A Gathering of Eagles

A Gathering of Eagles is a 1963 film about the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War and the pressures of command. The plot is patterned after the World War II film Twelve OClock High, which producerscreenwriter Sy Bartlett also wrote, with elements also mirroring Above and Beyond and Toward the Unknown, films written by his collaborator, Beirne Lay, Jr.. The film was directed by Delbert Mann.

The general agrees and, without further ado, summons to his office his new aide, Colonel Jim Caldwell Rock Hudson USAF, who at the time is conducting a tour of visiting dignitaries through the central alert room of SAC Headquarters at Offutt AFB. Colonel Caldwell reports to his bosss office, and General Hewitt Leif Erickson coolly informs him that the wing commander at Carmody didnt have what it takes and must be replaced. Hewitt offers the job to Caldwell, who enthusiastically accepts. To Caldwell, this is a highly enviable career move, one made more auspicious when he discovers that his good friend and Korean War buddy, Colonel Hollis Farr Rod Taylor, is the vice wing commander. Barely able to conceal his excitement, he telephones his English wife, Victoria Mary Peach, to tell her the news.Soon after he arrives at Carmody in a T33, Caldwell notes a number of problems in the wing that indicate a low state of training and readiness. He then institutes measures that Colonel Farr immediately questions restoring a sevenday alert cycle that isolates flight crews from their families, freezing all promotion recommendations, and making it clear that no member of the 904th may consider his job secure. This includes the Base Commander, Colonel Bill Fowler Barry Sullivan, who, as Caldwell soon learns, drinks heavily. Eventually, Caldwell forces Fowler to retire early, and tells him straightout that his drinking is the cause. He also alienates the wings Deputy Commander for Maintenance, Colonel Smokin Joe Garcia Henry Silva by telling him that he must learn to delegate authorityand when Garcia applies for a transfer to a B58 Hustler bomb wing, Caldwell refuses to act on it. Farr protests that Caldwell is going out on a limb, to which Caldwell replies with a biting rhetorical question, Whats wrong with that? ........

Source: Wikipedia