Tom is a typical American high school senior in 1943. With graduation just months away, his future is uncertain. He has applied to college, but war looms over his options. Will he get into a school and help the war effort from home? Or will he join many of his fellow seniors, the ones being drafted. Either way Tom understands the war will pay a major role in his future.
As the last heady days of youth come to a close, Tom’s longtime girlfriend Anita makes a startling announcement, she wants a commitment. And assured of her own feelings and of Tom’s she wants to go all the way, even before taking their marriage vows. It’s not something they’ve talked about before, but with loss and loneliness tugging at the hearts of everyone in the young couples lives, it seems like a natural expression of their love in a turbulent world.
For a short time, life is great for Tom. He cherishes these moments of joy while the nation slowly sinks deeper into the sorrows of a world war. When his college plans go awry, Tom decides to enlist, it’s the only way he can exercise some control over his future. After excelling in Basic training, Tom grabs at the chance to go to Jump School. From there it is on to England in preparation for the big Invasion. While Tom gets ready for months of battle to come, Anita is home, alone and pregnant with their first child.
Tom knows his story isn’t unusual, one just like his and Anita’s is being played out in tens of thousands of small town and big cities all over America. Yet for Tom it is everything! It is the very fabric of solider he already is, and the husband and father he is becoming. It is the same struggle and sacrifice shared by countless men, women and children, and it will forge them into...The Greatest Generation.