2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion AAV The First Wave Patch

At Tarawa on November 20, 1943, the battalion's amtracs carried the first three waves across the reef, and that is where THE FIRST WAVE on this patch comes from. The unit was commissioned in San Diego on March 18, 1942, as the Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion, organic to the 2nd Marine Division. It went into Betio with LVT-1s and LVT-2s and lost 32 Marines killed and 68 missing, its commander, Major Henry C. Drewes, among the dead. Today it is the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, known across the Corps as 2nd Tracks. It is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, under II Marine Expeditionary Force.

Company H arrived at Tulagi on October 9, 1942, during the Guadalcanal campaign. On June 15, 1944, the battalion's LVT-4s landed Marines on Saipan, and on July 24 it brought the 24th Marine Regiment ashore on Tinian. Okinawa followed, and in 1991 the battalion went to Desert Storm. In 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, elements of Company A and Company C fought at Nasiriyah on March 23 with Regimental Combat Team 2. The battalion made several rotations to Afghanistan after that, and it has since moved from the AAV-7A1 to the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV).

The patch is a 3 inch circle with a red rope border around an olive band. THE FIRST WAVE arches across the top in black, and 2D ASSAULT AMPHIBIAN BN curves along the bottom. In the center, a green alligator with its jaws open climbs over a tracked amphibian vehicle against a blue field, with white spray trailing behind it. A small red and gold device sits under the hull, and below it, in red, are the letters YAT-YAS, the amtrackers' own salty motto, which we will let a tracker spell out for you. The backing is sew-on, so plan to stitch it in place.

The gator is the battalion's mascot, an animal as much at home in the water as on the beach, and its Iraq rotations went by Team Gator. Amtrackers have a reputation for being the first Marines to touch the sand and the ones who get the infantry there. The battalion lists Second to None and A Mare Ad Terram, from sea to land, among its mottos. Every crewman who drove, commanded or turned wrenches on a track out of Courthouse Bay knows what that means. This patch is for them.

Put it in a shadow box with your 2nd Marine Division patch and a photo of your track, or sew it on a vest for the next 2nd Tracks reunion. It is a good gift for a former AAV crewman or the Marine who rode in the back of one. First across the beach, and proud of it.