Destination Gobi

Destination Gobi is a 1953 Technicolor Action War Adventure in which Sam McHale (Richard Widmark) heads a group of US Navy men, sent to Mongolia for weather observation. McHale must lead his men across the treacherous Gobi desert to the freedom of the seacoast. Rescued from the Japanese by a Mongolian chief (Murvyn Vye), the men are compelled to repay their rescuer by securing enough saddles for his sixty horses. A flummoxed Pentagon okays the requisition, and the chieftain leads Widmark's band to Okinawa.

After the picture's opening credits, a written foreword reads: <blockquote>"In the Navy records in Washington, there is an obscure entry reading 'Saddles for Gobi.' This film is based on the story behind that entry--one of the strangest stories of World War II."</blockquote>

The unit involved was part of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization.

Plot

In November 1944, Chief Boatswain's Mate Sam McHale (Richard Widmark) is aghast to learn that he is being transferred from the USS Enterprise, his beloved aircraft carrier, to Argos 6, a Navy-operated weather station in Inner Mongolia's Gobi Desert. Capt. Gates (Willis Bouchey) explains to McHale that accurate weather forecasts are crucial to the Allies' success in the Pacific theater, and that his practical...
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