[3][4] Rather than a single overarching plotline, the film depicts a series of vignettes featuring various American service members and their families, all of which play out against the backdrop of the Gulf War.
Guy Hunter, Jr., Steven Shaefer, Steve Tate, Beverly Clark, Phoebe Jeter, Jonathan Alston, Ben Pennington, Mary Rhoads, Gary Buckholz, Devon Jones and Lawrence Slade are activated for Desert Shield.
The activations mean that Pennington does not get to tell his family goodbye, Jeter does not get to see her ill grandmother for one last time, Maldonado misses the birth of his daughter, and Linda Buckholz has to show her wedding to the guests on video.
Private Steven Shaefer has volunteered for Desert Storm duty, and quickly upon arriving in Kuwait meets Specialist Jonathan Alston.
Marine Captain Michael Shupp instructs Ford and Crumes' unit to fight professionally to keep one another safe, but to reserve compassion for Saddam's draftees.
The film ends with President George Herbert Walker Bush giving an address celebrating the defeat of aggression and the restoration of Kuwait to its people.
The tone of this movie conveys a message that Operation Desert Storm put down tyranny in the Gulf and ended the threat from Iraq.