Love this pic, only thing better than John Wayne on a horse is John Wayne on a CAT.

he was on a red cat in the fighting seabees

Hi, deereskinner.
That photos is from the movie, "Hellfighters". about fighting oil well fires.

Just my 0.02.

deas you beat me too it. the movie was in colour though. and is a fictionalised story of the life of Red Adair. it seems strange but the use explosives to put out well fires.

the blast uses up and forces the oxygen and forces it away. the secret is cooling the ground and the steel etc enough so it doesn't relight.

they had that issue in the persian gulf in 91 the surrounding ground was so hot it kept relighting the fires. till a British engineer and inventor came up with a ceramic tower design that could be placed over the wells and carry that heat up and away so they could cool the ground before blowing the wells.

 Here is a couple of him on a D7E.

 

Here is one with Bruce Cabot, John Wayne and Jim Hutton on three D7E's lined up to blow out three wells at once.
 

Jim Hutton and Catherine Ross next to 17A D7 from Mustang Cat, Texas. 
 

One of Bruce Cabot.
 
One of Jim Hutton
 
One of Edward Faulkner
 
 

I get more enjoyment out of throwing out a new topic to see how far everybody runs with it, interesting how the pic that I put on is a 17A and all the pics the rest of you posted are D7E's

The "Hellfighters" movie is full of old Cats. The Duke is injured when a D6B operator swerves to avoid hitting a TV reporter and pins him against a D7D. The D7D appears to have been converted to direct electric start. I took this poor quality pic of a D8 later in the film.
Craig