Appearing as Rodger Young

Broadcast 24 January 1964 on the CBS television network. Based on a true story.

The story opens in the midst of a heated basketball game in a mid-1930s high school gymnasium. Rodger Young (James MacArthur), sits warming the bench, eagerly waiting to be sent into the game. When his chance finally arrives, he charges enthusiastically into the fray. Because of his short stature, he has to work twice as hard as anyone else on the floor, but he appears undaunted. Just when it looks as if he'll score his team's much needed winning basket, an opposing player accidentally sends him hurtling toward the floor, where he hits his head hard enough to lose consciousness.

When next we see Rodger, it's a couple of years later and he's on the receiving end of a stern lecture from his physician, Dr. Crosley (Patrick McVey). The blow to head he received in the game has left him with a partial hearing loss, accompanied by painful intermittent headaches, and a nasty case of tinnitus (ringing in the ears). In addition, Rodger stubbornly refuses to wear the glasses he so desperately needs. Despite the doctor's gentle badgering, Rodger minimizes his ailments. When the kindly doctor tries to convince him there is no shame in being short or possessed of a physical handicap, and that he has the perfect reason to stop exerting himself so ferociously to make up for these deficits, Rodger leaps to his feet angrily and insists that he only 'wants to be like everyone else.'

A few more years pass, while Rodger's vision and hearing continue to deteriorate, and the world is on the brink of war. Seeing all his friends and coworkers joining the National Guard, Rodger decides that it is time for him, too, and visits the recruitment office. There, with the surreptitious but admiring connivance of the recruiting officer (Hal Needham) and his doctor, Rodger signs up.

During his training, despite what seem to be insurmountable odds, Rodger fights his way through every task set before him, earning the respect of his fellow trainees (Geoffrey Horne, Ted Bessell, Paul Geary, Henry Beckman, and Hampton Fancher) and the gruff Sergeant Mulduney (George Kennedy). Even the simplest exercise is harrowing for poor Rodger, yet he not only passes each test with flying colors, he manages to win himself a promotion to corporal before he's served even one day of active duty.

Not everyone is bowled over by Rodger's easy affability and indefatigueable determination, however. On an infrequent outing to the local bar, Rodger encounters his fellow soldiers-in-training and moves to join them only to find himself the butt of one too many eager beaver jokes. The night isn't a total loss, however, as barmaid Annie Thompson (Diane Ladd) takes pity on Rodger and gives him a much-needed pep talk.

Having won a second promotion to the rank of sergeant while still in training, and following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Rodger's National Guard unit, now Federalized, is sent to the Pacific to join in the war effort.

One evening, while driving a jeep containing himself and three other men in his unit, a now-nearly-deaf Rodger fails to hear the warning horn of a truck passing from behind, and loses control of the jeep. Although no one is injured, one man begins to grow suspicious and later confronts Rodger about his poor hearing. Once again, Rodger convinces the man to keep the information to himself and allow him to go on 'being normal.'

While on patrol in the jungle, the unit is attacked by a sniper, and one man is killed. Feeling he should somehow have been able to prevent his subordinate's death, thinking it possible that his imperfect vision might have been the cause, Rodger implores his commanding officer, Lt. Waters (H.M. Wynant) to demote him to private. Though no one understands, and in fact one man even suggests Rodger requested the demotion out of cowardice, Rodger doggedly ignores the speculation and removes his extra stripes that night in camp.

Next morning finds the unit once more on patrol and again pinned down by the elusive sniper. Though no longer second-in-command, and refusing to dignify continued needling, Rodger makes the realization that unless someone does something drastic, the unit stands very little chance of surviving this second attack.

Ignoring Lt. Waters' frenzied commands that he stay safely at the back of the group, and despite being repeatedly wounded, Rodger bravely manages to storm the sniper stronghold and take it out with a well-aimed grenade. Sadly, his heroic deed, though it saved the lives of the remaining men in the unit, cost Rodger his own life.

In honor of his extreme heroism, Rodger Young was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

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