G.I. Joe #40

When Pvt. Joe Burch reunites with an old friend and discovers a battered little plaster duck, it triggers a powerful memory of the Korean War—and a promise made by a dying soldier named Pvt. Andy Dugan that has haunted him ever since. Through a series of flashbacks, we see how Dugan's treasured keepsake became the unlikely source of division among his unit, and how one act of redemption in the heat of combat set events in motion that will finally reach their conclusion. This is a story about how the smallest objects can carry the weight of our deepest commitments.

Pvt. Dopey crashes what he thinks is Sgt. McTuff's romantic moment with a mysterious woman, only to end up playing photographer for the pair. When the sergeant finally shows off the snapshots to the troops, the punchline lands harder than expected—and McTuff's patience wears thin fast.

Sgt. Mulvaney narrates the rise—and rapid fall—of Pvt. Alvin Otis after the scrappy soldier earns his corporal stripes and begins modeling himself after Napoleon. When Mulvaney delegates a camp setup detail to the newly promoted Otis, the eager corporal's confidence far outpaces his ability to read blueprints, and what should have been a simple task spirals into disaster. Watch as ambition and inexperience collide in this tale of how one soldier's big break might be about to break the whole platoon.

Pvt. Bragg has been all talk about his legendary cooking skills, boasting that his "Chicken a la Bragg" will blow his fellow soldiers away—but when the unit finally gets a 48-hour break and a real chicken to cook, Bragg's confidence crumbles because he's never actually cooked anything in his life. Racing against time and his own reputation, Bragg scrambles to pull off the meal of a lifetime before his hungry, expectant outfit discovers the truth.

Corporal Reilly's taste for quick money schemes sends him straight into the crosshairs of his own conscience—literally, in the form of a mysterious agent assigned to keep him honest in Korea. When the smooth-talking soldier tries to flip a run-down night club for a fast profit, his conscience makes sure the deal goes sideways in ways Reilly never saw coming, leaving him wrestling with the uncomfortable truth that honesty might actually pay better than a con.