4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment


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 Coast and Field Artillery units, 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. The lineages of some of the units that initially made up the 4th U.S. Artillery include campaign credit for the War of 1812. 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.
Lieutenant Stephen H. Weed commanded Battery B during the Utah War in 1860, and was killed at Gettysburg in 1863 as an infantry brigade commander.
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. 1st Lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson was killed commanding Battery G at Gettysburg and posthumously received brevet promotions to lieutenant colonel.
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. Batteries F, G, and H were at the Siege of Santiago, the latter two comprising the siege train.
Regiment broken up 13 February 1901 and its elements reorganized and redesignated as separate numbered companies and batteries of the Artillery Corps.

4th Coast Artillery Regiment

The regiment was reconstituted on 1 July 1924 in the Regular Army as the 4th Coast Artillery . Changes in the regimental organization were as follows:
The Regiment 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.
The 4th Coast Artillery Group was redesignated from 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.
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. The 4th CA Battalion was inactivated 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.

4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group

HHB, 4th Coast Artillery Regiment was consolidated again on 28 June 1950 with HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group, 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.
Under the Combat Arms Regimental System the HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group was consolidated and reorganized to include:

4th Air Defense Artillery

The 4th Field Artillery Battalion consolidated, reorganized, and redesignated 1 September 1958 as the 4th Artillery, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System. The 4th Artillery Regiment was again reorganized and redesignated 1 September 1971 as the 4th Air Defense Artillery, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System.
A battalion of the regiment, the 1st, later redesignated the 4th Missile Battalion, 4th Artillery, 26th Artillery Group 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.
The regiment was withdrawn on 13 September 1986 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System.

HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group

The lineage of the 4th AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion is traced through the 3/95th Coast Artillery Battalion as follows:
The 3rd Battalion, 4th ADAR 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. A Battery 4th ADAR is a THAAD Unit.

Campaign participation credit

War of 1812: Louisiana 1815
Indian Wars: Creeks; Seminoles; Modocs; Little Big Horn; Nez Perces; Bannocks
Mexican War: Palo Alto; Resaca de la Palma; Monterey; Vera Cruz; Cerro Gordo; Contreras; Chapultepec; Tamaulipas 1846
Civil War: Peninsula; Shiloh; Valley; Manassas; Antietam; Fredericksburg; Murfreesborough; Chancellorsville; Gettysburg; Chickamauga; Chattanooga; Wilderness; Spotsylvania; Cold Harbor; Petersburg; Shenandoah; Nashville; Appomattox; Virginia 1861; Virginia 1862; Virginia 1863; Virginia 1864; Virginia 1865; Mississippi 1862
World War II: American Theater, streamer without inscription; Tunisia; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Rome-Arno; Leyte; Ryukyus
Vietnam:
Armed Forces Expeditions: Grenada
Southwest Asia: Defense of Saudi Arabia; Liberation and Defense of Kuwait

Decorations

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.
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.
Audacia.

Symbolism

The shield is scarlet for artillery and with the two white stripes, representative of the campaign streamer of the War of 1812, depicts the age of some of the units of the regiment. The green fess refers to Mexican War service, and
the two silver cannon allude to those lost without dishonor and regained with glory during that war. The escallop, the emblem of St. James, with the Spanish castle, represents the battle of Santiago, Cuba, in which elements of the regiment participated. The Lorraine Cross signifies the service of a battery of the regiment in Lorraine during World War I. The five rays, indicative of the aurora borealis, denote the service of batteries of the regiment in Alaska.
The garb and fishhook commemorate participation in the battle of Gettysburg in the wheat field, the fishhook being the shape of the federal battle line. The arrows denote the Indian campaigns.

Distinctive unit insignia

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

Commemorations

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