In May 1953, a new group of Army recruits at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, encounter their drill sergeants, Sgt. Laverne Holt (Karl Malden) and the deeply troubled Sgt. Thorne Ryan (Richard Widmark). After Ryan's caustic appraisal of the recruits, Holt vows to make soldiers out of them during their sixteen weeks of basic training. Ryan, a combat veteran who resents his stateside duty, repeatedly applies for a transfer back to the Korean front.