First to Fight (film)

First to Fight is a 1967 American Technicolor Warner Bros. war film starring Chad Everett, Marilyn Devin, making her film debut, Dean Jagger, Bobby Troup and James Best. Based loosely on the story of United States Marine Gunnery Sergeant John Manila Basilone, who later went back into action and died at Iwo Jima.

In 1942, a force of American Marines are attacked by the Japanese in the jungles at Guadalcanal. Sergeant Shanghai Jack Conell Chad Everett is the sole survivor of his squad, and when he makes it back to his own lines, he is given a field promotion to Lieutenant and awarded the Medal of Honor by Lt. Col. Baseman Dean Jagger.Sent back home on a War Bonds Tour, Connell is reluctant to trade on his heroism and does not consider himself a hero, just a survivor. When he returns home, despite efforts of his friends to find him dates, he falls in love with Peggy Sandford Marilyn Devin and the two are married. Her fiance had been killed and Peggy extracts a promise from Connell that he will not go back into the war. For a time, he trains new recruits at Camp Pendleton Marine Base, but is emotionally distraught as he comes to think of himself as a slacker and treats his trainees harshly in the belief that they need to be hardened for battle. ........

Source: Wikipedia