John Erlinger

Foreign agents are after a substance called "laser rubies" that can power a killer laser beam. Government agents are dispatched to protect the rubies and eliminate the foreign agents.

Bus Riley returns to his small town after time in the army. On his return, his ex-girlfriend wants to resume their relationship. The only problem is she has married in the mean time. Searching for fulfilment in his life, Bus decides to get a job with his gay friend who is a mortician. When the mortician makes a pass at him, Bus quickly gets out.

In 1944, Capt. Josiah J. Newman is the doctor in charge of Ward 7, the neuropsychiatric ward, at an Army Air Corps hospital in Arizona. The hospital is under-resourced and Newman scrounges what he needs with the help of his inventive staff, especially Cpl. Jake Leibowitz. The military in general is only just coming to accept psychiatric disorders as legitimate and Newman generally has 6 weeks to cure them or send them on to another facility. There are many patients in the ward and his latest include Colonel Norville Bliss who has dissociated from his past; Capt. Paul Winston who is nearly catatonic after spending 13 months hiding in a cellar behind enemy lines; and 20 year-old Cpl. Jim Tompkins who is severely traumatized after his aircraft was shot down. Others come and go, including Italian prisoners of war, but Newman and team all realize that their success means the men will return to their units.