Marine War Heroes #11

When F4U pilot Capt. Dan Cardigan is shot down behind enemy lines, his old boot camp buddy Lt. Alex Hovik leads a rescue mission to keep him from the Japanese—only to find the "creampuff" flyer might be tougher than his flyboy reputation suggests. Trapped in a jungle foxhole with a platoon of hardened marines, Cardigan has to prove himself in close-quarters combat while the unit holds out for a chance at escape. With enemy forces closing in and his air group searching for him overhead, this flyboy gets a crash course in ground warfare.

During the Korean War, tough drill instructor Sgt. Mike Agronski faces a crisis when combat freezes him with fear—leaving his men to fend for themselves in a firefight. Busted down to private for his failure, Agronski endures the scorn of the very soldiers he once trained, until a desperate rescue mission forces him to confront what he's become and prove he still has what it takes to be a Marine.

A Marine anti-aircraft missile battalion arrives in Vietnam in spring 1965 and quickly discovers the Viet Cong operate with cunning tactics—tunneling under perimeters, staging diversions, and using the landscape itself as cover. As young Marines contend with an enemy that strikes from everywhere and nowhere, they adapt their tactics and learn what it takes to hold their ground in this unfamiliar kind of warfare. "First Contact" captures the tense cat-and-mouse encounters that test these soldiers and forge their resolve in the Mekong Delta.

During the Korean War, U.S. Marines adapted to combat in unexpected ways—deploying helicopters for rescue and supply missions that saved countless lives, testing body armor that proved its worth under fire, and adopting thermal boots that kept troops warm through brutal sub-zero battles at Chosin Reservoir. This account chronicles three innovations that transformed survival rates and redefined how America's fighting forces would operate in modern warfare.