumping out of ships from orbit, possibly hinting that he was once an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST).
 * Sarge was the first of the main characters to appear as a CGI rendered character, during Holiday Plans, Part Three: Chestnuts Roasting....
 * During Episode 15, Sarge meets Church in "the afterlife", even though Church is actually an AI. Either the "Alpha Church idea" didn't exist at the time or Sarge was unconscious, not dead, and Church was in his mind. However, it may be more likely that when Sarge was shot, the bullet didn't kill him (as the previous idea suggested) but put his armor into recovery mode (as seen in Snooze Button). Church was with him because recovery mode is an electronic feature, meaning AI's can appear inside them. Sheila was also in recovery mode which explains why she was there, but once Sarge was saved by CPR (for a bullet to the head) his recovery mode deactivated.
 * Sarge claims to have never hit a girl, despite bashing Tex in the head with his shotgun during Episode 12 (although at the time, due to Tex's voice modifier, Sarge thought she was a male). Though he did attack Tucker, thinking he was Tex, when he was covered in teleporter soot in This One Goes to Eleven.
 * Since the series first premiered, Sarge's name has never been revealed; he has simply been called "Sarge" throughout the series. However, in Tenth Percentile Sarge tells Simmons and Grif to call him by his name: Sarge or S-Dog, suggesting that his real name could actually be "Sarge" or start with an "S".
 * Sarge's screen name is GrifKilla51, as seen in the PSA, You Know What We Mean.
 * When Church first possesses Sarge in Season 1 and attempts to tell Tex that it's him, she replies by saying he is too short to be Church. This is most likely poking fun at the fact that all of the spartan models in the Halo Engine are exactly the same height. It should also be noted that because of this, Sarge appears significantly shorter than everyone else in Luke Mckay's Red vs. Blue drawings. It could also be a reference to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in which Princess Leia says to Luke Skywalker "Aren't you short to be a Stormtrooper?"
 * Sarge, along with Caboose and Grif, is the one of the only characters in the series to appear in every season of Red vs. Blue.