Will Stockdale (Griffith) is a backwoods rube from Georgia (U.S. state), who is drafted into the United States Air Force. Other draftees being transported to basic training include the equally dim Ben Whitledge (Nick Adams (actor, born 1931)) and an obnoxious bully Irving S. Blanchard (Murray Hamilton). The unhappy Whitledge wants to be assigned to the infantry where his six brothers served.