True Comics #75

Discover how the U.S. State Department has served American interests across the globe since its founding in 1789, from protecting citizens abroad to shaping the course of nations. This story traces the evolution of the Foreign Service through the careers of dedicated officers like Mr. Sterling, whose work ranges from emergency rescues to delicate wartime diplomacy, and highlights remarkable historical achievements such as Ambassador Charles Adams' crucial role during the Civil War and U.S. Consul Walter Orebaugh's brave service in occupied France during World War II. Through these compelling examples, see how courage, integrity, and intelligence have made the State Department the eyes, ears, and heart of American foreign policy.

When FBI Special Agent Steve Saunders investigates a failed bank robbery in a small Kansas town, a chance discovery reveals the culprit isn't a local at all—he's John Benson, a dangerous jail-breaker posing as a family man. What begins as routine questioning becomes a desperate manhunt when Benson shoots Saunders' partner and flees, launching a seven-week dragnet across the continent as the FBI tightens the noose around the fleeing desperado.

Tommy Dorsey rose from a Pennsylvania mining town where his father taught him music, driven by a dream to give his sons a better life than coal mining. Alongside his brother, Tommy built a musical career through years of hard work in top bands, eventually forming his own orchestra and becoming known for his musicianship and quick wit on the radio. His journey from street vendor to bandleader, master of ceremonies, and entertainment personality shows how talent and determination turned a miner's son into one of the country's most popular musical figures.

Floyd Gibbons was a reporter hungry for the biggest story, and in 1917 he got it—by boarding the Cunard liner Laconia bound for the European battlefront. When a German U-boat's torpedo struck the ship mid-voyage, Gibbons found himself in a lifeboat facing hours of uncertainty at sea, witnessing the tension between survival and the enemy submarine that had just sunk his vessel. This is his firsthand account of the disaster that became one of journalism's most gripping war dispatches.