 After Miss America backs out of a scheduled appearance at China Beach, the new Red Cross volunteer, Holly Pelegrino, challenges the nurses on behalf of the Red Cross Volunteers to compete in a Miss China Beach beauty pageant. Meanwhile, McMurphy uses a little guilt and a little blackmail to get K.C. to visit a wounded soldier in the hospital whose face has been badly disfigured in order to boost his morale. Also, Frankie gets assigned to the motor pool and meets the manager Sarge Pepper, a redneck army sergeant not very eager to have her there.