U.S. Air Force Comics #27

Moe Cavanaugh never volunteers for anything—until his roommate Ensign Rink does it for him, landing him a solo pathfinder run to bomb a Japanese carrier in enemy-held waters. With enemy fighters closing in and his damaged F4U struggling to stay airborne, Cavanaugh has to decide whether he'll make it back to the ship alive. A sharp, wry take on what really makes a hero when the choice gets taken out of your hands.

When two young fighter pilots are assigned as wingmen during the Korean War, their partnership is tested by clashing values—one focused on racking up kill counts for personal glory, the other committed to keeping his partner alive. After a confrontation forces a reckoning, they discover what it really means to have someone's back in the sky.

Cpl. Joe Franceski was the backbone of the U.S. Air Force—a Polish-American mechanic who kept fighter planes running at Henderson Field during the Pacific campaign, from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima. While he watched the pilots he idolized fly into combat and heard news of the atomic bomb, Franceski himself remained grounded, unable to qualify for flight training and forced to watch the war from the tarmac. Now a staff sergeant, he faces the hard truth about his place in the fight that defined a generation.

Major Scott Briggs has learned through years of combat that his P-47 Thunderbolt is built to absorb incredible punishment—a lesson he puts to the test when an infantry unit pinned down near Arnheim calls for emergency air support against an advancing tank. When conventional weapons fail to stop the enemy advance, Briggs must decide just how far he's willing to push both his plane and himself to protect the trapped soldiers below. It's a wartime gamble that proves there's more than one way to use a fighter plane as a weapon.

When a B-58 bomber encounters enemy fighters during a polar patrol, the crew's only defense is an electronic system operated by Corporal Benny Dall—a man the narrator suspects of espionage after witnessing shady dealings in town. As communist interceptors close in and demand surrender, Dall must prove whether he's a traitor or something far more unexpected in this tense Cold War thriller from U.S. Air Force Comics #27.