4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

Constituted 1 June 1821 in the Regular Army as the 4th Regiment of Artillery and organized from new and existing units with headquarters at Pensacola, Florida. The lineages of some of the units that initially made up the 4th U.S. Artillery include campaign credit for the War of 1812.[1] Company F carried the lineage of Alexander Hamilton's New York Provincial Company of Artillery from this time until the regiment was broken up on 13 February 1901, with the lineage eventually transferred to the 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment.[2]

Lieutenant Stephen H. Weed commanded Battery B during the Utah War in 1860,[3] and was killed at Gettysburg in 1863 as an infantry brigade commander.[4]

Twelve batteries of the regiment served in the American Civil War. Battery B was part of the Union Army's crack Iron Brigade in the Army of the Potomac.[5] 1st Lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson was killed commanding Battery G at Gettysburg and posthumously received brevet promotions to lieutenant colonel.[6]

Order of battle information shows that batteries of the regiment deployed outside the U.S. in the Spanish–American War of 1898. However, no battle honors for this war are on the official lineage and honors certificate dated 30 September 1996.[1] Batteries F, G, and H were at the Siege of Santiago, the latter two comprising the siege train.[7][8]

Regiment broken up 13 February 1901 and its elements reorganized and redesignated as separate numbered companies and batteries of the Artillery Corps.[1]

The regiment was reconstituted on 1 July 1924 in the Regular Army as the 4th Coast Artillery (Harbor Defense) (Type C).[9] Changes in the regimental organization were as follows:

Activated (less Batteries B, E, and F) 18 August 1924 at Fort Amador in the Panama Canal Zone, part of the Harbor Defenses of Balboa on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. The regiment was organized by redesignating the 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th companies of the Coast Artillery Corps (CAC). Batteries C, D, E, G, H, I, and K carried the lineage and designations of the corresponding batteries in the old 4th Artillery.[10][11]

(Battery C inactivated 31 July 1926 at Fort Amador, Canal Zone;

Batteries B, C, and F activated 15 April 1932 at Fort Amador, Canal Zone;

Battery E activated 1 February 1938 at Fort Amador, Canal Zone;

Battery O activated 15 March 1940 in the Canal Zone;

Batteries M and N activated 14 October 1940 in the Canal Zone;

Battery L activated 27 January 1941 in the Canal Zone)[11]

The Regiment (less Headquarters and Headquarters Battery (HHB)) was disbanded 3 October 1944 in the Canal Zone. Afterwards, the regiment underwent more changes with the HHB, 4th Coast Artillery Regiment, reorganized and redesignated 1 November 1944 as HHB, 4th Coast Artillery Group. The remainder of the regimental assets were used to organize the 4th Coast Artillery Battalion.[12]

• Regiment (less HHB) reconstituted 12 October 1944 in the Regular Army, concurrently consolidated with the 4th Coast Artillery Battalion (constituted 3 October 1944 in the Army of the United States) and consolidated unit designated as the 4th Coast Artillery Battalion;[1]

Activated 1 November 1944 in the Canal Zone

Disbanded (less Batteries A and D) 1 February 1946 in the Canal Zone (Batteries A and D concurrently redesignated as Batteries A and D, Harbor Defenses of Balboa;

inactivated 15 January 1947 and 15 May 1950, respectively, in the Canal Zone) 4th Coast Artillery Battalion (less Batteries A and D)

reconstituted 28 June 1950 in the Regular Army; concurrently, battalion and Batteries A and D, Harbor Defenses of Balboa, redesignated as the 4th Coast Artillery Regiment (less Headquarters and Headquarters Battery)

• Remainder of the 4th Coast Artillery Regiment reorganized 28 June 1951 as follows:[1]
• 1st Battalion consolidated with the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (active) (see below under 3/95th CA (AA)) and consolidated unit designated as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion[1]

Redesignated 31 July 1950 as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

Inactivated 16 June 1957 in England

• 2nd Battalion redesignated as the 20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion[1]

Redesignated 13 March 1952 as the 20th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion

Activated 8 May 1952 at Fort Lewis, Washington

Redesignated 1 May 1953 as the 20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

Inactivated 20 December 1957 at Phantom Lake, Bellevue, Washington

• 3rd Battalion redesignated as the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion[1]

Redesignated 1 April 1951 as the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion and activated at Fort Stewart, Georgia

Redesignated 3 August 1953 as the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

Redesignated 22 March 1955 as the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion

Inactivated 1 September 1958 at Niagara Falls, New York

The 4th Coast Artillery Group was redesignated from (probably HHB) 4th Coast Artillery Regiment on 1 November 1944 in the Panama Canal Zone, where redesignated as the Harbor Defenses of Balboa on 2 January 1945.[13]

The 4th Coast Artillery Battalion was constituted 3 October 1944 and activated 1 November 1944; in August 1945 Battery C was located at Seymour Island, Galápagos.[14] The 4th CA Battalion was inactivated (less Batteries A and D) on 1 February 1946. Batteries A and D became the corresponding batteries of the Harbor Defenses of Balboa; Battery A was inactivated on 15 January 1947 and Battery D was inactivated on 15 May 1950.[1]

HHB, 4th Coast Artillery Regiment was consolidated again on 28 June 1950 with HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group (see below), and designated as the HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group, activated 1 September 1951 at Ladd Air Force Base, Alaska and inactivated 15 January 1958 at Ladd Air Force Base, Alaska.[1]

Under the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS) the HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group was consolidated and reorganized to include:[1]

4th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion;

20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion;

44th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion

The 4th Field Artillery Battalion (organized in 1907) consolidated, reorganized, and redesignated 1 September 1958 as the 4th Artillery, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System. The 4th Artillery Regiment (less former 4th Field Artillery Battalion) was again reorganized and redesignated 1 September 1971 as the 4th Air Defense Artillery, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System (former 4th Field Artillery Battalion concurrently reorganized and redesignated as the 4th Field Artillery Regiment – hereafter separate lineage).[1]

A battalion of the regiment, the 1st, later redesignated the 4th Missile Battalion (Nike-Hercules), 4th Artillery, 26th Artillery Group (Air Defense) had its headquarters at Fort Lawton, Washington in the 1960s and early 1970s while operating Nike-Hercules missiles as part of the U.S. Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM).

The regiment was withdrawn on 13 September 1986 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System.[1]

A paratrooper with E Battery, 3rd Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment practices jumping from a 34–foot tower with the FIM-92 Stinger and the new "weapon exposed apparatus"

The 3rd Battalion (Air and Missile Defense), 4th Air Defense Artillery is a battalion under the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bragg. They have transitioned from SHORAD to a mixed Patriot and Avenger Battalion. Of note, A Battery, 4th ADAR is a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) unit while E Battery, 3rd Battalion, 4th ADAR is the last airborne air defense artillery formation in the U.S. Army.

• 1st Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 2nd Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 3rd Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment[18][19]
• 4th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

• Shield

Gules, two pallets argent, on and over a fess vert between in chief overall five rays beveled counter beveled issuant fanwise blended from base blue through green and yellow to orange and in base a Lorraine Cross or, an escallop of the last charged with a Spanish castle of the first and between two cannon palewise of the second.[21]

• Crest

On a wreath of the colors, or and gules, a sheaf of twelve arrows argent behind a garb pierced by a fishhook fesswise, hook to sinister and base, or.[21]

• Motto

Audacia (By Daring Deeds).[21]

The distinctive insignia is an adaptation of the crest and motto of the coat of arms.[21]

A 4th U.S. Artillery Regimental Brass Band exists that depicts the regimental band during the Civil War.[22]

• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery A
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery B
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery C
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery G
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery H
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery I
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery K
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery M
• Field Artillery Branch (United States)
• Air Defense Artillery Branch (United States)
• U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps

•  This article incorporates public domain material from 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment Lineage and Honors. United States Army Center of Military History.
• Berhow, Mark A., Ed. (2015). American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide, Third Edition. McLean, Virginia: CDSG Press. ISBN 978-0-9748167-3-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Gaines, William C., Coast Artillery Organizational History, 1917-1950, Coast Defense Journal, vol. 23, issue 2
• Stanton, Shelby L. (1991). World War II Order of Battle. Galahad Books. ISBN 0-88365-775-9.
• Stanton, Shelby L. (2003). Vietnam Order of Battle. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117007-1-9.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment (United States).

• Greg Hagg; Bolling Smith; Mark Berhow. "Insignia of the Coast Artillery Corps" (PDF). The Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. Retrieved 18 May 2018.