Random Back Issues #19 - Our Fighting Forces #124

That plane is still safer than driving in Chicago would be.

Going real old school today, all the way into my dad's comics. There's two stories, the first involving the Losers in their second appearance. This was quartet of soldiers - Capt. Storm a PT boat captain, Johnny Cloud a fighter ace, Gunner and Sarge a couple of Marines - who felt like they were all "losers" because all the men under their respective commands kept dying, while they kept surviving (although there's an issue later on that shows Gunner and Sarge did pretty well in the Pacific Theater).

For this mission, they're sent to retrieve a king from a Nazi-held castle before his people give in to protect him. If it's that important you think they would send more than 4 guys, but sure. The tiny boat they use to cross the Channel sinks almost as soon as they reach the coast. That biplane barely gets off the ground. They run into a Nazi patrol almost instantly and have to shoot it out.

The find the king, he's just a kid, they're making their escape, and to try and slow down pursuit, they blow up this statue of Hitler that's already been erected in the plaza, and then. . .  well, I don't remember. The thing is, they used to include these two-page spreads about some aspect of military technology, like tanks, or U-boats or whatever, and there was one of those in this comic, on the other side of the last two pages of the story. I pulled them out and collected them at one point, but I have no idea where they went. Whoops.

The second story "Parable" is about a British soldier named Shelley, who served in Afghanistan, and became quite popular with the local chiefs because of his skills as a tightrope walker, owing to a story about the dead having to cross to the afterlife on the edge of a sword. Too many sins, you fall. Shelley never falls, so Shelley must be the holiest dude around.

After leaving the service, Shelley went to live with in one of the villages, and when he died, his final words were a quote from Shakespeare, in the language of the Duranis. Honoring both parts without distancing himself from either. It's an interesting story, although I have to wonder if things were ever that peaceful for the British in Afghanistan.

{5th longbox, 39th comic. Our Fighting Forces #124, "Losers Take All" by Joe Kubert (writer), Ross Andru (penciler) and Mike Esposito (inker), "Parable" by Jerry DeFucio (writer), John Severin (artist)}