Woman being abused in military facility, joins military

Zack Mayo is an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he arrives at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill Sergeant Emil Foley. Mayo is an excellent cadet, but a little cold around the heart, so Foley rides him mercilessly, sensing that the young man would be prime officer material if he weren't so self-involved. Zack's affair with a working girl is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself.

In response to political pressure from Senator Lillian DeHaven, the U.S. Navy begins a program that would allow for the eventual integration of women into its combat services. The program begins with a single trial candidate, Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil, who is chosen specifically for her femininity. O'Neil enters the grueling Navy SEAL training program under the command of Master Chief John James Urgayle, who unfairly pushes O'Neil until her determination wins his respect.

A civilian, ordered to report to his draft board, slips off into a dream about the army life ahead of him. He is assigned to a remote desert post where the soldiers crave female companionship. He forges orders that brings a platoon of WACs who are forbidden to fraternize with the soldiers.

A young woman in Army Basic Training faces adversity from leadership that underestimates her strength and ability leading her to push herself in ways she never thought possible.

This hard-hitting film is the first to cover the shocking story of sexual harassment and rape of American women soldiers. The Pentagon has acknowledged receiving 3,000 reports of sexual mistreatment in one year alone. These female soldiers were not attacked by the Afghan or Iraqi "enemy," but by colleagues in their own platoons and sometimes by their own superior officers. Each year the number of reported sexual assaults has skyrocketed but not the number of convictions: only 2% of accused rapists are ever court-martialed. The double traumas of sexual persecution and combat may be why a 2008 RAND study found that female veterans are suffering twice as much depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as their male counterparts.Very few women have been willing to speak out, but four women, all in their twenties, and their families decided to talk openly about their ordeals.