James Stewart flew one combat mission over Vietnam while serving as a reservist and eventually retired as a Brigadier General.
James Stewart was a colonel in the US Air Force Reserve, the same rank as his character, when the film was made.
First film of Ann B. Davis, who played a waitress (unbilled), although her part was cut from the film before its release.
One of the C-124A Globemaster IIs (serial number 49-0258) in the scene where they are being loaded for the wing's deployment to Japan is currently under restoration at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware.
The B-36 and B-47 bomber aircraft showcased in the film were such powerful deterrents against Soviet aggression in the 1950's that neither plane ever had to be used in combat, verifying the Strategic Air Command's motto of "Peace Is Our Profession."
The B-47 cockpit used in the film is now on display at the March Field Air Museum in Riverside, CA.
The character of Gen. Ennis C. Hawkes was based on Gen. Curtis LeMay, the real-life commander of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command from 1949 to 1957.
The model aircraft seen on Gen. Hawkes's desk in the final scene might appear to be an eight-engine variant of the six-engine B-47 featured in the film, but is actually a prototype B-52 (either XB-52 or YB-52), with a canopy cockpit design similar to the B-47; the design was changed in the production version.
When MSgt. Bible is introducing Lt. Col. Holland to the crew on his B-36 orientation flight, he introduces the two rear gunners as "Airman Davies" and "Airman Lay," an apparent reference to Valentine Davies and Beirne Lay Jr., the film's screenplay authors.