Soldier Comics #7

A casualty list is just names on cold paper—but each one represents a story. When a random name from the rolls belongs to Corporal Bill Sterling, we learn why he earned his place there: leading his squad through a deadly diversion that forces them to navigate booby-trapped passes and mine fields with nothing but nerve and footsteps to guide them. In the chaos of Korea, Sterling's gambit might just save the day—or seal their fates.

Brigadier General Haydon "The Bull" Boatner takes command when six thousand fanatical Communist prisoners on Koje Island threaten open revolt, armed with makeshift weapons and refusing to be separated into smaller, manageable groups. After a tear gas assault and hand-to-hand combat with paratroopers, Boatner stages a calculated show of force—tanks and flame-throwers positioned in full view of the defiant prisoners—to demonstrate the futility of their resistance. This gripping account of military command under pressure shows how a decisive leader breaks an escalating standoff without firing a shot.

When Pvt. Pratt's commanding officer gives his daughter a tour of the company area on visitors' day, the proud father goes on about his men being the finest, most disciplined soldiers in the service—until Pratt himself shows up and thoroughly undermines that boast in a single, mortifying encounter. It's a quick, sharp punch line about the gap between a soldier's reputation and reality, delivered with the irreverent humor that made Soldier Comics a favorite among GIs and civilians alike.

When the executive officer of the U.S. submarine Broadfin finds his vessel crippled and trapped on the ocean floor during a Korean War patrol, facing certain destruction from pursuing enemy depth charges, a mysterious oil slick appears to save them—one that bears the distinctive signature of another submarine, long thought lost in these same waters during World War II. As the Navy investigates this inexplicable intervention, the question becomes whether the Broadfin has stumbled upon something far stranger than luck. Stapes recounts the uncanny events of that fateful night in "Phantom Sub!"

Private Aye is thrilled that his black eye has finally healed, and he's ready to show off his restored face at the service club—only to find the fellows and girls sitting pointedly apart. When asked to suggest a game to bring them together, Private Aye delivers a wisecracks about why that particular group of girls might not be the best icebreaker.

Small Frye never got much respect for his size—not from the recruiters who turned him away, and certainly not from the soldiers who shared his barracks once the Korean War draft finally got him a uniform. But when a patrol mission goes sideways and the men are pinned down by enemy forces, Frye's small frame becomes exactly the asset his unit needs most. Trapped behind enemy lines with a live grenade and nowhere to run, this unlikely soldier discovers that courage doesn't come in a standard size.