Salute to the Marines
Having being stationed in the Philippines for years as a member of the United States Marine Corps, NCO Sgt. Maj. William Bailey (Beery) is retired after serving for 30 years. This happens several months prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and their laying siege to the South Pacific.
When the Japanese invade the Philippines, Bailey confronts and strangles a Nazi secret agent, who is now spreading anti-American, pro-Japanese propaganda. The spy had posed as a religious pacifist until a devastating Japanese air attack caused many casualties against the unarmed civilians that Bailey, his wife, and daughter (Maxwell) had been living among.
Bailey then takes command of the local Filipino militia that he had earlier trained just prior to his retirement. They fight a series of delaying actions against a Japanese ground invasion force, slowing their attack, while waiting for the U.S. Marine island forces to arrive and counter-attack.
Later, while wearing his one time "dress blues" uniform jacket, he takes out an enemy machine gun emplacement as Marines blow up a vital bridge, halting the Japanese advance. Sgt. Major Bailey is suddenly killed by an air bombing attack after his heroic delaying actions have succeeded.
Years later at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA, Sgt. Major Bailey is posthumously awarded, by his former commander in the Philippines, the corps' highest medal for valor. His daughter, now a Marine sergeant, gratefully accepts the medal for her late father, as the entire base's assembled corps passes in review.
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