ps Continuing the subject of the comics

In 1968, following the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, overt racist attacks against African-American soldiers became more common, with the base in Da Nang openly flying the Confederate Flag for 3 days before orders to take it down, as well as the flag being flown from and painted on vehicles and barracks walls. By contrast, Black power posters and speeches by civil rights leaders were banned by some commanders. There were 3 recorded incidents of cross burnings. White troops paraded in KKK robes, at the Cam Ranh Bay base, following the murder. Some African-American soldiers began refusing to go on combat patrols and there were other large scale protests, resulting in incarceration. There was unrest at Long bin Jail, which was disproportionately used to incarcerate Black soldiers for minor infractions or insubordination than white. White soldiers were more likely to be promoted.

In the combat zones, where everyone's life depended on each other, incident were far fewer and groups like the 101st Airborne were noted for close friendships between white and black soldiers. The problems often seemed to occur more often in larger garrison bases, like Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay and in Saigon.

In terms of military discipline. African-American soldiers were subjected to 34% of court martials, 25% of nonjudicial punishments and made up 58% of the population of long Bin Jail. They received twice as many punitive discharges which had negative effects on access to GI benefits and employment in civilian life as employers could see an interviewees discharge. They became known as "bad papers, often given for minor offenses that white soldiers were forgiven and received Honorable Discharges. This led to hearings in 1974, and many states, including Illinois, enacted laws to prevent discrimination against veterans on the basis of such discharges and many of them were overturned under later review. Today, prospective employers cannot see discharge papers, but can only ask if an interviewee is currently serving or has been discharged, or serving in the reserves.

African-American soldiers were twice as likely to be suffering from PTSD.

Now, those are the overall statistics. Some garrisons had more issues than others and more rear echelon than frontline. Some services had more issues than others. A lot came down to the commanding officer. Where they discriminated, so did their officers and non-coms. Where they set high standards, they were carried out.

So, you can see how there would be an audience for what Julian Bond was saying and advocating and there was contemporary reporting on those subjects, in magazines like Time and Newsweek, if not as much on the 6 O'Clock News. As the war wound down and veterans began to slowly open up about issues, the subjects became more openly discussed, leading to some reforms in the military and in government and legal protections for veterans, although some issues persisted. The US Navy continued to have racial issues through the 70s and, during my time, from 1988-92, there were still isolated incidents or racially motivated harassment, usually anonymously and still problems with representation and equal opportunity, matching similar issues in the civilian world. I had a few long discussions with an African-American petty officer, on a ship on which I served temporarily, about a few issues, discussing statements or incident that he felt were racially motivated or unfair. For the most part, he was airing his grievance with what he perceived and we talked through whether he might be overly-sensitive or over-reacting or what was a legitimate concern and should be brought up the chain of command. In most cases they were more philosophical in nature rather than outright concerns...more, "Do you think this was a little racist?" kind of thing or just expressing a disagreement with the way something was said, vs the actual content.

I did once have to intercede with the Command Duty Officer, on behalf of one of my personnel, who was denied permission to leave the ship, on liberty, by the Officer of the Deck, for his haircut not being within regulations. As Duty Supply Officer, the subject was brought to me, by the sailor and his friends within the department. The Barbering services fall under the Ship's Service Division, which is part of the Supply department. As such, I was very familiar with Navy hair regulations, which makes allowances for ethnic differences in hair texture. the sailor in question was within the regulation of no more than 4 inches in length, two inches in bulk, off the ears and above the collar, in a neat appearance, without interfering with the proper wearing of headgear. He was within the guidelines and I went so far as to demonstrate, with a ruler, to the Command Duty Officer, who then overturned the OOD's prohibition. The sailor in question had a "fade" hairstyle, which was popular, at the time, but was within military regulations. The white OOD seemed to have a racially motivated problem with it. If I had more evidence of racial bias, I would have pursued disciplinary action; but, he was covered by claiming he was carrying out the duties of OOD, by enforcing uniform regulations. Since I had no other evidence of similar problems, I couldn't really press the case. There were no other incidents with that OOD (a petty officer) after the CDO reversed the decision. I think he knew he had overstepped and better watch himself.

That is a minor example; but, it illustrates that real equality within the military was a continuing battle, after 1948....even after 1978 and 1988.

This will be a lighter entry. One of the cornerstones of survival in the military is having a good sense of humor. You deal with too much absurdity to take things too seriously, except when lives are on the line and you also tend to use gallows humor to get you through the bad times. Vietnam was no exception to this One of the most beloved comics of the period, in country, was a strip in Stars & Stripes, called Nguyen Charlie.



The strip was the brainchild of Filipino-American cartoonist Francisco Flores Trinidad Jr, better known as Corky Trinidad, to friends and readers. he came from a family of journalists, with a tv broadcaster father and a columnist mother. he, himself, became an editorial cartoonist for the Philippines Herald, after graduating college, in 1969. he was one of many forced to flee from the island nation, under the repressive Ferdinand Marcos regime. he came to the US and settled in Hawaii, where his work was published by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and he became the first Asian cartoonist to be syndicated nationally and internationally. He created Nguyen Charlie in 1966 and it ran in Stars & Stripes, until 1974.

The strip is not pro-war or even anti-war, except that it pokes fun at the absurdities of the situation, the often hollow politics and mostly just plays it up for laughs, without getting especially political. He lampoons both the VC, or as he calls them, the Nget Cong, and the US forces, often through the figure of a large, lumbering US Army sergeant.

One facet is the satire of the teachings of Mao and the Communist doctrine, with the realities of fighting a jungle war....

_________

_________

The American Fighting Man gets his comeuppance, too...

_________

_________

And, everybody loves Bob Hope.....



No one dies in Nguyen Charlie, not ideologies are driven into the ground, no propaganda is perpetuated; it's just good old fashioned satire and anti-authoritarian stuff, a favorite of soldiers everywhere. In many ways, Corky Trinidad was the Bill Mauldin of the Vietnam War and Nguyen Charlie was his Willie & Joe. Even some of the targets of his satire loved them, for their truth. This strip, taken from a sequence involving the Sarge and his men travelling via a swift boat, came from a Patrol Craft member site....



...accompanied, by this photo.......



and this pairing....





Corky Trinidad continued to attack Marcos, from Hawaii and lampooned Hawaiian politicians and the exile of Marcos, to Hawaii, with the aid of the US government. He also taught cartooning at the Univ of Hawaii and also produced the strips Aloha Eden and Zeus. He won numerous awards and was well loved, by friend and reader. He died in 2009, at the age of 69, from pancreatic cancer. Nguyen Charlie lives on as one of the more pleasant memories of those who served in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, our other entry isn't exactly comical; but, it also isn't deadly serious and filled with propaganda. It is a little novelty of the era, from Will Eisner.

Eisner found himself drafted into the Army, sometime soon after Pearl Harbor. The Army, in a rare instance of sanity, actually used his talents as a cartoonist. he worked on a magazine called Army Motors, with a strip called Joe Dope....


(I don't think Eisner intended this as a racial caricature, but danged if the coloring doesn't give it that effect)

After the war, Eisner, through his company, American Visuals Corporation, began producing an educational comic magazine, for the US Army, on the subject of preventative maintenance, called PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly. the company began the magazine in 1951 and continued it through the early 70s. They also produced some side material, covering specific topics of preventative maintenance, including probably the most widely circulated Vietnam-specific comic of the period, The M-16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventative Maintenance, which was published in 1969.


(Why does the "Sarge" have corporal stripes? Will had been a warrant officer; he should have known)

The manual is exactly what it says in the title, a guide to the care and upkeep of the M-16A1 Rifle, the standard issue weapon for the US Armed Forces, since 1969 (first introduced in 1964 and entered service in Vietnam, in 1965. The weapon was high tech and a completely new concept in firearms, for the military. In WW2, the Germans pioneered the development of what is known as an assault rifle, the STG-44 "Sturmgewehr", used extensively on the Eastern front. It was an automatic weapon, with a detachable box magazine, which sacrificed some accuracy and stopping power, for a greater rate of fire and a lighter weapon. The weapon influenced the development of the Soviet Kalashnikov family of weapons (the AK-47 and its later descendants) and the future AR-15, developed by Eugene Stoner, for Colt. After testing, the AR-15 was given the military designation M-16, with the A1 being a modified version (later replaced by the A2, with further improvements and changes, like the elimination of auto-fire for a 3-round burst mode). Two things became iconic for the US Military, in Vietnam: The UH1H Huey helicopter and the M-16 Rifle.

As with PS and other educational comics, Eisner and his team use cartoons to gain the attention of GIs, then give them the importance of caring for their equipment, so it won't fail them when the "defecation hits the oscillator," (as we used to say, in the Navy).

The M-16 was a somewhat delicate piece of gear, compared to the more robust M-14 it replaced. It was also 4 pounds lighter, when loaded, which made a difference when slogging through jungles and rice paddies. It's revolutionary gas mechanism required a bit of care and cleaning to keep the weapon functioning and it was less forgiving if that maintenance wasn't performed. Adding to the issue was a deficit of cleaning kits issued with the weapon, at the early stages. There was also a problem with the Army's procurement of a different gas agent for the weapon, than specified by the manufacturer. By 1969, many of these issues had been sorted out (as well as ammo problems) and the weapon performed well; but, it still needed some TLC. The lovely instructor, inside the manual, showed you how...



It featured a guid to field-stripping the weapon.....



...as well as the proper procedure to clear a jam. I learned to do this during a week's training at Camp Pendleton, with the M-16A2. We didn't get the comic book manual, though. The weapon breaks down into component parts rather easily; though the earlier A1 model had some more difficult elements that were improved in the A2. The barrel grips of the A1 were triangular in combined shape, with a definite right and left component. If you flip them around, they would not seat around the barrel, which could be an issue if you had to disassemble and reassemble the weapon, in the dark, in a combat situation. The A2 model replaced them with a tubular barrel grip set, which had interchangeable pieces, so you could insert either half on any side of the barrel.

Eisner understood that a little "cheesecake" was an excellent way to get a GI's attention and direct it to an important point....



There was a carbine version of the weapon, dubbed the XM177, aka the Colt Commando or CAR-15. It had a shorter barrel and a sliding buttstock, to make it compact and easy to carry. It was often issued to non-coms and support units and was favored by Special Forces units for special operations missions. It led to the laM-16, currently in service around the globe. The manual covers it, too.

I have seen multiple sources selling copies online, on eBay and other sites and a hardcover reprint was offered on Amazon. The work is in the public domain and can be read, for free (legally) on the Internet Archive and downloaded as a pdf. if nothing else, it serves as a fine example of Eisner's work, in an educational setting. There are actually many collectors of the PS magazine issues.

So remember, keep your weapon clean and dry and it will not fail you (loading it would be a good idea, too).

Next up, a look at Marvel's non-superhero story set in, in the war, featuring Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos.

Except Fury is a colonel, now, and the Howlers are mostly civilians, except Gabe and Dum-Dum, and it involves SHIELD......

Anyway, Nick Fury in Vietnam, next time.

(John Wayne was a @#$$%, by comparison!)

We now start our look at how Marvel and DC handled Vietnam, outside of their superhero books. That is to say, they mostly didn't. Marvel had a total of 4 war books, between 1963 and 1981: Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos, Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders, Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen and War is Hell. The later started as a reprint book, featuring 1950s Atlas war titles, when they had a bunch of them. It finished up, starting with the 9th issue, as a war-horror book, ala DC's successful Weird War. Combat Kelly was a 1950s character, brought back to rip-off The Dirty Dozen and Captain Savage was set during WW2, just like Fury (as was Combat Kelly and most stories in War is Hell).

Sgt Fury used the King Sized Annuals and Specials for special stories, with the first one centering on the Howlers being sent on a mission in Korea and Fury getting his battlefield commission.  The second featured their mission on D-day.  Now, the third one was going to Vietnam, at a time when Fury was head of SHIELD.



If the cover didn't say the issue takes place in Vietnam, you'd never know it. The Howlers are all decked out in WW2 gear, except Fury's Soviet Ppsh-41 submachine gun, which is still WW2 vintage (and Chinese versions did appear in the hands of the NVA and VC).

The issue starts out with Fury, shirtless, running through the jungle (not with his M-16), while the VC prepare an ambush. Fury can smell an ambush and rolls on the ground and wipes out his attackers, despite then hiding in spider holes. One tries to kill him with a jungle knife and Fury defeats him and the rest run away from the white demon. It is at this point that we flashback to how Fury ended up in Vietnam. He is on the Helicarrier, awaiting the arrival of a VIP. The P turns out to be very VI......



President Lyndon Baines Johnson!

He tells Fury that their intel indicates that the North Vietnamese have developed a Hydrogen Bomb (when China hadn't...EDIT-yes they had, my mistake!) and he needs Fury to go in and destroy it, but not as official military personnel or even SHIELD. They cannot have US troops invading North Vietnam and they will need to be trained commandos, in civilian peasant garb. Rather than use experienced and in-country Special Forces, he asks for a bunch of ex-Rangers, 20 years removed from their last war (not counting the Korean mission).

Fury puts out a call to the Howlers, starting with Hollywood tv star, Dino Minelli. Even Dino recognizes he is long in the tooth; but, he is tired of Frank and Sammy and Joey Bishop has been getting on his nerves lately. He's in!



Izzy Cohen is being driven nuts by his brood of brats, so he is a quick "in." Lufthansa pilot Eric Koenig is picked up by a pair of SHIELD agents, at Dulles Airport. Pinky Pinkerton is tired of running a London Key Club and hanging out with attractive women in demeaning costumes (the rumors must be true!), so he is in, as is a a certain junior Southern Congressman, who gets the call while fleecing his fellow Congressmen at poker....



Gabe and Dum-Dum are active SHIELD agents (so was Koenig, according to later continuity) and they have no say. The team is assembled and gets a pep talk from LBJ (who may or may not have held up a dog by its ears, on the monitor) and then they learn that General "Happy" Sam Sawyer is their boss, for the mission. He gives them the briefing. They well be air dropped into Haiphong Harbor, then will have one hour to destroy the bomb project and get out. Koenig will pull them out in an old amphibian plane, but he is to return to Saigon after one hour, if the team is missing. The group starts joking around and Sam tells them to shut up and delivers the news that they cannot be identified as Americans and will be issued cyanide pills, which they will take, if captured.

Um, the fact that they are (nearly) all Caucasian would be proof enough of a US incursion into North Vietnam.

They fly inconspicuously in a special SHIELD jet, complete with markings, to a secret airbase in Saigon, the most populated city in Vietnam. the team is taken to a small general store, in Saigon, where they meet their Special Forces liason, Sgt Bull McGivney, their old rival from the 2nd Attack Squad, in the Rangers. He takes them to a Special Forces camp, where they are outfitted as Vietnamese peasants, despite being half a foot or more taller and a hell of a lot whiter (except Gabe). The camp is attacked by the VC and the Howlers help repel the attack....



The Howlers flank the attackers and help rout them and they flee.

McGivney takes them to the amphibian plane, where Eric flies them to Haiphong and the drop into the harbor, for a frogman insertion. A patrol boat spots the plane and the Howlers dive, while Eric takes off (they did have radar, you know). They swim 50 yards, to the dock (well, no wonder the plane was spotted) and then club some sentries. They then don "make-up grease" to blend in, as they move through the streets.

They locate the secret complex, which is surrounded by guards and artillery and Gabe plays the North Vietnamese anthem on his trumpet and that somehow gets them past the gate guards, until one young Commie realizes no one has checked their papers and demands them to halt. the Howlers unveil their weapons (M-3 Grease Guns) and unload.

So much for a quiet infiltration.

They carry on a running firefight, with 30 round magazines in submachine guns and a base filled with armed soldiers. They locate the bomb and Izzy rigs demolition charges.



They make it to the rendezvous and fly out. McGivney's Green Beret team goes to meet them at an arranged location, but it is swarming with VC and they end up in a firefight. McGivney is captured and Fury goes after him, leading us to the scenes at the beginning of the book. Fury is captured and the pair are tied to posts and a firing squad is assembled, instead of taking them for interrogation. The Howlers and the Green Berets turn up before the command to fire and unload of the enemy....



Bull and Nick are freed and they drive off the VC and head for Saigon, to pick up their SHIELD plane. They fly back to the Helicarrier and report in to Happy Sam, who gives them an earful, then tells them they done good. After booze and who knows what else, the civilians head home and the SHIELD agents go looking for Hydra, or AIM, or THEM, or the Rotarians, or whoever is causing a commotion.

Thoughts: This could have just as easily been a mission into Norway, to destroy German heavy water production. Gary Friedrich isn't about to touch the reality and politics of the war, any more than the regular series actually addressed the reality of WW2. Sgt Fury is a fantasy of war, done in the style of the superhero titles, and a lot of plots taken from 60s war movies (the action adventure kind, not Paths of Glory or similar). It's the kind of thing Lewis Gilbert might have directed, with Gregory Peck or Richard Burton.

The idea that a bunch of Americans could enter Haiphong, disguised as Vietnamese, is more ridiculous than Sean Connery's "Japanese" make-up in You Only Live Twice and makes John Wayne look like an authentic Mongol. What's more, if they only had to swim 50 yards to the dock, then Eric practically landed on a pier. Nice quiet commando insertion.

This has F-all to due with the war in Vietnam and makes the superhero stories look almost like Go Tell The Spartans or The Boys in Company C.

Marvel did not repeat this, especially since it was published in June 1967, and in about 7 months, the US Army would be embroiled in the Tet Offensive and US campuses would explode in violence and protest. After this, Vietnam is little more than background, for characters like The Punisher. Beyond that, Marvel would not touch the actual Vietnam War, until 1985. We will return to them, at that time.

Next up, we look at DC's somewhat longer attempt at a Vietnam War feature and see if they can do better, considering they had the more critically acclaimed war comics.

Hint: don't get your hopes up!

Marvel treated Vietnam like US vs The Commies, in Stan's usual fashion, and in keeping with the tradition of their more gung ho 50s war comics. Sgt Fury was always a fantasy of war, as a mostly bloodless, high adventure yarn, like a movie, written by some 4F writer and directed by someone who was more interested in excitement.

DC, historically, had treated its war books with a bit more care, crafting some thoughtful tales, especially by the 1960s. However, they had mostly stuck with the safe world of WW2, where the Good Guys and the Bad Guys are well defined. Now, DC decided to take a crack at Vietnam, though, true to form, there had to be a thematic gimmick behind things.

Our Fighting Forces was one of the original DC war comics, along with Our Army at War (Star Spangled War started out as Star Spangled Comics and transitioned to war comics, with issue #131, but only kept the numbering for 3 issues, before dropping the 13, at the beginning,,,,,and GI Combat had been a Quality Comics title). Originally, it was an anthology title, with various war stories. Starting with issue #45, it was home to Gunner and Sarge, a feature about a pair of Marines, in the Pacific, along with their military dog, Pooch. That run lasted until issue #94, when they were sent to Australia, for some R&R. They were replaced by a rather short-lived feature, The Fighting Devil-Dog, featuring Sgt Frank Rock's brother, Larry, as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps. The feature centered around the fact that Lt Larry Rock had survived an attack on Correigador and had escaped the Philippines, along with a buddy, Lennie (who is drawn rather like Lee Marvin, who was an actual Marine) and he is suffering PTSD from that attack, and freezes up during a landing, but Lennie brings him out and he fights bravely. Robert Kanigher was writing it, just like he did brother Frank's book and Irv Novick handled the art (while Russ Heath did the covers). If I had to guess why it only lasted 4 issues, I would say that readers didn't warm up to a soldier with PTSD, foreshadowing things to come, after Vietnam. Irv Novick's art is fine and he remains for the next feature, which is our topic of discussion : The Hunter.



Starting in issue #99, Kanigher gives us a new feature, The Hunter, or Captain Hunter. The feature is set squarely in the contemporary Vietnam War, with Captain Phil Hunter, as a Green Beret (and Novick could not draw a military beret to save his life, unlike Joe Kubert), whose twin brother, Major Nick Hunter, USAF, has been shot down, over Vietnam and is a POW. Right from the start we are on pretty poor ground, as Kanigher demonstrates he doesn't know anything about the military, other than what he has seen at the movies and heard in war stories, from veterans (Kanigher, to the best of my research, did not serve in the Armed Forces, at any point). In a nightmare image, twin brother Phil sees brother Nick being interrogated by the NVA, who call him "major," but he seems confused as to his rank....



As you can see, Nick gives name, rank and serial number and starts out giving his rank as major, in panel one, but lieutenant in panels three and 4. My guess is that Kanigher vacillated in regards to the ranks of the characters and forgot that he went with major, possibly because he was interrupted while typing his script, or he just didn't care. So, we already have problems with the story that the editor should have had fixed, in the lettering stage, except Kanigher was the editor; so, of course, he new his script was okay. That would also explain why the letterer didn't fix it on their own, as they would assume Kanigher was aware and it was part of the story, or they just kept their head down, because Kanigher had a bit of a rep for being an SOB (and he was certainly full of himself, when it came to his writing, though his war stories, with guys like Kubert and Heath, were some of the best in comics, at the time). Whatever the truth, it basically sets the tone for numerous military mistakes to follow, but that is mostly a window dressing problem.

Hunter is desperate to find his brother, but is denied permission to go look for him. He argues his case with his CO, who seems to think he is an enlisted man, not an officer....



An officer does not enlist in the Armed Forces; they are commissioned. They do not serve for a limited period of time but at the leisure of the Commander-in Chief. Even in a battlefield commission situation, once the commission has been confirmed, the enlisted soldier is then discharged from the service and is then re-sworn in as an officer, with his new commission (as seen in Band of Brothers, when 1st Sgt Carlton Lipton is promoted to 2nd Lieutenant). So, Phil Hunter's enlistment is not ending, because he is not an enlisted man.

Nick relates shared experiences as kids, where Nick saved Phil's life, twice, from drowning after plunging through broken ice on a lake and from a stable fire. Kanigher perpetuates the idea of identical twins having some form of ESP, sharing what the other is thinking and/or feeling, which has never been substantiated in scientific testing.. Nick saved him again at the Chosin Resevoir, in Korea, during a fight against the Chinese (Chosin was a battle that was primarily handled by the 1st Marine Division, with the 3rd and 7th Infantry Divisions, from the US Army, protecting their flanks. So, yeah, and Army officer could be there; but the 1st Marines were the ones in the thick of the fighting). Nick is shot down, parachutes to safety and helps his brother fight off Chinese attackers, barehanded and only in a flight suit, in subzero weather, in a winter so cold they couldn't bury the dead because the ground was frozen solid.

Thw whole conversation is overheard by a Vietnamese waitress and Phil notices she seems afraid as some peddlers lay out some dolls, on a nearby table. The peddlers then back away from the table and Phil smells a rat, rushes and knocks over the table and ducks down, as the boobytrapped dolls explode. After bodies are removed and wreckage cleared, Phil is approached by the Vietnamese waitress, named Lu-Lin (which is more Chinese than Vietnamese, but I doubt Kanigher knew the difference). She thanks him for saving her life and tells him that she is going to her village, to see her family, which is behind the "Viet Cong lines" (um....no) and she would be glad to guide him.

Phil's CO thinks he is nuts and that the girl is trying to lead him into an ambush. meanwhile, some Vietnamese scouts are bringing in VC prisoners and Phil smells a rat and notices a prisoner who is holding dynamite stick, behind his head. He surmises that the scouts are phonies and it is a sapper attack. He yells warning and hits the ground, firing with his M-3 Grease Gun. He breaks up the attack and the VC scatter. They proceed intot he jungle and Phil wonders if he is being led into a trap, yet Lu-Lin warns him of a VC aptrol. She speaks to him in a calm icy voice and he tries to break through by kissing her, which has no effect...



Lu-Lin calmly walks away, daring him to shoot her in the back, which he doesn't. They march on and encounter an old man. he tells Lu-Lin that an aircrew was shot down and the villagers hid them from the VC, and are trying to get them out, on a raft. They go to check it out and find the raft taking fire, from the VC, on the banks. Phil dives into the river and fights off the VC and the raft gets to shore safely, but Nick isn't among the Americans. he sends them back towards the Special Forces compound and continues his search.

In the next story, Phil and Lu-Lin are trapped in a cave, as VC hurl in grenades, but Phil is able to knock them back out, before they go off, until one explodes and starts a landslide, which seals them in. Phil is bashed in the head, by a falling rock and falls unconscious as he flashes back to how they ended up in the cave. They had encountered a pair of Marines being hoisted up into a chopper, (H-19 Chickasaw, which was Korean War vintage), as VC attack. Phil attacks and battles them hand-to-hand, including one clinging to the cable. They fight in the air and Phil yells up to the crewman to cut the cable, though the VC falls off. Phil is hoisted aboard, then orders them to drop him back down there, which they do. The VC are gone and he buries the dead Marines, when Lu-Lin finds him. He plants a kiss on her again, to no reaction and she continues on, to her village. Phil again doesn't shoot her, as a potential traitor and follows. They come across a village where the VC leader is about to shoot 10 villagers for sheltering Americans and Phil goads them into chasing him, leading to their cave situation. Phil regains his senses and feels air blowing on them and spots a shaft, leading to the surface and he helps Lu-Lin to climb out. he then ambushes the VC, who have a flamethrower and are trying to burn them out. he destroys them and they move on.

The following issue has Phil Hunter and Lu-Lin encountering a dying soldier, trying to retrieve his brother, from a deep patrol, to be awarded the Medal of Honor (which Kanigher mistakenly, as many did, calls the Congressional Medal of Honor). He witnesses the patrol help a downed F-100 Super Sabre, fighting off the VC, hand-to-hand, until the pilot can take off again (no way....not even in a Blackhawk comic) and Phil finds the lone survivor, the younger brother, who dies. Phil is determined to keep his promise and carries the body back to a camp compound, complete with hurricane fencing, to have his medal awarded, posthumously, then returns to the jungle trails.

Through it all, we have the driving motive to find his brother, whether or not he can trust Lu-Lin and her cold reactions to his forced kisses and the image of her always walking away from him and him following her. She is always dressed in a red Chinese dress and coolie hat, instead of normal Vietnamese peasant clothing (either white shifts or black homespun tops and trousers, or Western clothes, in the cities). No mention of where they are getting food and how Phil is replacing his ammo.

In the next issue, Phil narrowly avoids falling into a pungi stick-laden pit and is helped out (after killing VC) by Lu-Lin, where they repeat the forced kiss and her calmly turning and walking away. They run into a village of kids, who force Phil to lead them in a fight against the VC or they kill Lu-Lin and him.



They have a cache of arms, hidden by the VC and Phil agrees and helps them set up booby traps, though no one seems to know that hanging grenades from trees is less likely to catch someone than having them on the ground, attached to trip wires. However, that isn't the plan. They hide in the trees and cut the vines, causing the grenades to drop on the VC and explode, with no thought to the fuse timing or the range of the explosion. They then mount their second line of defense, in fox holes, to then hit the VC with more grenades. They fight and it comes down to their final line of defense and they successfully repel the atatck, but at the cost of many dead. The village of children is saved and Phil and Lu-Lin move on....



Based on the letters pages, it sounds like Our Fighting Forces has been floundering, for a while. One issues letters are all about featuresin GI Combat and Our Army at War and nothing to do with Our Fighting Forces. It seems that many missed Gunner & Sarge, who were being used as guest stars in Captain Storm, the short -lived adventures of a PT Boat skipper (whose adventures had nothing to do with a recent President of the United States, who had commanded a PT-Boat and inspired a movie). Issue #102 has a letter commenting on the Captain Hunter feature and mentions a Life article about a man searching for a brother, lost over hostile territory, which Kanigher never calls a coincidence; instead claiming their stories are timely.

Issue #103 (which has an ad for the Batman movie, on the inside cover) has Hunter and Lu-Lin witness a bombing mission, over a VC-held area and three parachutes deplot from a cargo plane. Hunter rescues the paratroops from a VC ambush and learns, from a wounded man, that they were inserted to map the system of caves and tunnels the VC have been using (someone read an article about the tunnels and underground base complexes). The man dies and Phil decides to carry out their mission. They find the entrance and go down and discover a complex network or tunnels and rooms, dug into the sod....



There are also booby traps, among the stored arms and ammunition. Lu-Lin proceeds outward and is captured by the VC, but doesn't talk. Phil hides and ambushes them when they come in...with fists, of course. They escape, with a map of the tunnel system and witness a search and rescue plane being shot down. they then spot a sampan, on the river and decide to use it to get the map to US hands. The VC attack and Phil grabs a box of dynamite and rigs the explosives on the sampan. They abandon it and it flaots into the VC and explodes, blowing a hole into the tunnel complex and filling it with water, destroying the explosives and arms stored there. They then move on to continue their quest.

The letters page has comments about issue #99 and the debut story and one reader mentions the story of Sp4 Daniel Fernandez, who threw himself onto a rifle grenade, to shield a wounded sergeant and then claimed the sergeant's name was Rock. A little research says the sergeant was Sgt Ray Sue, so the story is partially BS, but Kanigher likes it. Another reader says the war stories have had their day and they should turn it into a spy comic, with a group like the Man From UNCLE, with Rock leading the land forces, Johnny Cloud the air forces. The first letter points out the mistake on the cover, that identifies Hunter as a Marine, when he is Special Forces, on the inside. I suspect the cover originated as something for Fighting Devil-Dog, as Kanigher said it was done before the interior story.

103's script is credited in GCD to Howard Liss, who appears to have done more research than Kanigher, as the tunnel idea is actually not far off. The Vietnamese built elaborate tunnel and bunker complexes to hide troops, munitions and other things from American patrols and to use as hidden bases for ambushes and to move troops into areas for massed attacks, like in the Ia Drang. These weren't just holes in the ground, there were larger rooms, connecting tunnels and similar, with lanterns set up for lighting, when it was safe, though Jack Abel draws it to look more like concrete and electrical lighting, though the coloring suggests it could be earth and you never see electrical conduits to the overhead lamps...they could be oil lamps.

104 sees Hunter and Lu-Lin see a fighter providing air support and get hit and the pilot eject. He is spotted by the VC and Hunter races to defend him from them. He is successful, despite the numbers. he mentions he was attacking a suspected VC camp and Hunter leaves him and Lu-Lin to recon the place and spots the VC, interrogating a prisoner, who turns out to be Nick Hunter....



Phil plans to infiltrate, at night and the Air Force pilot insists on helping him. They move on and spot a VC patrol. The pilot acts as bait and Phil ambushes them. They get to the edge of camp and use grenades to create a diversion and Hunter goes into the camp to search for the hut with his brother. he locates a prisoner; but it isn't Nick and is told that the VC have moved him out. He frees him and the three Americans fight their way out of the camp and back into the jungle, to go after Nick Hunter.

The letters page again mostly ignores the features in OFF, suggesting they aren't getting much mail and sales are so-so.

The interior rear cover features and add for the Green Beret GI Joe....



It demonstrates how strong the mythos were at this point and how the war was still perceived, in 1966 (this was published in September), in the general public.

Just as an aside, to demonstrate how old I am, issue #105's interior front cover has an ad for a Revellslot car racing track. I had almost forgotten how huge those tracks were, back then......



When I was a kid, there was a hobby store, in downtown Decatur, IL, with a large slot car set up, where they would have races. We went in there a few times, to get pieces for my brother's model railroad set and also bought some slot cars there, for our own track (a two car track).

Issue #105 went on sale on November 23, 1966, just 8 days after my birth.

Captain Hunter and Lu-Lin run into a VC patrol and Hunter is hurt, but okay, but ends up captured. he sees Lu-Lin with a grinning VC officer and wonders if she led him into an ambush. He is teied to a tree, as the officer goes to question Lu-Lin, in a tent and she clobbers him and takes his pistol, forcing him to release Phil. The officer tries to fight, but Phil clobbers him and grabs Lu-Lin and they disappear into the jungle, after hearing the VC mention a Special Forces camp at Du Shau, which they are preparing to hit. They run to reach the camp and warn them. They reach the fort, which is depicted as a concrete blockhouse and bunker structure, surrounded by barbed wire fencing....



In reality, a Special Forces A Camp look more like this one, in the A Shau Valley....



Buildings would be timber and corrugated tin, not reinforced concrete. There would be earthwork walls, timber and concertina wire, with land mines and punji traps, as well as claymores and BU Gas (butane gas, with an explosive igniter, to envelop a large area in flame). That was one area the film The Green Berets got right, thanks to US Army involvement. There would be mortar pits and machine gun positions, with interlocking fields of fire.

The young lieutenant cedes hs command to the more experienced Captain Hunter and calls for reinforcements and a Mike Force (Mobile Strike Force) is dispatched, via helicopter, but the VC hit the helicopters as they attempt to land. They move inside the bunkers and Lu-Lin finds her brother, with the ARVN special forces, the Luc Luong Dac Biet. She thought he went over to the Viet Cong and he confirms he did and has helped infiltrate the camp....



The VC launch a massed attack and Hunter questions why they aren't returning fire and sees the mortar crew are dead. He grabs the tube and levels it at the charging VC and fires it into their mass, which wouldn't work, as a mortar isn't a rocket launcher. Bombs are dropped into a tube, with a pin theat fires a propellent charge, launching the bomb in an arc, onto an enemy position, where it explodes. You can't drop the bomb in a level tube. He would have been better off striking the bomb tailfirst on a rock and hurling it at the enemy....or just throwing a grenade.

A wall is breached, but the VC pull back. Hunter asks about the North Blockhouse and is told that a Vietnamese LLDB commands it, with plenty of firepower. However, Lu-Lin's brother is the NCO in charge and he sees the attack coming and withholds fire, until Lu-Lin puts a gun to his head and forces him to order a counter-attack.



Hunter goes to check on the blockhouse and finds Lu-Lin manning a .50 cal and her brother a prisoner. She tells him about the infiltration and he interrogates the brother and learns that the VC have a Plan B, to tunnel into the camp. Hunter decides to use it against them. They wait and in the early hours of the morning, they hear digging. they ambush the diggers and then move troops into the tunnel, to surprise the VC.

The story is largely based around the real surprise attack, in March of that year, on the Special Forces camp in the A Shau Valley, near Hue and the Laotian border, in 1966. The camp was manned by CIDG troops, a Special Forces A-Team, as well as LLDB troops. Heavy ground fog prevented air strikes from being effective and a C-47 went down. Wounded were medevaced by helo and one defensive wall was eventually breached, after mortar and recoilless rifle fire had largely silenced crew-served weapons and reduced most of the buildings to rubble. A Mike Force was deployed to reinforce them, but they were forced to evacuate and abandon the camp. The battle served as the inspiration for the 2nd act attack on camp 29Savoy, in the film The Green Berets....



After the battle, a Special forces team was sent in to recon the base and recover bodies. They found it abandoned, with large quantities of ammunition. After recovering the bodies, the Marines were sent in to destroy the camp and all of the ammunition and explosives there, to deny its use by the NC and PAVN (NVA). The are was later turned into a fortified base, by the PAVN and was instrumental in launching attacks, during the Tet Offensive, particularly the attacks on Hue.

Issue 106 is the finale and a transition to a new WW2 feature, starring Phil and Nick Hunter's father, a marine pilot leading a group known as the Hellcats.



In the opening feature, Lu-Lin goes into a village to bring out food and hears the VC talking about three American aviator prisoners. She gets back to Phil and informs him and he moves in on the village and locates the prisoners and is reunited with his brother, Nick.....



They have to fight their way out, but end up captured. They are transported in cages (on elephants) through the jungle. Someone lands on the elephant and it is Lu-Lin, who passes a knife to Hunter, allowing him to cut his hands free of their bonds. he ambushes a guard and takes his weapon, then frees his brother. he uses a grenade to stampede the elephants and they make their escape, in the chaos. The VC pursue them. Meanwhile, there is a tiger on the loose and Phil rigs up a trap for it. When he returns to the other, he finds out that Nick is gone, feeling that he was slowing down their chances to escape. Phil tracks him and finds him about to be attacked by the tiger and risks a shot from a rifle, killing the tiger. The VC are drawn to them. They set up firing position and fight until their ammo runs out, then turn to hand-to-hand, as Phil drops the VC leader into the tiger trap. They make it to safety and to an outpost, where they are medevaced. They are then visited in the hospital by their father, whose book about his WW2 exploits has just been published and he regales his sons with a story, about Hunter's Hellcats.

Hunter's Hellcats ends up being another rip-off of the Dirty Dozen, as Hunter assembles a team of convicts, from the stockade (brig, since he is depicted as a Marine).

Like the other lead features in DC war books, the series was intended as a hook to draw in readers. Most war comics stories become interchangeable, after a while. Using recurring lead features, when done well, gives a cast of characters on whom to focus the drama of the story, rather than establishing new characters in each story. Sgt Rock had proven hugely successful and Kanigher followed this formula with other war features, like Johnny Cloud, the Navajo Ace, The Haunted Tank, where the ghost of Confederate Gen JEB Stuart communicates with the tank commander, named for him. Enemy Ace had been a recent addition, a WW1 German pilot, who is haunted by his killing. Here, the feature is a Special forces captain, who leaves the service, to go locate his MIA brother.

There are a lot of problems with the series, starting with a complete ignorance of Special Forces, the geography of Vietnam, the culture and anything to do with actual Special Forces missions in Vietnam or the nature of the fighting. As we saw before, the equipment, more often than not, is WW2 era, instead of Vietnam, as the Green Berets seem to be armed with nothing but M-3 Grease Gun submachine guns. Some advisors did carry them, early on; but, most carried the M-16 or the smaller XM-177 (aka the CAR-15 or Colt Commando). Those that did use submachine guns often used the Swedish K 9mm submachine gun, as it was lighter than the M-3, or the later M-76 submachine gun, produced by Smith & Wesson. The weapons were light and robust and could fire more ammo, which was lighter than the .45 cal rounds of the M-3.

The helicopters depicted are all H-19 Chickasaw helicopters, which were Korean War Era, replaced by the CH-34 Choctaw and the UH-1H Iroquois, aka the Huey (as well as the CH-47 Chinook and the CH-53 Stallion). Web gear is all WW2 and the only thing that identifies Hunter as Special Forces is his (badly drawn) green beret.

The recurring theme of Lu-Lin calmly ignoring Hunter's kisses, then walking away from him is old by the second story and it is a stupid gimmick. it implies that she has been hardened by the war, while he is the one with humanity, as he searches to free his brother. It's not the worst dramatic gimmick; but it doesn't really work and ends up laughable, by the third story.  It also has the hero forcing his affections on a woman, who does not reciprocate, though she does feel a debt towards Hunter.  It ends up as more of a repeated assault, in retrospect.

Kanigher really has no idea where he is going, as the formula is Hunter and Lu-Lin encounter VC, get into fights, go on the run, fight some more, defeat the enemy and recycle. The do not get any clues until later. The better stories are not Kanigher's, but Howard Liss. Liss had primarily worked in newspaper comics, writing the Ben Casey and Buck Rogers comic strips; but, more importantly, had written for the Tales of the Green Berets strip, working with Joe Kubert. This is probably how he ended up working for DC, on their war comics, as he did stories for all of the main war books and Tomahawk. His experience on the Green Berets strip does him well and his stuff is closer to the reality; however, he is writing scripts that are passed on to Jack Abel. Abel seems to be using outdated reference material, if he is using any at all. This could have easily been set in Korea and no one would know the difference. He has good reference for the F-100 we see and the Chickasaw helicopter, as those are accurate, but nothing about the correct uniforms and equipment, let alone what a Special Forces camp looks like. It appears that he reads the word "camp" and assumes something like a stateside Army camp, complete with chain link hurricane fencing, guard posts and concrete and wooden buildings, not a gungle fort, made of earth, timber, corrugated tin, sandbags, barbed wire and various defensive positions and connecting communications trenches.

A Special Forces camp was built in a triangular shape, to allow better overlap for defensive positions. Ideally, they would have a clear field of fire from any jungle surroundings. Walls would be earth and timber, with sandbags and firing positions. There would be machine gun positions and mortar pits, with pre-targeted markings for range and distance, to lay down effective fire. Ammo would be brought through the trenches, as you can see during the camp battle in the film, The Green Berets, as Jim Hutton's character commands a mortar squad and David Janson helps carry ammo to them, via the trench. The camps would be reinforced by a Mike Force, brought in by helicopter and there would be helicopter pads or landing sites in or near the camp. In the film, John Wayne leads the Mike Force in, from their C-detachment HQ (located in rear territory), when his helo is hit and they make a hard landing. In the film, a team is there as security and they hit the VC as they move in to ambush the survivors of the crash, including John Wayne's Col Kirby. In the film, as at A Shau, the Special Forces team and the CIDG soldiers must abandon the camp and they then get contact from a late arriving AC-47 Magic Dragon gunship (a C-47 cargo plane, equipped with multiple 20 mm Gatling Guns) and the mow down everything moving, within the camp, allowing Kirby and his men to return and rebuild. In Vietnam, A Shau was abandoned. Another camp, at Plei Me, was attacked, in 1965, in a prelude to an attack on Pleiku City. The camp had a compliment of about 400 CIDG troops, plus a 5th Special Forces A-Team, under the command of William McKean. The CIDG troops were mostly montagnards, the mountainous region ethnically divergent tribes people, who were long abused and exploited by the Vietnamese, who considered them inferior. Special Forces found them to be good fighters, but they weren't picky about which Vietnamese they killed. When the PAVN made their attack, a reinforcemend group was sent in, largely consisting of ARVN Rangers, under the command of Captain Charles Beckwith, who would later found Delta Force. Beckwith's team was largely designed around his experience in cross training with the British SAS, in 1962 and they had been tasked with long range reconnaissance and special reaction force missions, like this. Beckwith considered these missions as a proving ground for his idea for what would become Delta Force, a special missions team modelled after the SAS structure, with troops specializing in various areas, ready to go at a moments notice.

Liss informs his stories more with actual events and stories from Vietnam, such as the tunnel and bunker system, the use of sampans to move supplies down the Mekong River, and how the VC operated in the countryside. Kanigher speaks of "VC lines;" but, there were no front lines in Vietnam as there was no push to drive the North Vietnamese out and invade their territory. Instead, it was a series of holding actions against PAVN attacks, VC terror campaigns, and ambushes to harass conventional troops, before the PAVN moved in with strength. Kanigher still thinks he is writing WW2 stories, where there was a definite strategy to push Germany and Japan out of occupied territories and invade their home countries and topple their governments, putting an end tot he war. In Vietnam, there was no such strategy and the US avoided invading North Vietnam, for fear of bringing Chinese troops into the war, as had happened in Korea, when UN forces pushed deep into North Korea. It was this lack of strategy that would lead Vietnam into being a meat grinder, where engagements would occur and forces would break off and tend to their wounded and dead. The US tended to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy forces and won the major engagements; but usually at a high cost and it deeply affected morale. Soldiers without a clear goal just fought for survival long enough to rotate back home. Commanders had no goals to pursue, except push out the VC and try to stabilize the country. There was no way to measure success, except body counts and captured supplies. territry would be fought over, then abandoned, creating a schizophrenic atmosphere, which further affected not just morale, but mental health. Some units lost discipline and fighting effectiveness and drug use became rampant, further affecting fighting readiness. You didn't have troops on the line, who rotated to the rear and were replaced by other units. Units sat in camps and sent out patrols to search for VC activity and gain intelligence and might encounter a VC patrol along the way.

The feature was not a hit and was quickly replaced, just like Fighting Devil-Dog, with Hunter's Hellcats, featuring Nick and Phil's father and his Dirty Dozen-like team. They lasted a bit longer than the other attempts, from issue #106 to issue #122, before handing over to a more successful feature, The Losers, with a team comprised of former lead features Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm and Gunner & Sarge (and Pooch). They would continue in OFF until the end, in 1978, with issue #181. The Loser came in under Joe Kubert's tenure as editor on the war titles, having taken over in 1968.

By and large, WW2 features were more popular in the war comics, as ther was a greater clarity of mission and an actual victory. Korea was, at best, a stalemate and Vietnam was quickly turning into a complete mess. The Tet Offensive, in 1968, would drive home that point and turn the tide of public opinion squarely into the "leave" camp.

DC would not return to Vietnam, as a feature and Kubert scrupulously avoided it, especially as it became more political. He had already had enough issue with that on Tales of the Green Berets. Vietnam was consigned to background detail, or depictions of protest, in superhero books, under writers like Denny O'Neil. The only time I can recall Vietnam in a DC book, with a military or historical hook, was in in Enemy Ace: War Idyll, where Hans Von Hammer's experiences in WW1 juxtapose a Vietnam vet's experiences. It seemed like 1980s and later DC was reluctant to reference the Vietnam War much, except as background detail and was not inclined to greenlight a Vietnam-related series, like Marvel did. In fact, about the only military-related comics they did, until the end of the century, were all Sgt Rock period pieces or Garth Ennis' Enemy Ace two-part mini, placing Von Hammer in the Luftwaffe, in WW2, on the Eastern Front.

Next, a look at the very bizarre sidetrip away from reality and the mainstream, with a look at Todd Holt, Super Green Beret.

Our next entry is one that isn't exactly political and it isn't exactly a generic war comic that happens to be set in Vietnam. Instead, it is a rather bizarre novelty piece, which is, esentually, a rip-off of Captain Marvel, but is way more out there than Crocodile Men, alien worms, short, bald mad scientists, planets of frogs, and probably more offensive than Steamboat. I am talking about Tod Holton, Super Green Beret...



Nick Fury and Phil Hunter were basically just WW2 GIs, transplanted into Vietnam. The Nick Fury story could have easily been a Howler mission, in 1943, in either Germany of the South Pacific. They were just (mostly) mediocre stories done for crass commercial reasons, by publishers out to make a fast buck. The Howard Liss-penned stories in Captain Hunter were more accurate in terms of what was happening in Vietnam, though you wouldn't know to look at them. Tod Holton was a while different kettle of nuc cham!

The publisher, Lightning Comics, is a blip in the history of comic books. They published a total of 5 comic books: 2 Super Green beret issues and 3 issues of Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer. All 5 of these comics have two things in common: Fawcett Comics alumni artists and writer Otto Binder.

In 1960, Binder invested his savings and mortgaged his house (paid for with money from his various Captain Marvel stories) and sunk it into a science fiction magazine, Space World. It was notable for losing money and he ended up with a ton of debt and was forced to return to working in comics. Both first issues of Fatman and Super Green Beret bore the cover date April 1967. Usually the general convention that these dates, identifying when the comics went off-sale, would have been published in either January or February, depending on whether they used a 3 month out date or a two. I haven't been able to turn up much info about the company. According to the indicia, the publisher of record is Milson Publishing, in St Louis. A google search of that name just gave me a website for a writer, James Milson. The name of the comics line is shared by a Golden Age comic, from Ace Comicss, Lightning Comics, which began as Sure-Fire Comics, and changed its name to lightning Comics, with the 4th issue, to better reflect the lead feature, Lash Lightning. Near as I can tell, this has ne relationship to Ace or the 1940s Lightning Comics.

Binder had penned wonderful and whimsical tales of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family. Sadly, none of that appeared in anything from Lightning. Instead, we got two knockoffs of the good Captain, with none of the charm. Fatman featured art by CC Beck and even the costume was a knockoff. Tod Holton, which featured art by Carl Pfeufer, was less a direct copy, as much as a gonzo copy.

Artist Pfeufer made a name for himself working on the comic strip Don Dixon an the Lost Empire (aka Don Dixon of the Hidden Empire), which was published by the Brooklyn Eagle and then syndicated. Don Dixon was basically a bargain basement Flash Gordon, though he stayed on his own planet and it lasted for about 6 years. Pfeufer also worked for Lloyd Jacquet's Funnies Inc, both on comics at Centaur and then for Timely, most notably, on the Sub-Mariner, after Bill Everett went into the Army. After work dried up at Timely, Pfeufer moved over to Fawcett, where he was the primary artist on the licensed comic of western hero Tom Mix.

So, you have an artist who mostly work on imitations or followed other people on their creations, and a once-great writer, who is having a lot of personal financial issues. Not necessarily a great recipe for a classic, in the traditional sense. Binder's woes would grow worse and force him out of comics, altogether, as well as destroy him psychologically, as well as his family. In March of 1967, Binder's daughter, Mary, was in fron of her school, kneeling down to pick up some books she had dropped. In that instance, a car, driven by a 20 year-old local, was returning to the school to pick up a friend and the car mounted the pavement and struck Mary, killing her. She was 14. Binder was devastated and his wife, Ione, suffered a nervous breakdown. The Binders fell apart and Otto began drinking heavily and was forced to move the remains of his family in with brother Jack. This might be part of why Lightning was so short-lived, though the work was horrible and sales could not have been good.

I must first make a mea culpa that I keep getting the name of the hero wrong. It was Tod Holton, not Tod Holt, though the official name of the comic was super Green Beret. Like others, Binder had bought into the idea of the Green Berets as super soldiers and he takes it a step further by literally making the hero super. He knew nothing about them beyond what had appeared in Life Magazine and other sources, which were propaganda, at best. He keeps referring to a "Green Beret Corps," like it was the Marine Corps, or my own Supply Corps. There was no such thing. The official Army designation was US Army Special forces, which consisted mainly of the 10th Special Forces Group, in Bad Tolz, Germany, the 5th Special Forces Group, in Ft Campbell, Ky, the 7th SFG, at Ft Bragg (now Ft Liberty), the 1st SFG, in Okinawa, the 3rd SFG, at Ft Bragg.

Anyway.....

In our first issue, Captain Roger Wilson, US Army Special Forces is home, from Vietnam, on furlough. He brings his young nephew, Tod, a souvenir, his green beret, from Vietnam, complete with a tale about supposed magic powers imbued to it, giving it a strange glow.....



Roger and his team were in the jungle, hunting the Viet Cong, when they came across a group, shaking down a monastery for their food. The didn't give two @#$%s if the monks went hungry, they wanted the food. Lacking Yul Brynner and the rest of the Magnificent Seven to protect them, the monks took it on the chin. The VC then opened a cage and sent a wild boar to run down the abbot. Roger has enough and leaps to his aid, bulldogging the boar and saving the abbott. The abbott is so appreciative that he brings Roger to a "jungle wizard," who casts a spell on Roger's beret and says the magic can only be transferred to one who is "young and noble by nature." Roger thinks it is all hokum, but brings it home for Tod and gives it to him. Tod goes outside and puts it on and, suddenly, he is transformed into an adult soldier.....



He tests out the magic and turns some tree stumps into stone. The wizard appears to Tod, in his mind, and tells him use his powers wisely and aid the good against evil oppressors in all warfare.

Most likely, Binder had read the Special Forces motto, de Oppresso Liber, Free the Oppressed, and mixed that in with the whole Shazam riff.

Tod promises and Roger returns to Nam to kill Commies, while Tod wonders about his beret. He gets messages through it, from soldiers on the other side of the world, which are mostly mundane, like "pass the ammo" and "What was the address for that hot little number on Chudo Street, in Saigon?" However, he gets a message from a bunch of GIs, trapped in a cave, by the VC. He puts on his Green Beret and is magically transported in-country, where he finds the GI, with the VC lobbing grenades into the cave entrance. Tod turns the grenades into literal pineapples.....



The GIs haven't had food in three days and are elated. The VC are confounded. They find their ammo gone and any bullets fired are transferred into ammo belts, which are transported to the GIs. They are now rearmed and Tod lends a hand, as they whoop them Commies' hides, real good!



Tod tosses the VC into trees, then magics up a saw, to drop the branch that they are sitting on, like a Looney Tunes cartoon....



The Commies then bring up a tank, which must have had a hard time negotiating the jungle trails. Tod magics its treads into breaking, then pops open the hatch and pistol whips a PAVN soldier with a piece of the tank!



The Brave and Noble American GIs rout the cowardly Commies and the events make the 6 O'Clock News, which Tod watches with his parents.

There follows a single page account of Medal of Honor recipient, Capt Roger Donlon and his actions, near Nam Dong, in 1964....



The second story in this double-sized, 25 cent issue, is set in an unnamed Latin American country, where the honorable president is trying to help the people of the poor mountain villages, but eveil Commie rebels, led by someone who is the spitting image of Fidel Castro, plot to kill him.



Tod gets a mental SOS, puts on his beret and is transported there, where he protects El Presidente and kicks some Commie keister, until one of the rebels snatches his beret off his head, turning the Super Green Beret into Billy Batson...er, Tod Holton. Tod is captured; but, in a twist to the formula, it is the rebel who ends up bound and gagged, after Tod socked him in the jaw, proving that even a young red-blooded American boy is stronger than a grown Commie Cuban.....er, Latin American rebel. Tod takes his clothes and disguises himself to walk through the village. he spots "Fidel," and makes a beeline for him, to get his beret back and is tackled by "Fidel's" ninos (put the squiggly line over the second n, for proper spelling), but he smacks them around, before the rebels turn their guns on him. "Fidel" sentences him to die by firing sqiad and Tod requests to die with his beret on and "Fidel" grants his wish. The bullets bounce off the newly returned Super Green Beret, he kicks Commie tail and returns home.

Super Green Beret 2-Commie Scum 0

The next one has Tod getting messages from WW2 and he appears in Germany, to help some American GIs prevent Uncle Adolf from fleeing Germany, in the Black Forest (after telling them who won the All-St Louis World Series of 1944).

We get another account of a Medal Of Honor winner, in Korea, then a tale of GIs in the South Pacific, in WW2, fighting some literally yellow hordes of Japanese caricatures. We then get a page of military headgear, in Vietnam....



Including Aussie bush hats, GI Helmets (minus the graffiti about what Westmoreland can go do to himself), a Marine Smoke the Bear DI hat, a helicopter pilot helmet, a ballcap, and a "boonie" hat.

A propaganda piece follows, about American exceptionalism and then more tomfoolery, as Tod smacks around more yellow Commies. This time, he does get the Billy Batson treatment....



Billy will be POed when he sees that Tod has borrowed his lucky red sweater!

The beret is floating in a river and Billy....Tod kicks a Commie in the shin, so he tosses him in, and he outswims an alligator (indigenous to North America) to get it back and gets a new pair of shoes and a handbag for his mother, then makes like a certain messiah (rather than just a very naughty boy) and walks on water....



The Commies hit him with a boat, which knocks off the green beanie, turning him back into Billy....Tod....and a panther jumps out (followed by a bear and an Indian kid, but that's another story). He gets tyhe beanie back on his head and skins the cat, saves some GIs and kills more Commies.

Then the issue mercifully ends.

Issue 2 is more of the same, as Tod goes to Africa, because why should the only racist caricatures be Asian, and he fights the Waziri, as they toss white men into lava pits, or something, because Tarzan went swanning off to England. Tod discovers that the natives have been stirred up by a Christopher Gbenye wanna-be and he whoops on a lion and some others, to save the day.

This issue includes a feature about 3 "Flying Musketeers," who fly their "jet chopper" into Red China to get a spy out.

Tod goes back to 1775, to aid the Sons of Liberty in acts of terrorism against the Colonial government and changes history at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

There is a story about a balloon-busting WW1 ace, who looks nothing like a beagle, then back to Tod Holton and his Racist Caricatures. That is followed by an ad promising a new comic, Captain Shazam, which mercifully never comes.

These stories make Jonny Quest look nuanced and culturally sensitive and also makes Captain hunter read like The Things They Carried. It's bad enough that Binder and Pfeufer thought a little kid turning into a soldier to go fight in a war was light-hearted adventure, when real soldiers were dying and wondering why they were half way around the world, fighting with no discernable goal. It's insulting to those who were there, it's insulting to those who worked to stop the war and it's insulting to just about any minority you could name. It's not even goofy enough to be forgivable...it's just bad.

Thankfully, we are spared any future issues and can put this propaganda to rest. make no mistake, it is pure anti-Communist propaganda and fantasy, where White American=Good and Yellow Asian, Black African, and Latin American Rebel are all EVIL!

Soldier of Fortune would puke on this stuff!

Even Charlton, which was as jingoistic a publisher of war comics as there was, was never this bad, as we shall see. If you are interested in a train wreck of a comic, this is worth checking out; otherwise, save your money for a Blazing Combat or even an issue of Fightin' Marines.

Speaking of contentious Devil-Dogs, our next installment looks at that Charlton war comic staple; more specifically, their Vietnam War feature, Shotgun Harker and The Chicken. Meanwhile, let's di di mau, before Tod Holton catches up to us.

Geez! It's... it's... something... I don't have the words

Thank you! I had read it 30 years ago but I didn't remember the name!