During World War II, Chief Aviation Pilot Ned Trumpet (Wallace Beery) is the commander of a blimp at Lakehurst, New Jersey naval base. "Old Gas Bag", who has a reputation for telling tall tails, brags about his fictional son to his skeptical friend Jimmy Shannon (James Gleason) and, then realizes that he will need to find someone to impersonate his "son". By chance, Trumpet soon meets Jess Weaver (Tom Drake), a young disabled man, arranging for an operation to fix his legs, injured in a riding accident. Afterward, Weaver agrees to go along with the deception and soon earns his Navy wings and commission as an ensign.