Sac`ri`fice – the act of offering of oneself, up to and including death for a cause greater than one man.

These are the men that did the job. The Second Engineer Special Brigade, or 2ESB. Included in this were the 532d, 542d and 592d Boat And Shore Regiments. Brigade HQ and HQ Company. The 562d Boat Maintenance Battalion kept ‘em running. The wounded were tended to by 262d Medical Battalion. The 287th Signal company maintained the communication and recon. Ordnance courtesy of the 162d Maintenance Company. Quartermaster HQ and HQ Company, the 3498th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company, 695th Quartermaster Truck Company, the 189th Quartermaster Gas Supply Company.

Though called the 2ESB, these were the original Army Amphibians.

Originally a one-mission unit, no less than thirty-two D-Day missions were fought – and won. See the “Red page” under pictures to see them all.

Nearly thirty months of hell. They paid the price for our freedom, which even today is not free.

From Cape Cod and many other areas, to Florida, Fort Ord and Brisbane, they trained and prepared in 1942 and into early 1943. The trained with the 9th AIF in Australia. Then, it was off to war.

Salamua, Lae, Finschafen, Saidor, Hollandia, Biak Island, Leyte, Luzon, and other areas in the Phillipines.

A total of eight Presidential Unit Citations were given including Lae, Finschafen, Hollandia Biak Island and others.

Their motto, Put ‘em across