As You Were!

In a train station, Army recruiting sergeant Ames attempts to enlist a group of young men with blandishments of travel and glamour in the Army. After Station Information Bureau clerk, Sgt. Dorian "Dodo" Doubleday, rambles off important statistics about military life, corrects Ames's fallacies and instantly sells the men on the educational opportunities military service provides, all the men decide to enlist. Ames remembers Doubleday as the "two-legged encyclopedia" with a photographic memory that always got him into trouble when they served together in the war seven years ago. Consequently, when Doubleday expresses his desire to reenlist, Ames threatens him, fearing Doubleday will cause him more misery. Ames's captain reprimands Ames, criticizes his recruiting technique and orders him to return to drilling grounds for line duty. At the recruiting office, Sgt. Monihan assigns Doubleday to take the new recruits to the camp and Doubleday dutifully educates them in military fundamentals on the train ride there. By the time they reach camp, Doubleday marches them in like a seasoned veteran. Meanwhile, Ames has already arrived at camp and is failing to teach his new recruits because he treats them gruffly. After the arriving recruits, including Doubleday, are assigned to Ames for training, the captain advises Ames to use gentler methods and lauds Doubleday for his efforts. When the captain orders Ames to send the men to the quartermaster, Ames, hoping to ruin Doubleday's favorable first impression, deliberately gives Doubleday and the new recruits directions that lead them to the WAC compound, which is off-limits to enlisted men. After the men inadvertently enter the WAC locker room, WAC captain reprimands them while Ames secretly watches, snickering about his joke. Doubleday takes full responsibility for the situation and quotes the officer's manual claiming that the attending officer is held responsible for his men's actions. When the captain arrives, however, he reminds Ames that he is in charge of the men and sentences him to camp confinement for 30 days. Embarrassed and infuriated, Ames begins to chase Doubleday, which ends when Ames lands in the trash. Days later, Ames is preparing the recruits for an inspection by the new strict sergeant, but when the officer arrives, Ames discovers he is fastidious Doubleday, who finds nothing wrong with the recruits, but upbraids Ames for a speck of tobacco found on his footlocker. After Ames flies into a rage, thrashing pillows and covering the entire barracks in feathers, the captain enters the barracks and, seeing the mess, suggests Ames go for an evaluation for mental illness and adds ten days to his camp confinement. Once again, Ames blindly chases Doubleday out of the barracks and onto a passing laundry truck, which takes them into the WAC area, when they are trapped in a WAC locker room. Desperate, they enlist Sergeant Peggy P. Hopper's help, who suggests they disguise themselves as WACs. Hoping to exit the area quickly, Doubleday and Ames meander across the compound in their high heels and uniforms, turning heads with their odd behavior. Just before they reach the edge, however, an officer orders them to report to Colonel Lockwood's office for file clerk duty, where their masquerade is discovered. They explain their way out of their predicament by stating that it was an experiment, to test the possibility of enemies infiltrating the camp disguised as WACs. Impressed with their ingenuity, Lockwood asks them to develop a surprise tactic for his infantry movement in upcoming maneuvers. When Ames and Doubleday's uniforms are discovered by the WAC captain, however, Lockwood agrees that the two men must be punished. The captain takes them to the guardhouse, but, Lockwood, in need of Doubleday's expertise in infantry maneuvers, releases Doubleday and Ames into his custody and has them report to his office. Meanwhile, outside Lockwood's office, the WAC captain discovers new evidence for the trial against Ames and Doubleday, and the captain reassures her of the pair's eminent court-martial at the hands of Lockwood. Soon after, Lockwood exits his office, dismisses the case and ask Ames to drive him to maneuvers. While the captain and WAC captain look on in disbelief, the army Jeep hurries off, followed by the sound of a crash. At the scene of the accident, Doubleday nervously salutes Lockwood in the upturned vehicle.