Editing They Were Expendable (section)

== Plot ==
<!-- Commented out: [[File:PT-109 Panama.png|upright=1|thumb|left|A PT boat in action]] -->
In December 1941, Lt. John "Brick" Brickley ([[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]]) commands a squadron of agile but small and unproven [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] [[PT boats]] based at [[Naval Base Cavite|Cavite]] in the Philippines. He puts on a demonstration of their maneuverability and seakeeping capabilities for the senior area commander, Admiral Blackwell ([[Charles Trowbridge]]), who remains unimpressed by their diminutive size and lightweight construction. Lt. J. G. "Rusty" Ryan ([[John Wayne]]), Brick's immature [[executive officer]] (XO), is hot on getting into combat. He becomes disgusted at the admiral's close-minded dismissal, and is writing his request for transfer to destroyer duty when news of the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] arrives by radio bulletin.

Japanese forces descend on the Philippines and wreak havoc. Bypassed by local brass, Brick's squadron is kept out of combat and marginalized to menial mail and messenger duty. Frustration, particularly with Rusty, grows and threatens to boil over. Following a devastating attack on their base, the desperate admiral relents and orders them to attack a large Japanese [[cruiser]] shelling U.S. troop emplacements ashore. After initially choosing Rusty to skipper the second boat on the sortie, Brick discovers that his XO has [[sepsis|blood poisoning]] from a previous combat wound and orders him to sick bay, selecting another boat and crew to take his place. 

After accusing his [[commanding officer]] of glory hogging and resisting evacuation to a military hospital on [[Battle of Corregidor|Corregidor]], Rusty arrives there still hissing and spitting, only to reluctantly admit to the severity of his life-threatening condition. There, he meets another patient, "Ohio" ([[Louis Jean Heydt]]), who chides him to cool off and get in line. Once he does, Rusty begins a romance with strong-willed [[United States Army Nurse Corps|Army nurse]] Sandy Davyss ([[Donna Reed]]), so attractive, kind, and wholesomely appealing that Ohio cracks, "Eleven-thousand men can't be wrong" about her.

Brick's attack sinks the cruiser. Rusty returns and the squadron is unleashed, achieving increasing success, though at the cost both of boats and men. Still,  the Philippines falling is only a matter of time. Sandy attends a dinner in her honor at the PT base, reigniting the flame Rusty and her.

The squadron is marooned on the Philippine island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, just southeast of the large, northern-most Philippine island of Luzon after the Japanese onslaught against the doomed American defenders at the [[Battle of Bataan|Bataan]].  Corregidor stands as the last American stronghold against the advancing Japanese invaders. The PT Squadron is then assigned to [[Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines|evacuate the commanding general]] of the [[Asiatic-Pacific Theater|Pacific Theatre]], [[Douglas MacArthur]], his entourage, and Admiral Blackwell to the southern-most Philippine island of [[Mindanao]], where they will be flown south to Australia. Rusty manages to make a last phone call to Sandy, now on Bataan, to explain he has been ordered out, but before they can say goodbye, the connection is cut off.  

The small PT flotilla successfully carries the commanders across spans of open ocean to their rendezvous. It then resumes its attacks against the Japanese, who gradually whittle the squadron down until it is too small to function effectively. Crews without boats are sent to link up with the Army and fight as infantry. After Rusty's boat is damaged, the last two PTs pull into a small shipyard run by crusty "Dad" Knowland ([[Russell Simpson (actor)|Russell Simpson]]) for repairs. As the boats leave in haste ahead of an imminent Japanese assault, Dad refuses to flee, bidding his poignant farewell with a rifle folded in his arms and a whiskey jug tucked securely at his feet.  

In a final assault that destroys another threatening cruiser, Rusty's boat is sunk, after which Brick's is turned over to the US Army, once again reduced to messenger duty. Brick, Ryan, and two ensigns are ordered by Navy command to be airlifted out on the last plane, assigned stateside to train PT crews; the small, inexpensive, wood-hulled boats having proved their worth in combat. While waiting for the plane, Rusty runs into Ohio. Neither knows what happened to Sandy, trapped behind on Bataan. Each helps the other to hope she escaped to the hills rather than meet her likely dark fate. When the ensigns finally arrive late, Rusty bolts for the aircraft's exit, but is brought to heel by Brickley, who reminds him his duty comes first. Ohio is forced to give up his seat on the plane and is left behind to face certain death or capture.

The surviving enlisted men, led by Chief Mulcahey ([[Ward Bond]]), shoulder rifles and march off to [[Philippine resistance against Japan|continue the resistance]] with the remnants of the U.S. Army and Filipino guerrillas, as expendable in the fight as their PT boats had been before them.