Businessman Eddie Clark (Edwards) tells a reporter the story behind his conglomerate of products branded as the "Bamboo Blonde". During the Pacific War, Captain Patrick Ransom, Jr. (Wade), the pilot of a B-29 bomber is stood up by his fiancée Eileen Sawyer (Greer) on the way to meet his new crew at a New York nightclub, owned by Clark. Instead, he sees Louise Anderson (Langford), a beautiful blonde singer at the nightclub. Although engaged, he falls in love with the singer, but has to leave next day for action in the Pacific, joining an experienced bomber crew as their new pilot. The crew is reluctant to accept their new "skipper" and decide to dump him at the out-of-bounds nightclub, coming back later to find the Captain and the torch singer kissing.
In 1943, Colonel Greg Brandon (Christopher George), stationed at an United States Army Air Forces 8th Air Force, 103rd Bomb Group base in England, repeatedly attempts to persuade superiors that massive daylight bombing will hasten the end of World War II. In spite of the mission's extreme difficulty, his plan is finally put into effect against a German aircraft factory.
While returning from a World War II bombing mission, a United States Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bomber sustains damage from action with German fighters. Without any order to abandon the aircraft, the navigator, Hamner (Basehart), panics and bails out. The aircraft, now lost due to having no navigator, and the remaining crew overfly their base and continue on for another 700 miles before eventually crash landing in the Libyan desert.
At an American air base in England in 1943, conniving, womanizing Sergeant Dolan (Tom D'Andrea) manipulates everyone, while insubordinate ace fighter pilot Major Ed Hardin (Edmund O'Brien) gives his commanding officer and close friend, Colonel Brickley (John Rodney), headaches by ignoring the out-of-date rules of engagement formulated by Brigadier General M. Gilbert (Shepperd Strudwick). When Major General Mike McCready (Henry Hull) promotes Brickley to whip a new squadron into shape, Brickley recommends Hardin as his replacement. Despite his misgivings, McCready agrees. To everyone's surprise, Hardin strictly enforces the rules.
This war drama, which prefigures the similarly bifurcated Full Metal Jacket, follows the lives of five young Marine inductees from their boot camp training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in 1967 through a tour of duty in the Vietnam War in 1968.
The American Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Haynes detects and attacks a German U-boat that is on its way to rendezvous with a German merchant raider in the South Atlantic Ocean. Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum), a former officer in the merchant marine now an active duty lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve, has recently taken command of the Haynes, even though he is still recovering from injuries incurred in the sinking of his previous ship. Before the U-boat is first spotted, one sailor questions the new captain's fitness and ability. However, as the battle begins, Murrell shows himself to be a match for wily U-boat Kapitän von Stolberg (Curt Jürgens) (portrayed as not being enamoured with the Nazi regime) in a prolonged and deadly battle of wits that tests both men and their crews. Each man grows to respect his opponent.
The World War II U.S. Navy submarine commander P.J. Richardson (Clark Gable) has an obsession with a Japanese destroyer that has sunk three boats in the Bungo Straits, including his previous command. He persuades the Navy Board to give him a new submarine command with the provision that his executive officer, also known as the XO or the "exec", be someone who has just returned from active sea patrol. He single-mindedly trains the crew of his new boat, the USS Nerka, to return to the Bungo Straits and sink the destroyer, captained by a crafty ex-submariner nicknamed Bungo Pete. Richardson's executive officer, Lieutenant Jim Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster), is worried about the safety of his boat and his crew. Bledsoe is also seething with resentment at Richardson and the Navy leadership for denying him command of the Nerka, which he believes should have been his.
The 17-year-old Ira Hamilton Hayes has never been off the Pima reservation in Arizona when he enlists in the United States Marine Corps to serve his country in World War II.
In 1943, Captain Buzz Rickson (Steve McQueen) is an arrogant pilot in command of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber nicknamed The Body. While stationed in England during World War II, one of the bombing missions is aborted because clouds obscure all potential targets, but Rickson ignores the order to turn around and dives under the clouds. He completes the mission, at the cost of one of the bombers in his squadron and its entire crew. Rickson revels in the fighting and destruction; when he is assigned to drop propaganda leaflets, he makes his displeasure felt by buzzing the airfield. His commanding officer tolerates his repeated insubordination because he is the best pilot in the bomber group. Even so, when he asks the flight surgeon his opinion, the latter is uncertain whether Rickson is a hero or a psychopath. However Rickson's crew, especially his co-pilot, Lieutenant Ed Bolland (Robert Wagner), trusts his great flying skill, .
During the Cold War, a television news journalist aboard the American aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz explains the scenario of current maneuvers of the U.S. Navy in the central Pacific Ocean. During a live broadcast from the bridge of the Nimitz, the correspondent points out a fleet of "Russian" (Soviet) warships on the horizon commanded by Vice Admiral Chernov.