You get the sense with some war movies that the war itself isn't a good enough motivation for some soldiers.

They're there for the adrenaline or the camaraderie or to avoid something back at home.

But a different no less strong motivation comes to the fore and they were expendable,

being underestimated.

It's easy to forget that there was a time when PT boats weren't inextricably linked to the image of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

ripping through the coastal waters while wearing his ray bands and single-handedly sinking a line of Japanese cruises.

There was a time when the PT boat was maligned.

I mean, look at those things.

Are you kidding me?

And this film is chock full of sailors who are absolutely champing at the bit to go to war,

except they're saddled with what their leadership sees as glorified pontoon party boats.

John Wayne's character, Rusty Rusty Ryan can't deal with this

derision so he prepares his papers to transfer elsewhere. Trouble is when your

request is dated December 7th 1941 a person can assume it's not going to be a priority for those in charge.

Everyone in this Philippines-based PT boat squadron assumes that now this will be their time

to prove their worth, but after being relegated to messenger duty, morale crashes in their hopes of their craft

being used in combat fade. Just as they're about to be deployed to destroy some Japanese

vessels, Rusty is ordered to the hospital. It's blood poisoning. Missing what he

sees as his best shot at action, he is understandably devastated.

Rusty is the crankiest patient in the hospital before Nurse Sandy gets through to him,

as Donna Reed has the power to do.

And the rest of the film is spent absorbing the constant losses of boats and men

...