The title "The Gold Crew" refers to the navy's system of having rotating crews on-board missile subs - the subs can endure prolonged duty better than the men who run it; to ensure that a submarine remains ready for sea (and for launching its missiles) for the longest period, missile subs return for patrol only to switch crews - blue crew for gold and vica versa. The gold crew gets the lucky (or unlucky) assignment of participating in an extended wargame involving a few missiles with unarmed warheads. The need for constant readiness requires that some of the missiles remained tipped with armed warheads, but the gold crew is the best and nobody imagines that the crew is particularly vulnerable to stress.