The film begins with Zachary Mayo preparing to report to Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) following college graduation. After his mother's suicide while he was a child, he had moved to the Philippines to live with his father, Byron, a Navy Senior Chief Boatswain's Mate. His father, initially reluctant to take Zack because he spent most of his time at sea and did not think he would be a good father, relents after Zack begs him to stay, and Zack grows up as a Navy brat at U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay. Zack is now determined—despite his father's disapproval—to become a Navy pilot so Byron will have to salute him.
Upon arrival at AOCS, Zack and his classmates are shocked by the treatment they receive from their drill instructor, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, who tells them the next 13 weeks are designed to eliminate officer candidates (OCs) who are found to be mentally or physically unfit for commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. Foley warns the male candidates about the "Puget Sound Debs", local girls who dream of marrying a Naval Aviator to escape their dull lives. Foley warns the OCs they will feign pregnancy or even stop using birth control to become pregnant to trap a man. Zack and fellow candidate Sid Worley meet two local factory workers, Paula Pokrifki and Lynette Pomeroy, at a Navy Ball. Zack begins a relationship with Paula while Sid dates Lynette.
Foley runs the program mercilessly, and Recruit Topper Daniels drops out after nearly drowning in the Dilbert Dunker during a ditching-escape exercise. Foley believes Zack lacks motivation and is not a team player, and when he discovers Zack has a side business selling pre-shined shoes and belt buckles, he punishes Zack with an entire weekend of hazing to make him quit the program. Zack refuses, and Foley tells him he will expel him. Zack breaks down, telling Foley "I've got nowhere else to go. I've got nobody." Satisfied that Zack has come to a crucial self-realization, Foley gives him the chance to prove he can be a team player.
The next weekend, during an awkward meal with Paula and her family, Zack learns that Paula’s real father, an officer candidate like him, got Paula’s mother pregnant and refused to marry her. Later, during his last obstacle-course run, Zack has a chance to break the course record, but instead stops to encourage his teammate, Casey Seeger, who had been having trouble on the course, to succeed by climbing over a 12-foot (3.7 m) wall.
Zack attends a dinner with Sid and his parents and learns that Sid has a long-time girlfriend back home who was his late brother's girlfriend and whom he is planning to marry once he receives his commission. Meanwhile, Lynette has been dropping hints to Sid that she may be pregnant with his child. After having a severe anxiety attack during a high-altitude simulation in a pressure chamber, Sid realizes that he joined the program out of a sense of obligation to his family and quits the program without saying goodbye. He goes to Lynette's house to propose marriage but she rejects him, telling him she wants to marry a naval aviator, and that she was never pregnant.
Zack discovers Sid checked into a motel and hanged himself. He heads back to base, intending to quit the program himself, but Foley will not let him. They fight an unsanctioned martial arts bout that Foley barely wins because of Zack's expertise. An injured Foley tells Zack "you can quit now if you want".
Zack stays and is commissioned into the Navy with his graduating class. Following naval tradition, he receives his first salute from Foley in exchange for a US silver dollar. While tradition calls for the drill instructor to place the coin in his left shirt pocket, Foley places the coin in his right pocket, acknowledging that Zack was a special candidate. Zack thanks the Gunnery Sergeant for not giving up on him and says he would have never have made it without him. While leaving the base, he sees Foley initiating a new OC class who are in the same position he was thirteen weeks ago. Now as Ensign Mayo with orders to undertake flight training, he finds Paula at the factory and declares his love to her. He picks her up and walks out with her in his arms to the applause of her colleagues, including Lynette.
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