Winchester Remington Smith is a crack shot. Problem is, surrounded by roller coasters and merry-go-rounds, his talent is going to waste, knocking down ducks in a carnival shooting gallery. Win wants some real action and so he’s going to war—running off to join the US Marines to fight a guerilla insurgency south of the border.

In the jungles of Central America, Win takes a different kind of roller coaster ride. Quick and quiet, he’s now a runner. It’s a vital role, but he feels like a messenger boy, unable to put his rifle to good use. Even when he saves the life of First Sergeant Fifty-Fifty O’Brien—a Marine so gung-ho he has about a fifty-fifty chance of survival—Win ends up facing a disciplinary hearing for disobeying orders.

Can the young sharpshooter redeem himself? Win’s about to get his chance, an opportunity to deliver a message that the Marines will never forget.

Also includes the military adventures “The Adventure of X,” in which a French Foreign Legionnaire’s intelligence mission leads him into an enemy ambush, and he has to warn his fellow Legionnaires before they walk into a massacre; and “Red Sand,” the story of a disgraced Chicago cop who joins the Legionnaires and finds his investigative skills invaluable in the desert.