We begin with "Hang Up," a 14 page tale by writer Joe Kubert and artist Russ Heath. Sgt. Rock and Easy Company are pinned down in a burned out building and surrounded by enemy troops. While waiting for the soldiers to move in on them, Sgt. Rock tries to calm the nerves of a new recruit named Smitty. He tells him the stories of how Ice Cream Soldier got his name and how Bulldozer joined Easy.
While this is going on, the enemy soldiers make attempts to approach, but they are driven back. Smitty keeps complaining that he is a coward and too scared to fight, that that is his "hand up." Rock says how Smitty is not the only one with a hand up; Rock has one too. He asks Smitty to remember that when they started there were ten of them and how now they were down to six. He shows Smitty the dog tags he retrieved from each fallen member, saying that that was HIS hang up.
Smitty takes the dog tags and says he is now ready, so Sgt. Rock leads a charge out of the building and passed the enemy troops. Smitty, the new recruit, proved himself during the escape. When the fighting is over Little Sure Shot says his hang up is being an Injun and Rock tells him to can it.
In the midst of this story is a two-page Battle Album on the Monitor and the Merrimack, drawn by Joe Kubert.
That is followed by a one page gag strip, "You're in the Army -- Now" by Pete Costanza.
The following page is the classic one page ad, "The word from high is -- The Great One Is Coming!" Yeah, Jack Kirby is coming to DC, but he is never mentioned by name in the ad.
Lastly we have "The Butcher, the Baker...The DESOLATION Maker" by Fred Ray. Eben Dwayne is a cook and indentured servant at an inn during the Revolutionary War, and is ordered to make a meal for Banastre Tarlton, the infamous British slaughterer of innocent men. Tarlton is unimpressed by Eben's cooking and beats him for his trouble. Afraid of another beating from the Inn owner, Eben slips out during the night, escaping through a swamp till he meets Col. William Washington and his men.
He informs them of the whereabouts of Talton and in the morning the Battle of the Cowpens erupts. Col. Washington and Tarlton meet on the field of battle and it is not going well for Washington, so Eben attacks him with a cooking cauldron. Eben is wounded, but Col. Washington tells him that when he is better he will become his personal cook.
Edited by Joe Kubert.
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