Morrill, George P. "One for O'Brien"

This short story originally appeared in a 1951 issue of Argosy Magazine. Captain Cranston, skipper of a ship doing location shooting in the South Pacific circa 1950 for a Hollywood World War 2 film (“Hell Below Bougainville”), recalls action he saw in the very same waters during the War. He particularly remembers the heroism exhibited by a young crewman (Harvey O’Brien) who’d served aboard his clandestine Guadalcanal-based “spotter” ship. Though the young man’s story is a heroic one and has all the makings of a Hollywood movie, Cranston (wisely) decides to not sully his crewmate’s memory by sharing it with the Tinseltown producer who now employs him.