The "Army Hour" radio program honors the new graduates of Texas A & M who are preparing to join the United States Armed Forces. Many of the school's alumni, such as Colonel Jason "Cannonball" Craig, listen to the broadcast from their stations in the South Pacific. Radio announcer Bill Stern then tells the story of Brad Craig, Jason's son, who first attended Texas A & M in 1938: On the train to the college, Brad meets and falls for Nina Lambert, the granddaughter of chemistry professor "Pop" Lambert. Brad has a hard time adjusting to the rigors and traditions of the military school, despite the constant counsel of his roommate, Cyanide Jenkins. Bill tells Pop that he plans to quit college and return to his home in the Philippines, but the professor convinces him to stay. Later, at a late-night pep rally, Bill meets and quickly becomes friends with two Japanese students, Matsui and Kubo. Brad and Nina date for his first two years at the college, though she and Cyanide soon fall in love. The two finally admit their true feelings to each other at a ball, but, out of loyalty to Brad, they remain only friends. As the United States prepares for war in the South Pacific, Brad receives the ire of his fellow cadets for his continuous support of the Japanese. Brad's mind is changed, however, when he sees photographs of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China. At the beginning of his senior year, Brad is accused of helping Matsui and Kubo steal a secret formula from Pop's laboratory, though he is only pretending to be a traitor and actually gives the Japanese spies a counterfeit formula. Brad is soon forsaken by his fellow cadets, then expelled from the college. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Brad goes to Japan, where he performs on anti-American radio broadcasts. Prior to the Japanese attack on the Solomon Islands, Brad is taken aboard a Japanese aircraft carrier, then is assigned an airplane so that he can report on the battle from the sky. Seeing his window of opportunity, Brad kills his Japanese pilot, then radios the American flyers, who include Cyanide, of the position of the Japanese fleet. The Americans win the sea battle with further help from Brad, who commits suicide by crashing his plane onto the deck of a Japanese carrier. As the "Army Hour" radio broadcast ends, Brad is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his self-sacrifice, and his father listens with pride to the ceremony.