Red Storm Rising/Awesome

"Sgt. Nichols: Does he know what he's about? Sgt. Smith: The skipper? I watched him kill three Russians with a knife. That good enough? Sgt. Nichols: ... bloody hell."
 * Just to start with, there's Ed Morris' saving of the frigate Pharris after she gets her bow blown off by a Soviet torpedo. Thanks to fast and decisive action on the part of himself and his crew, the critically damaged ship is able to stay afloat, get a tow and make it back to port in Boston. Morris doesn't think so himself, but everyone else around him, from his commanding admiral on down, thinks the feat is a Moment of Awesome well worth a medal and reassignment as captain of a top-of-the-line frigate tasked to help protect the most crucial convoy of the war.
 * Alekseyev's impromptu command of 20th Tank Division's breakthrough. He takes command of a headless division not even an hour before the attack begins, leads them in a breakthrough of NATO lines, takes an APC to the front lines, and then personally calls down artillery on NATO tanks trying to stem the breakthrough. And then refuses to return to headquarters, even after nearly being killed by an airstrike, until CINC-West makes it an order.
 * The veteran SAS sergeant expressing his doubts at the usefulness of an Air Force weather officer, only to be epically put in his place by one of the Marines who had been following that weatherman all the way across Iceland.