Soldiers of Fortune #11

A young draftee named Billy arrives at the Korean front, terrified and unprepared despite his training—but the brutal reality of combat forces him to transform from an idealistic kid who dreamed of studying medicine into a soldier capable of taking a life. As he experiences his first firefight, artillery barrage, and the weight of killing an enemy soldier in his own foxhole, Billy begins to understand what it truly means to be a soldier and to fight for his country.

When war erupts with Spain in 1898, Commodore George Dewey receives orders to eliminate the Spanish fleet in the Philippines—no matter the cost. Racing toward Luzon despite warnings of enemy torpedoes, Dewey commands his ships into battle against the anchored Spanish warships near Cavite fortress. This historical account captures the decisive naval engagement that would reshape American power in the Pacific.

An Army truck driver stuck behind the lines longs to prove himself a hero to his admiring kid brother, but when a desperate call comes for plasma to save wounded soldiers at the front, Al volunteers for a dangerous run that will test far more than his driving skills. What begins as a chance at glory becomes something far more profound when lives—including his own—hang in the balance.

During the American Revolution, Commodore John Paul Jones commands the Bon Homme Richard and leads a daring attack on a British merchant fleet protected by the heavily armed warship Serapis off the coast of England in 1778. When the British man-o'-war's superior firepower threatens to sink his vessel, Jones refuses to surrender and rallies his crew for a desperate close-quarters battle. The two ships clash in a brutal point-blank engagement that will test every ounce of American resolve.

Nick Bosarkis, a newcomer to an American infantry outfit in Korea who spent years growing up in Turkey and fighting with the Turkish Battalion, arrives full of enthusiasm—much to the frustration of his seasoned squad mates. When the unit learns of an impending enemy division-strength attack, Bosarkis is sent on a routine scouting mission to locate enemy mines along a key road, but his encounter with enemy forces sets off a chain of events far bigger than anyone anticipated. What starts as a simple reconnaissance patrol becomes a test of whether the talkative newcomer can follow orders—and whether his combat experience will be enough to turn the tide.

Art Gates captures the raw nerve of combat on Bloody Ridge, where a cocky young replacement named Don Traub transforms from a loudmouth replacement into something altogether different when enemy fire pins down his unit during a brutal assault. Trapped in a shell hole with Lieutenant Gates, Traub's bravado takes a lethal turn as he charges toward the ridge itself, convinced that the only safety lies at the top—and what follows is a display of fighting spirit that Gates has never witnessed before or since. When enemy reinforcements close in on the ridgetop, Traub issues an invitation that speaks volumes about a man laughing in the face of death.