Another of DC's war titles my dad was apparently very fond of, although this'll be the last one we see for a few years. All of the issues I can recall him having were in the stretch from #137 to this issue. Only missed the crew's Stuart tank being destroyed by about three issues. This is actually the last of a five-issue run where it was "BIG G.I. Combat", because they were doing double-sized issues (for only a quarter). Mostly by rerunning stories from earlier issues.
For example, other than the story above, this issue has four other comics, ranging from 5 to 19 pages, that originally ran in the late 1950s or early 1960s (this issue came out in 1971). But at this point, the odds that there were many kids reading G.I. Combat in '71, that had been reading DC's comics in 1960 were low. My dad would be an example, since I don't think he was buying comics at that point.
It gives you an interesting mix of writers and artists. Here's a Bob Haney story about some Navy scuba guys running into a bunch of weird traps. Here's Mort Drucker drawing a Korean War story. Here's an older Haunted Tank story with Joe Kubert art.
You can see more of a formula in some of the earlier stories. The Joe Kubert drawn Haunted Tank has that structure where the central premise is laid out (the ghost of Jeb Stuart makes a prophetic warning about the crew's lives hinging on one shot), and then they keep getting in confrontations with either seem to disprove the prophecy, or fulfill it, while there's an element whose purpose hasn't been shown yet (an old French soldier sitting by the window in a small town).
That's not quite as prevalent by the early 1970s. The story this week's page is from is about the crew being placed under the command of a new general who insists they all be clean-shaven and showered when going into combat. Because it's professional. There's not really the same structure. The Haunted Tank wins a fight, the general scoffs at their appearance, they clean up, they win a bigger fight later where the general ends up looking like, 'he just stepped out of the coal bucket, sir.' It's almost more like a sitcom, with the final panel being the general getting a one-liner about why it's OK if he looks like a bum.
The Haunted Tank had been the lead feature in the book since at least issue 90, and held that position until pretty much the book ended. Although there's a brief stretch in the 260s where it looks like DC tried to pivot to a trio called "The Mercenaries" as the lead. There was a crew shift, as one guy died and was replaced by a black American G.I. who I think they met previously when he worked at an ammo depot (issue 141, which I have.) Of course, then you have the awkward bit where you've got a black man fighting in a tank supposedly blessed by the ghost of a Confederate general, but Jeb was the only one who could see or hear his namesake, so maybe it's just a matter of everyone else thinking their boss is a bit daffy.
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