especially when I looked it up and deleted my post

Somewhat ironic considering your signature.

If you fail a second time, I think it's your leadership you'll have to blame because it's quite a good starting team you got there.

I think everyone will agree that Ivan is the best merc you can hire on day one and he'll still be with you during the final showdown.

Fidel is one of the best explosive expert in the game with his high explosive and marksmanship skills, personally I hired him halfway in the game but if you can afford him on day 1, do so.

Have Beth train her medical skill for a bunch of days and she'll cover all your needs for a doctor and a snitch in your team.

Ice is quite a good sharpshooter early in the game.

Speck and Sparky are the best and cheapest home mechanic you can get. Sparky start off slightly worse than Speck, however Speck's mechanic and dexterity skills will never improve, while Sparky's mechanical skills will improve over the course of the game, and soon enough she'll be better at repairing than Speck. She's also cheaper than Speck.

Elio's usefulness depends what you intend to do with him. Sure he can't shoot and like all level 1-3 mercs, he'll walk on every mines and traps he stumbles on (the trick is to quick save when you conquer a sector in case something like that happens while you're looting it), but he's good at opening crates, and like all native guides, he's dirt cheap, he got some advices on the sectors you'll fight on and you can use him to lug around all the stuff you find (and there's quite a lot of stuff to bring back home in the 4 first sectors). If you get rid of him, you'll be offered better guides later on in the game (even if they are all average compared to mercenaries.)

It's also good that you didn't fill all the slots in your team on the first day. In 3 or 4 days, better mercs will accept to work for you and it's better to hire less early in the game than uselessly increasing your turnover rate when the good mercs become available.

-Edit-
And now I'm wishing there were mods/remakes/addons for that game. I'd love to have an excuse to replay it every time I feel like it.