Exciting War #8

Sergeant Joe Muldoon, a gruff infantry man who scorns paratroopers, finds his prejudices tested when his platoon and a unit of jump troops are forced to ditch their damaged plane over enemy territory during the Korean War. Stranded behind Red lines and miles from safety, Muldoon and paratrooper Sergeant Bane must lead their combined forces through dangerous terrain to reach American lines. The two sergeants discover that survival in war demands respect for all soldiers, regardless of branch.

Topkick Bill Miller leads a small outpost on a Korean ridge to prevent enemy forces from outflanking his platoon's hard-won position, armed only with a machine gun and two soldiers named Miles and Caine. When waves of Red attacks threaten to overwhelm them, Miller devises a desperate signal that brings allied firepower down on the enemy—but holding the line will demand everything his men have left to give. A taut Korean War story about the difference between glory and the grueling work of staying alive.

Sergeant Mike Andrews arrives aboard a Navy destroyer with his Army unit, rescued from a desperate situation in Korea, and quickly clashes with the ship's crew over the hardships of infantry versus naval service. When enemy aircraft attack the task force, Andrews discovers that Chief Bos'n's Mate Watson—the sailor he'd antagonized—is a decorated war hero who showed restraint rather than fight back. As Watson is gravely wounded in the action, Andrews volunteers to donate blood to save his life, leading both men to be transferred to a carrier for emergency surgery.

During the brutal retreat from the Somme in 1916, Major Douglas James Harper leads the remnants of his battalion to safety as German forces close in—but a wounded soldier, Private Andrew Burke, vanishes without a trace while the Major's back is turned. When Harper later reports the disappearance as a desertion, Burke's own company commander insists the man died in the trenches, begging not to be abandoned. The two accounts cannot both be true, and the Major is left to grapple with an impossible mystery that defies explanation.

Driven into the sea by enemy forces, Sergeant Randolph and his marine squad find themselves stranded on the Korean coast—but the Leathernecks have no intention of staying down. When an unexpected opportunity arises to strike back at a hidden enemy ammunition dump, Randolph seizes the chance to prove that Marines are as deadly from the water as they are on land.