Combat Casey

First Appearance: Combat Casey #6 (January 1953).
Appearances: Combat Casey #6-34, Combat Kelly #17, Battle Comics #61.
Years Active: 1941-1954.

Combat Casey, "the infantry's red-bearded riot," is a grunt, a frontline soldier in the infantry (unlike "Rock" Murdock and those snooty Marines, who are too hoity-toity to mingle with ordinary soldiers). With his best bud, Penny R. Pennington, Casey fights the Godless Enemies Of The American Way; during Korea he kills dozens and hundreds of the Communist Scum, and during World War Two (he's also veteran of WW2, The Big One) Casey slaughters Nazis (in North Africa) and Japanese by the hundreds as a member of Dog Company. During Korea he serves under Captain Rocke, a more-than-usually intelligent Army leader.

Casey is clever, coming up with inventive new ways to murder the enemy (like hiding under sheepskins and then popping out, guns a-blazing, when the enemy draws near). He is, naturally, a good shot and a skilled hand-to-hand fighter who shows no compunctions about killing.

Notes: Like "Rock" Murdock and the other Atlas war characters, Combat Casey's adventures, when they aren't blatant attempts at propaganda or mindless excursions into rousing bloodlust, come off as poor imitations of Kurtzman's E.C. war stories. But what sticks in the mind--with me, anyhow--is Casey's truly atrocious taste in facial hair. For God's sake, man, if you're going to grow a beard, do it right!