[rooter]

There was some questions about the real event that was portrayed in the 1944 movie, THE FIGHTING SEABEES starring John Wayne:

I'M PRETTY SURE THE SCENE IN THE FIGHTING SEABEES WAS BASED ON AURELIO TASSONE IN THE TREASURY ISLANDS.





It was during the landing on Treasury Island in the Solomons, on 28 November 1943, that Fireman 1st Class Aurelio Tassone, USNR, of the 87th Naval Construction Battalion created that legendary figure of the Seabee astride his bulldozer rolling over enemy positions. Tassone was driving his bulldozer ashore during the landing when Lieutenant Charles E. Turnbull, CEC, USNR, told him a Japanese pillbox was holding up the advance from the beach. Tassone drove his dozer toward the pillbox, using the blade as a shield, while Lieutenant Turnbull provided covering fire with his carbine. Under continuous heavy fire, Tassone crushed the pillbox with the dozer blade, killing all 12 of its occupants. For this act Tassone was awarded the Silver Star.


Another milestone in Seabee history was in the making in 1943 -- but the location was Hollywood rather than the South Pacific. Made in 1943 and released in early 1944, the motion picture The Fighting Seabees, starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward. That movie made "Seabee" a household word during the latter part of the war. This picture also began a relationship between John Wayne and the Seabees which was to last more than three decades. In fact, John Wayne's last motion picture was Home for the Seabees, a Navy documentary filmed in 1977 at the Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, California. This was most appropriate, since the exteriors of The Fighting Seabees, had been filmed in and around the same base during World War II.


There are others who claim it was the action of D+3 above when Salatore Impelletteri during the battle of Peleliu...Chief