How Did He Survive BEFORE He Had The Dog?????

 

cover art by Jerry Grandenetti 

Gunner and Sarge had only been around for a few issues when Our Fighting Forces #49 (September 1959), but they had already racked up quite a score of Japanese Red Shirts. But "Blind Gunner" (written by Bob Kanigher and drawn by Jerry Grandenetti) makes you wonder how they had survived that long without a dog to back them up.

Because in this story, Gunner is assigned a K-9 Corps "soldier" named Billy (who would become known as Pooch as the series progressed). Gunner isn't happy with this. He assumes the dog will be useless while he's on patrol and would rather go alone. Besides, other Marines are mocking him about his new partner.

But, by golly, Pooch is continually saving him. He saves him from hidden machine gun nests and mortor fire. Once, he knocks Gunner into the water to save him from being spotted by a Japanese patrol boat.

As I mentioned above--how the heck did Gunner survive his previous combat missions without that dog?

Gunner is reluctant to admit that Pooch is useful. So, when the dog gets a thorn in his paw and it looks like he'll miss a patrol, Gunner professes to be relieved. He's joined this time by Sarge.

Things quickly go awry when a tank shell temporarily blinds Gunner. Sarge bandages him up and wants to get him back to the medic, but first tries to lead the tank away. Gunner can tell from the sounds that the tank soon corners Sarge.

But what can he do to help when he can't see? That problem is solved when Pooch arrives. The dog had refused to be left behind. Pooch leads Gunner right up to the tank. The Marine then fumbles around until he finds an eye slot, then fires his Tommy Gun into this until he sets the tank ammo off. 

Though I'm not sure this would have ever worked in real life, it is a time-honored tank destroying technique in the DC Universe. In Europe, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company did it all the time.

This is a pretty basic story, but Grandenetti's art is always solid and... well, a story with an heroic dog is always appealing. 

Though I'm not sure I'd trust my dog to lead me into combat against an enemy tank. I keep urging him to do something heroic, but he continues to just lie there:

Next week, based on a recommendation I heard on the excellent Six Gun Justice podcast, we will look at an issue of Wild Bill Hickock published by Avon in the early 1950s.