Combat Casey #20 — Nick Peron

Sep 7

Sep 7 Combat Casey #20

Combat Casey

Combat Casey and Penny Pennington spot an American military carrying plasma for the battle front being attacked by Chinese soldiers and slays them, saving the chopper. The helicopter lands and the pair are introduced to Lieutenant Baker, who shows them his cargo of plasma kept in new plastic pillows for safer use on the battle front over the old glass bottles plasma was originally stored in and the crates of dry ice that they are kept preserved in. Hopping aboard the chopper they fly over a UN convoy that is preparing for another big push as it heads toward a fuel dump to prepare for the attack.

Not far away some Chinese soldiers are hiding in the tall grass and are plotting to light it on fire in the hopes of detonating the fuel and killing all the American soldiers stationed there. Spotted by Combat and Penny in the chopper they watch in horror as the enemy soldiers light the grass on fire. With no time to lose, Penny comes up with a solution: Using the dry ice in the crates they salt nearby clouds making it rain putting out the fire and ending the danger. Having lost honor by their defeat the Chinese soldiers then commit suicide.

Recurring Characters

Combat Casey
Penny Pennington

Good-Bye Korea!

Getting a military newspaper, Penny is happy to see the front page news stating that the army will be sending them home from Korea and is happy about the prospect of returning home to the USA. However, Sargent Pulaski quashes these hopes by telling Penny that Colonel Smith wants someone to stay behind and help with the deconstruction and scrapping of their bases in Korea, and that he has chosen Penny to do the job. Adding insult to injury, Smith shows up and asks Pulaski to assign one of his men to protect his daughter Lucy, who has come to visit with a USO troupe, while she goes into town to shop. Pulaski jumps on the offer to watch over the Colonel's beautiful daughter.

Dejected, Penny begins hauling a load of scrap to be disposed of and has to pull over to make room for the jeep Pulaski is driving to bring Lucy into town. Lucy feels sorry for Penny who continues on his menial task. Ten minutes later Penny comes across Pulaski's jeep that has been wrecked in a crash with no sign of either the Sargent or Lucy. Getting out to search, Penny follows a trail of Lucy's personal effects leading him to the cave hideout of some gorilla soldiers. Penny barrels his dump truck through the enemy combatants and crashes. When the enemy soldiers try to take him prisoner, Penny activates the dump trucks dumping leaver, causing the jump to dump out burying the gorillas.

Penny, Pulaski and Lucy return to base where the Colonel congratulates Penny for rescuing his daughter and decides to switch Penny's duties with Sargent Pulaski and offers to do anything Penny asks. Surprisingly, Penny asks that Pulaski joins him when the first wave of soldiers is sent home. On the ship back to America, Pulaski thanks Penny for getting him out of the deconstruction duty, finally acknowledging that Penny is an okay guy after all.

Recurring Characters

Penny Pennington
Sargent Pulaski

The High Road to Hades!

Combat Casey and Penny Pennington are involved in the battle of Mt. Cassino in Italy, clashing with Nazi forces. The two easily fight off the German attackers and continue on to their base of operations where they await orders on their plan of attack of the main enemy force on Mt. Cassino, although Combat puzzles over how the military brass will find a solution.

Not long after they settle in Army HQ sends a messenger with their mission details but he never turns up. A searching party is sent out to find him and they find his junked motorcycle but no trace of the messenger. With this being the second battle plan captured in as many days, Colonel Stone orders patrols to insure that the next messenger is not captured by enemy forces. While out on patrol, Combat notices that Penny is coming up with his own plan of attack based on what he thinks is a winning strategy on taking Mt. Casino.

As Combat laughs at this idea, he is shocked when Penny suddenly disappears from the sidecar of the motorcycle he is driving. Looking up he spots two giant eagles carrying Penny away. Unable to shoot the birds for fear of injuring Penny, Combat follows after them. Ramming into an enemy roadblock, Combat finds himself captured and brought to a Nazi base where Penny has also been taken. The commander has taken the plans that Penny has drawn up and thinking that they are the real plans, details them to his forces. This of course are not the right plans and the Nazi forces are soon decimated by American forces.

Furious, the Nazi commander beats on his birds for failing to grab the right plans. When Penny comes to the aid of the eagles, he and Combat are easily subdued and tossed in a jail cell with the eagles, their own believing the massive birds will attack and killed the unarmed Americans. Instead, the intelligent birds, remembering how Penny came to their aid, are able to kill the guard at the door allowing Combat and Penny to escape. As they flee, they watch in amusement as the eagles go after their former master and carry him off.