Isbir, Amin, COX

The 6th Naval Beach Battalion was commissioned 9 October 1943 under the command of Eugene C. Carusi, USNR, an Annapolis graduate and Washington D.C. attorney. The Battalion was formed in July and trained exclusively for OVERLORD, the Allied permanent re-entry into Continental Europe.

Upon arrival at Camp Bradford, VA in July 1943, personnel were assigned to one of four sections: communications, hydrographic, boat repair or medical. As training progressed, these Navy specialists began to resemble an Army battalion, broken into three companies and nine platoons. Each platoon had a medical doctor and was headed by a Beachmaster and his assistant.

WWII Naval Beach Battalions were indistinguishable from Army assault troops. While training at Fort Pierce, these Navy amphibians wore coveralls, field shoes, life belts, gas masks, leather gloves and full packs with rifles slung over their shoulders, engaging in joint maneuvers with the Army off the coast of Florida. Having been issued Thompson submachine guns and wearing steel helmets with a sky blue "6" (later a red arc) painted on the front, the 6th Naval Beach Battalion appeared more like soldiers than sailors.

The nine Navy doctors of the Battalion were issued Colt 45s and then reassured by instructors that in the event their shots ever missed their mark during combat on the beach, they would at least have the pistol to throw at the enemy! The Army counterparts of the USN beach battalions were amphibious engineers. Dr. Ralph Hall, a recent graduate of Syracuse Medical School, wrote to his pregnant wife that he "joined the Navy to get out of the Army. The army boys that are here joined the Army and are headed to go to sea and fight from boats. All is very ironical."

On 7 January 1944, after six months of intensive amphibious warfare training at Fort Pierce and Camp Bradford, the Battalion traveled overseas on the SS Mauritania to the UK in preparation for the invasion of Normandy.