When America is drawn into the Second World War, Michael enlists in the U.S. Army Air Corps, becoming a pilot, while Lance "crusaded with his own weapons – the word and pen" by becoming a journalist. However, on Michael's 23rd birthday, as he brings his plane in to land, the hangar he is entering explodes. His fiancée, Kim Meredith, and brother Lance witness this act of sabotage, and the latter races into the burning structure, managing to find his badly injured sibling, only for Michael to die in his arms.