WWII Veteran Ensign Frank Palamara joins the crew of the U.S.S. Little Rock and is in charge of catapulting planes off the back of the cruiser. On their first mission out at sea, they cross the equator, and Ensign Palamara has to go through a time-honored hazing tradition for all sailors who cross the Equator for the first time that was stopped years later after a sailor dies.