Quest for Military Relic Locates Veteran with Riveting War Story

George Nigro and John Tornga are scrounging for traces of a historic military vehicle with Dunedin roots.

And in doing so, Nigro, a Dunedin museum official, and Tornga, an Honor Flight volunteer, recently discovered another, arguably, more invaluable piece of military history.

They are looking for the "Alligator," an amphibious vehicle developed for hurricane rescue by Clearwater inventor Donald Roebling in the 1930s. It was later redesigned at a Dunedin factory for use in World War II.

The vehicles made their battle debut transporting troops from ship to shore during the brutal, six-month Guadalcanal Campaign between August 1942 and February 1943.

Nigro and Tornga still are on their quest for clues to the whereabouts of an Alligator for possible display at the Dunedin Historical Museum. But during their search the men did find World War II machine gunner Bob Fincher, 91, a Guadalcanal survivor.

Fincher, originally from Tuscaloosa, AL, was drafted by Major League Baseball and played in the Florida State League before enlisting "to serve for the duration of the National Emergency," his service record states. It is dated just 23 days after the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Fincher was in the first wave of U.S. First Marine Division troops to Guadalcanal Island. He landed on the beach on the first day of the campaign on Aug. 7, 1942, and helped capture the island away from enemy forces. He remained engaged in offensive operations, much of it spent camped on the island’s muddy river banks, until Dec. 21, 1942. The air-sea-land campaign marked the first the U.S.'s first major offensive action of World War II.

Fincher, along with his wife Olga, sat with Nigro, Tornga and Patch in his Palm Harbor home on July 3 and shared a riveting, personal account of his time on the island.