Fightin' Marines #14

When two surviving Marines of a decimated fire team join forces with a South Korean guerrilla fighter named Wong Sing, they race against time toward a strategic hydroelectric dam on the Yalu—convinced that a fanatical Chinese Communist rear guard is waiting to unleash a catastrophic flood that would drown their advancing battalion. Led by Sergeant Mike O'Leary, the trio fights through sniper nests and machine-gun positions to reach the dam's interior, where they discover the enemy's explosive trap is far more dangerous and heavily defended than anyone expected. Penned by the Fightin' Marines creative team in this hard-hitting 1955 war story, the action pushes relentlessly forward as the odds stack against them in the power plant below.

In "Foxhole Escapade," Biff Barnes receives a letter during a tense frontline moment, only to set it aside while clearing out North Korean machine gun nests. When he finally reads it, the news hits hard: he’s been drafted.

Marine Private "Bud" Jackson arrives at the Korean front lines as a hot-shot replacement, boasting he'll be the first to earn a Purple Heart—but his cocky attitude earns him nothing but kitchen duty after a self-inflicted knife wound. When enemy forces infiltrate the lines, Jackson seizes his chance to prove himself, turning the field kitchen into an improvised weapon to hold off the assault. Despite his unexpected heroics against overwhelming odds, Jackson finds himself frustrated by the outcome of the skirmish.

Canteen Kate's solution to the sweltering heat in Japan seems simple enough—borrow Major Herringbone's air conditioning unit while he's away—but getting past the sentries and hauling the massive machine turns into a comedy of close calls and quick thinking. When Kate and her reluctant accomplice finally fire up their prize in the canteen, they discover their prize is something far different than advertised.

Two Marines hide in a deep freeze to escape detection, but their cold refuge backfires spectacularly when a superior officer discovers what they've done—and Private Andy has an even bigger problem on his mind: his ex-fiancée Mary Lou just married someone else. This 1955 humor story from Fightin' Marines delivers the kind of comedic timing that made these wartime yarns so much fun.

Leatherneck Jack and his buddy Monte Wilson are stuck on kitchen patrol in Korea—until they stumble upon a group of surrendering enemy soldiers and earn themselves a commendation and a transfer to the machine-gun team they've been itching for. When one of them is captured during a supply-road assignment, Jack must scheme and improvise to turn the tables on his captors and complete the mission. It's a tale of how a reluctant leatherneck discovers he's got more grit than he bargained for when his friend needs him most.