**SPOILERS*** Jack Webb is the tough as nails outside and Mr.Softie inside Gunnery Sargent Jim Moore who's Job as a D.I-drill instructor-on Parris Island is to shape and whip up raw recruits and turn them into men or better yet US Marines.
It's one of Sgt.Moore men Pvt. Owens, Don Dubbins, who's really getting under the Old Sarge's skin in alway reporting to sick-bay and refusing to shape up on maneuvers that includes 5 10 and even 20 mile runs with full packs and equipment weighing up to 40 pounds! Owens's despite joining the Marine Corps is now doing everything to get himself kicked out of the military with a general or even dishonorable discharge! This is something that Sgt. Moore won't stand for and he's more then willing to go so far as to run Owens into the ground or into his grave to prevent him from doing that!
There's also pretty saleslady Annie, Jackie Loughery, whom Sgt.Moore met at the NCO club after slugging her date, also a US Marine D.I, whom he's developed the hots for but is,in feeling it would bring out his sweet and tender side, just too shy or unwilling to asked her out for a date or even a drink! It's in fact Sgt. Moore's experience with Annie that somehow connects him with Pvt.Owens whom in a different and father and son like way feels the same for him. Pvt.Owens meanwhile goes from bad to worse in screwing himself and his,Sgt.Moore's, US Marine company #194 up at every occasion. It's finally when Pvt. Owens is about to get his wish in being drummed out of the US Marine Corps that his Momma or Mrs. Owens, Virginia Gregg, shows up at boot camp pleading with Sgt. Moore and his superior officer Capt. Anderson,Lin McCarthy, to do everything they can to make him into a US Marine even if it ends up killing her son in them doing it!
***SPOILERS*** As it's turns out Pvt.Owens comes from a long and proud US Marine family who's father Captain Charles D. Owens was the company commender of the now Perris Island commanding general officer back in WWII. It was during the invasion of the Marshall Islands that Capt. Owens was killed in action in leading his men in the storming the island beachhead. There's also Pvt. Owens two older brothers and also US Marines who died during the bug-out at the Chosin Reservoir in the winter of 1950 while under attack by hundreds of thousands of Communist Red Chinese troops. It was because those bitter experiences that Mrs. Owens babied her youngest son,Pvt.Owens, who became both a momma's boy and the sorry a** wimp that he now turned out to be. Now knowing that all Pvt.Owens needs is a swift and hard kick in the butt to straighten him out both Capt.Anderson & Sgt. Moore got to work on him. Not in just knowing what to do but what Pvt.Owens problems really are and how to correct them. And before you know it as the movie ends Pvt.Owens did become not only a first class US Marine but the flag bearer of his US Marine Company #194 as well!
It's one of Sgt.Moore men Pvt. Owens, Don Dubbins, who's really getting under the Old Sarge's skin in alway reporting to sick-bay and refusing to shape up on maneuvers that includes 5 10 and even 20 mile runs with full packs and equipment weighing up to 40 pounds! Owens's despite joining the Marine Corps is now doing everything to get himself kicked out of the military with a general or even dishonorable discharge! This is something that Sgt. Moore won't stand for and he's more then willing to go so far as to run Owens into the ground or into his grave to prevent him from doing that!
There's also pretty saleslady Annie, Jackie Loughery, whom Sgt.Moore met at the NCO club after slugging her date, also a US Marine D.I, whom he's developed the hots for but is,in feeling it would bring out his sweet and tender side, just too shy or unwilling to asked her out for a date or even a drink! It's in fact Sgt. Moore's experience with Annie that somehow connects him with Pvt.Owens whom in a different and father and son like way feels the same for him. Pvt.Owens meanwhile goes from bad to worse in screwing himself and his,Sgt.Moore's, US Marine company #194 up at every occasion. It's finally when Pvt. Owens is about to get his wish in being drummed out of the US Marine Corps that his Momma or Mrs. Owens, Virginia Gregg, shows up at boot camp pleading with Sgt. Moore and his superior officer Capt. Anderson,Lin McCarthy, to do everything they can to make him into a US Marine even if it ends up killing her son in them doing it!
***SPOILERS*** As it's turns out Pvt.Owens comes from a long and proud US Marine family who's father Captain Charles D. Owens was the company commender of the now Perris Island commanding general officer back in WWII. It was during the invasion of the Marshall Islands that Capt. Owens was killed in action in leading his men in the storming the island beachhead. There's also Pvt. Owens two older brothers and also US Marines who died during the bug-out at the Chosin Reservoir in the winter of 1950 while under attack by hundreds of thousands of Communist Red Chinese troops. It was because those bitter experiences that Mrs. Owens babied her youngest son,Pvt.Owens, who became both a momma's boy and the sorry a** wimp that he now turned out to be. Now knowing that all Pvt.Owens needs is a swift and hard kick in the butt to straighten him out both Capt.Anderson & Sgt. Moore got to work on him. Not in just knowing what to do but what Pvt.Owens problems really are and how to correct them. And before you know it as the movie ends Pvt.Owens did become not only a first class US Marine but the flag bearer of his US Marine Company #194 as well!