Coming from an impoverished upbringing, the promise of electronics training from the US Navy convinces Pete to enlist. He soon succumbs to peer pressure and ends up with a US Marine combat unit in Vietnam. Seventeen men of his one-hundred-twenty man rifle company return from the first engagement. When Pete is one of seventeen that brings back the rest of his company in body bags, he is eligible for immediate transfer from the combat zone. Instead, knowing the Navy is his one chance for the education that will fulfill his dreams, he elects to stay until his normal rotation period is completed -- and his adventure begins...