4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
Active	1821 – present
Country	USA
Branch	Army
Type	Air defense artillery
Motto	"Nulli Vestigia Retrorsum" (No Step Backward)
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia

The 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment was 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. As a result of the division of the Artillery Corps into the Coast and Field Artillery Corps, the Regiment was broken up 13 February 1901, and its elements reorganized and redesignated as separate numbered companies and batteries of the Artillery Corps.

Early lineage

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. B Battery, 4th Artillery was part of the Union Army's crack Iron Brigade in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.

Regiment broken up 13 February 1901 and its elements reorganized and redesignated as separate numbered companies and batteries of Artillery Corps

4th Coast Artillery Regiment

The regiment was reconstituted on the 1 July 1924 in the Regular Army as the 4th Coast Artillery Regiment. As a result of inter-war reductions in military appropriations, the following reductions and increases in the force levels affected this regiment:

Activated (less Batteries B, E, and F) 18 August 1924 in the Canal Zone.

(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)

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

• Regiment (less Headquarters and Headquarters Battery) 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;

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:
• 1st Battalion consolidated with the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (active) (see below) and consolidated unit designated as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion

Redesignated 31 July 1950 as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

Inactivated 16 June 1957 in England

• 2d Battalion redesignated as the 20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

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, Washington

• 3d Battalion redesignated as the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

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

4th Coast Artillery Battalion

As the 4th Coast artillery Battalion, it was reorganized and redesignated 2 January 1945 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Harbor Defenses of Balboa, but was inactivated on 15 January 1947 at Fort Amador, Canal Zone.

4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group

Consolidated again on 28 June 1950 with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group (see below), the regiment was again consolidated as a unit and designated as the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 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

Under the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS) the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group was consolidated and reorganized to include:

4th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion;

20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion;

44th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion;

4th Air Defense Artillery

The 4th Field Artillery Battalion (organized in 1907) consolidated, reorganized, and redesignated 1 September 1958 as the 4th Artillery Regiment, 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).

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

• Withdrawn 13 September 1986 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System.

HHB, 4th AntiAircraft Artillery Group

• Constituted 5 August 1942 in the Army of the United States as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Group
• Activated 24 August 1942 at Camp Stewart, Georgia
• Group deployed 7 February 1943 for North Africa.
• Arrived in North Africa on 21 February 1943, and landed on Sicily during August 1943, and moved on to Italy on 26 October 1943.
• Redesignated 1 May 1944 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group
• Inactivated 9 December 1944 at Barberino, Italy, with the assets and personnel reassigned to the 1168th Combat Engineer Group.
• Reconstituted 28 June 1950 in the Regular Army

3/95th Coast Artillery Regiment (AA)(Semimobile)

• Constituted 16 December 1940 in the Regular Army as the 95th Coast Artillery Regiment.
• Activated 17 April 1941 at Camp Davis, North Carolina
• Regiment Staged at Fort McDowell, California on 21 December 1941
• Regiment deployed to Hawaii from the San Francisco, Port Of Embarkation on 26 December 1941, and arrived in Hawaii on 7 January 1942.
• Regiment reorganized and redesignated 12 December 1943 as follows:

1/95th CAR became the 93rd AAA Gun Battalion, thereafter separate lineage.

2/95th CAR became the 752nd AAA Gun Battalion, thereafter separate lineage.

3/95th CAR became the 866th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion.

• Battalion arrived on the Philippines on 20 October 1944.
• Battalion arrived on Okinawa on 26 April 1945, where it remained into the Occupation period.
• Inactivated 30 September 1946 in the Philippine Islands
• Redesignated 13 October 1948 as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion
• Activated 15 January 1949 at Fort Bliss, Texas

Present day

The 3d Battalion (Air and Missile Defense), 4th ADA is a battalion under the 108th ADA Brigade at Fort Bragg. They have transitioned from SHORAD to a mixed Patriot and Avenger Battalion.

• 1st Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 2d Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 3d Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 4th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
• A Battery, 4th ADA is a THAAD unit.

Honors

Campaign participation credit

Decorations

• Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for VIETNAM 1967
• Valorous Unit Award for SAIGON
• Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for VIETNAM 1968–1969
• Army Superior Unit Award for 1987

Commemorations

A 4th U.S. Artillery Regimental Brass Band exits that depicts the regimental band during the Civil War.

See also

• Coats of arms of U.S. Air Defense Artillery Regiments
• 4th U.S. Light Artillery, Battery H
• 4th U.S. Light Artillery, Battery I
• 4th U.S. Light Artillery, Battery K
• 4th U.S. Light Artillery, Battery M

References

Sources

• Stanton, Shelby L., Vietnam Order of Battle: A Complete Illustrated Reference to US Army, Stackpole Books, 2003

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army Center of Military History document "4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment Lineage and Honors".