The screenplays in this book feature the lives of two Americans who recorded "firsts" in the nation's military history. The events took place half a world apart but within a decade of each other (1861-1871). The two never met though they were from adjacent states (Ohio and Kentucky). Navy Lieutenant Hugh Wilson McKee was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and was killed in Kanghwa Korea in a action known as Shinmiyangyo, in 1871. He became the first American to have a fort in Asia named for him. Jacob Parrott entered the Union Army as an illiterate orphan from Ohio, took part in the raid into Georgia to steal a Confederate train, and destroy railroad track. He was the first American to have a Medal of Honor pinned on his chest (by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.) McKee died at 27; Parrott lived into his 70s.