The 887th Airborne Engineer Aviation Company is attached to the First Airborne Task Force. It is the only engineer unit in the European theater of operations to have been trained to fly gliders with their own engineer equipment to transport. It has for that the Airborne distinction.
Captain Robert Shamin is the commander of this company and Lt. George A. Parnell is the second in command.
During Operation Dragoon, 44 Waco gliders were allocated for the 887th Engineer Company, which then comprised 165 men.
- The company's 1st Platoon is attached to the 551st PIB.
- The 2nd Platoon is attached to the 550th IAB.
- The 3rd Platoon remains in reserve.
Dday - August 15, 1944
During the landing on DZ/LZ O and A, the entire company had to make forced landings, some of these landings were very rough, and nearly a third of the company's men were injured. Captain Morris Shamin himself was injured during the landing Lieutenant George Parnell was to lift Shamin from his glider.
The Germans had planted wooden poles about six feet high, covering all the open fields. At dawn, Charles Bandy's pilot spotted a small opening near a creek bed about 22 miles inland so he could then land. The pilot is decapitated on landing and Bandy exits from the side of the glider. Around six German soldiers opened fire on them. This stream bed saves their lives. They hide under the embankment until Bandy shoots down the one who shoots the most. Bandy's group carries out their mission to blow up their assigned bridge and meet other 1st ABTF troops that night at a culvert outside the small town of Le Muy.
During the invasion, Cpl. Douglas Brown and Pvt. Reidar Tobiassen are killed while landing their glider.