Daniel Rooney is an archivist in the Special Media Archives Services Division of the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland.

Some guys just have to learn things the hard way. Such is the case with Van Heflin's downed bomber pilot who, separated from his crew and his crash-landed plane, struggles haplessly to survive in the jungle behind enemy lines. In an interesting inversion of the stereotypical “ranking officer knows best” scenario, Heflin's enlisted crew members perform survival tasks to near perfection, almost enjoying their jungle outing while searching for their hopelessly lost pilot. Part of a series of “Land and Live” survival shorts produced by the FMPU during the war, this film presents its audience with juxtaposed and competing masculinities-one incompetent and pitiful, the other capable and dutiful. In this game, life itself is up for grabs, and the grand prize will go to the man who can keep-and use-his head.