USMC 1833 Assault Amphibious Vehicle AAV Crewman MOS Patch

Marines call the AAV an amtrac, short for amphibious tractor, and the 1833 is the Marine who crews it from the ship to the shore. MOS 1833 is Assault Amphibious Vehicle Crewman. The AAVP7A1 carries a crew of four and 21 combat equipped Marines, and it swims as well as it rolls. For more than fifty years the amtrac was how a Marine rifle company got from the sea to dry ground. When the Corps moved to the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle, it kept the same MOS for the crews.

The first production LVTP7s, built by FMC, became operational in March 1972. In 1984 the LVT7 family was redesignated AAV7, and the A1 upgrade brought the AAVP7A1 personnel carrier, the AAVC7A1 command vehicle and the AAVR7A1 recovery vehicle. LVTP7s made the amphibious landing on Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury in 1983, and the AAV saw heavy use in the Gulf War in 1991. At An Nasiriyah in March 2003, amtrac crews carried Marines into the fight, and eight AAVs were disabled or destroyed there. In June 2018 the Corps selected the BAE Systems and Iveco design for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, and the AAV was retired from Marine Corps service in 2025.

The patch is 4.5 inches wide by 3.25 inches tall, in the curved top shape of a Marine Corps MOS patch, with a red merrowed edge. A black band across the top reads MARINE CORPS in white. On the scarlet center, a large white 18 and 33 sit on either side of a gold and white eagle, globe and anchor, with SEMPER FIDELIS beneath in white. The black bottom band spells out Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) Crewman. The backing is iron-on, and it can be sewn on as well.

Amtrac Marines lived with salt water, diesel and long hours of maintenance that the rest of the Corps never saw. A crew had to bring the vehicle off a well deck, through the surf and up the beach with a squad in the back, and get everyone home again. The 1833 community is small and close, built in the assault amphibian battalions. The losses at An Nasiriyah are remembered in that community to this day. Anyone who ever rode in the back of a track knows what these crews did.

It fits a shadow box with your AAV battalion patch and your discharge papers, or the vest you wear to a reunion. It also makes a good gift for a Marine who spent his enlistment in the turret or the driver's hatch of an amtrac. Four digits, two words, and the Marines who drove from the sea.