Captain America arrives on the beach in Normandy, France, in response to an urgent summons he had requested decades earlier. French workers were excavating a tunnel dynamited by the Germans during the War and found it larger than expected. Cap is directed to an access tunnel where he pauses to collect himself before entering. Inside a utility room he finds the skeleton of an American soldier, Private Bobby Shaw of Pasadena, Texas. He says a prayer and arranges for the body to be returned to the United States for burial to fulfill a promise he made sixty years ago. A soldier asks who Shaw was that Captain America requested to recover his body personally; Cap replies, "He was me."
Flashback to Fort Lehigh in 1941: Private Bobby "Shrimpie" Shaw was the company screw-up, unable to handle the rigors of training or to remember the steps in the various drills. Steve Rogers, secretly Captain America, tried to help Bobby any way he could but that frequently resulted in Steve sharing Bobby’s punishment. One night as they are assigned to KP duty together, Bobby shares his dream of buying a home near a body of water where he can settle down with a beautiful girl…. As the war progresses, Captain America serves his country with acts of heroism, while keeping tabs on Bobby Shaw. In Sicily, Cap is with the Infantry when they are pinned down by enemy fire. Shaw is missing and is soon spotted cowering in fear on the other side of the street. Cap braves a hail of German bullets to reach Bobby and encourage him to do what’s right; he heads back across the street…but the terrified Bobby remains where he is….
In the present, Cap takes Bobby’s last letter home to his mother (now deceased) from the dead man’s pocket and, in a brief ceremony, he announces a posthumous promotion and presents a Purple Heart to the skeleton. The confused soldier again questions Cap who explains that Bobby Shaw was the worst soldier in the history of the United States but the bravest man Cap ever knew….
Flashback: Cap arranged for Bobby to be transferred to The Big Red One, where he was sent to England to await the invasion. There, he covered his shyness about talking to women by claiming he had a more beautiful girl back home…. Cap has Bobby assigned to be at his side as the US Army storms Omaha Beach on D-Day. At the last minute, Bobby confesses that he can’t swim so Cap has to make sure the hapless GI makes it to the beach without drowning as well as being shot. Cap leaves the terrified Bobby cowering in a shelter and heads on to his main mission. Soldiers are pinned down by enemy fire and Cap has to clear the way for them to reach the cliff base. The Living Legend pushes through the hail of bullets to reach some men in a foxhole but discovers the field telephone has been broken. He turns and sees Bobby Shaw following him; the young soldier blindly ran after Cap and couldn’t stop. From their position they see an access tunnel in the cliff. Cap sends Bobby back to inform the rest of the unit while he goes on ahead to battle guards. The soldiers reach the tunnel and enter in the face of gunfire. They discover the tunnel is mined as the commander is killed. Panicking, Bobby hides in a utility room; Cap orders him to try to reach the enemy position from the flank but Bobby is too scared. A German hurls a grenade at the Americans and rushes forward and kicks the bomb away but he is critically injured by the explosion. Cap carries the wounded Bobby to the utility room and promises to come back for him but Bobby knows this is the end…. Cap hustles the other GIs out of the tunnel just moments before the explosives detonate….
At a memorial service for Bobby Shaw attended by military personnel and superheroes, Cap pays tribute to the fallen hero, who died that others might live free. Of all the heroes he’s known, Bobby was the bravest, he then drops Bobby’s dog tags into the water—the water he’d always dreamed of, beside the most beautiful girl, the Statue of Liberty….