The First To Figh (1967)

U.S. Marines are dug in and ready in First to Fight, a World War II saga that takes its title from the Marine Hymn, its battle savvy from the technical guidance of a Marine veteran of Saipan and Iwo Jima and its power from a script by Star Trek veteran Gene L. Coon, himself a Marine sergeant during World War II and the Korean War. "They were pretty hard to miss," Jack Connell (Chad Everett) says about the waves of attacking enemy he pushes back on Guadalcanal. Yet the young leatherneck's tough- est test lies ahead. After a stateside hitch where he receives the Congressional Medal of Honor and mar- ries, he's no longer a gung-ho devil dog when he returns to combat. Connell is frozen with fright-until an unflinching Sarge (Gene Hackman) rekindles his courage. The man they call Shanghai Jack Connell proved himself once. In the jungle-green hell of Saipan, he'll do it again.