Bob grows up in a liberal church and family. He joins the Marine Corps after Pearl Harbor, trains as a tanker and ships out to Australia, where he severs tendons in his wrist during a drunken brawl. Chagrined at his failure, he reads the New Testament for months as he recovers and then receives Christ as his Savior. His unit sees combat in three different islands, culminating on Okinawa, where he and his buddies are wounded. The first part ends as he struggles to survive.