As far as many people are concerned, I think, though Pat Mills insists it's not a war story: it's an anti-war story.
I actually think a few of those Battle strips hold up pretty well; Johnny Red and the wonderfully bleak Darkie's Mob in particular. Have you seen Garth Ennis's recent Johnny Red series from Titan?

Not to derail the thread but I can see both sides of the coin. Back in the 90's I was 15-18 so I was a bit older and the only adult comics around, or ones considered adult, at the many shops I went to, were pornographic. But if like I take my kids to Vintage Stock for video games everything is out there but they won't sell mature games to anyone under 18. And a few employees have tactfully pointed out a mature rated game I buying when I am with the kids. They have told me you wouldn't believe how many parents blindly buy stuff for their kids and then come back to the store indignant at the store when they saw the contents of the game they bought. So I can understand a proprietor not wanting that headache. But I can also understand customers frustrated at product being hidden because of others not being aware of the product they purchase. Especially since most MAX covers I've seen don't have anything offensive on the actual cover and are plainly stamped "mature". I guess it's one of those situations of a few ruining it for the majority.

Long, long time fan of the war comics. More often than not, they had some of the best writing in comics and tremendous art. As a kid, I saw those great Joe Kubert covers for Sgt Rock and things like the scarred face of the Unknown Soldier. I devoured those books. Thanks to digital sources, I have pretty much all of the classic DC stories, Sgt Fury and The Nam (plus the lesser Marvel war comics), Blazing Combat, the EC books,and the Lonely War of Willy Schultz. I have hard copies of Vietnam Journal. For my money, Vietnam Journal was more comprehensive than the Nam, getting into different aspects, from the grunts to spec war, marines to Aussies, and things like the CIA run Shining Brass recon teams. It also had a rawer edge to the art that seemed to fit the war. On the flip side, Michael Golden got flack for his characters looking cartoony; but, he was a great storyteller and he got the gear and uniforms right, which is important in a war comic.

Sam Glanzman is on a plane all his own, with me. His regular stuff is great, with the USS Stevens stories really immersing you in the war. Then, he helps produce the seminal Lonely War of Willy Schultz, about a German-American soldier who is wrongfully accused of murder, hightails it into the North African desert and ends up hiding in a German unit. He is forced to face the dilemmas of firing on his countrymen or being found out by the Germans. he also finds himself developing friendships with his German comrades. it was really something unique. if that wasn't enough, Glanzman shared his own story of a youth, caught up in a war, on the other side of the world. I discovered a Sailor's Story while I was finishing up college, on an NROTC scholarship, as I was about to become a commissioned naval officer. Much of what he described from the 1940s was still true at the end of the 1980s. I also looked up the record of the USS Stevens; he saw a lot of action. Aside from the war comics, he did some beautiful baroque work on Charlton's Hercules comic.

Thanks to digital, I have Charly's War and have only just started reading it. It's darn good and one of the 1000 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, from the book of the same name.

Less well known, but the equal to those DC and Charlton war comics, is Wayne Van Zant's Battle Group Peiper, from Caliber. It tells the story of SS Standartenfuhrer (Col) Joachim Peiper, who became infamous during the Battle of the Bulge. Van Zant tells the story well and would have fit right in with Russ heath, Sam Glanzman, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Jerry Grandinetti, Gary taloc and the other DC war comic stalwarts.

The Unknown Soldier was a terrific character, I always liked him, though as you say, it wasn't always a book you could find easily.

These were ones I saw in DC house ads, that made me want to read them:





This is one that is more personal to me:



I discovered this while I was a midshipman, attending the Univ. of Illinois, on a Navy ROTC scholarship. I could better relate to the story, as I had been to sea for my summer training and could compare the modern Navy, with the storied days of the war in the Pacific. Glanzman gave you both a look at everyday life aboard a destroyer and the desperate battles that were fought. This wasn't a fantasy, or someone's interpretation of history; it was one man's life and war through the eyes of a young man.

Meanwhile, this was one of my favorites, from the other side:



I saw it in this version, rather than Sgt. Fury #15. Another was this:



It owed more than a little to Von Ryan's Express, which came out the year before the comic. I'm most partial to the Gary Friederich and Dick Ayers/John Severin run, which has the best combination of stories and art, mixing the wilder tales with more thoughtful ones. Fury suffered from being too much Hollywood and Marvel style, rather than being a serious war book, like the DC titles, especially when Joe Kubert edited them. Kirby has gone on record saying he hated Sgt. Fury, as he had lived through the real thing and it wasn't as fun as Fury made it seem. By contrast, he enjoyed doing more serious tales on The Losers, in Our Fighting Forces.

That 2001 mini might be the most awkward book Marvel ever published. The basic idea is that the United States doesn't go to war anymore and Nick Fury is a relic who has to beg various agencies for any scrap of combat he can get to feed his addiction. The thrust of the story is a former Cold War-era rival deliberating starting a conflict in a banana republic so he and Nick can relive their glory days.

The first issue was published in September 2001.

On the plus side, the series disgusted George Clooney so much that he changed his mind about playing Nick and Avi Arad had to can the movie.