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 [United States Army United States Army Coast Artillery Corps|Coast Artillery Corps|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, 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.
  • Regiment reconstituted 12 October 1944 in the Regular Army, concurrently consolidated with the 4th Coast Artillery Battalion and consolidated unit designated as the 4th Coast Artillery Battalion;
  • Remainder of the 4th Coast Artillery Regiment reorganized 28 June 1951 as follows:
  • 1st Battalion consolidated with the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion and consolidated unit designated as the 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion
  • 2nd Battalion redesignated as the 20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
  • 3rd Battalion redesignated as the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

4th Coast Artillery Group and 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

  • Constituted 5 August 1942 in the Army of the United States as HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Group.
  • Activated 24 August 1942 at Camp Stewart, Georgia.
  • Group departed the United States 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 HHB, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group.
  • Inactivated 9 December 1944 at Barberino, Italy, with assets and personnel reassigned to the 1168th Engineer Combat Group.
  • Reconstituted 28 June 1950 in the Regular Army.

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

The lineage of the 4th AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion is traced through the 3/95th Coast Artillery Battalion as follows:
  • Constituted 13 January 1941 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:
  • 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

in 2025, the 3rd Division Air Defense Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery was put under the command of the 82and Airborne Division, "bringing counter-UAS and Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense capabilities" to increase "the Division's protection capability and preparation to win the first fight at night.", according to an official 82nd Airborne Division Facebook post. 3rd battalion was previously under the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bragg. Of note, 3rd Battalion, 4th ADAR is the only airborne air defense artillery formation in the U.S. Army.
Active battalions of the 4th ADAR:

Honors

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:
  • 2nd, 5th and 8th Battalions, 4th Artillery:
  • Counteroffensive, Phase II; Counteroffensive, Phase III; Tet Counteroffensive; Counteroffensive, Phase IV; Counteroffensive, Phase V; Counteroffensive, Phase VI; Tet 69/Counteroffensive; Summer-Fall 1969; Winter-Spring 1970; Sanctuary Counteroffensive; Counteroffensive, Phase VII; Consolidation I
Armed Forces Expeditions: Grenada
Southwest Asia: Defense of Saudi Arabia; Liberation and Defense of Kuwait

Decorations

  • Presidential Unit Citation, streamer embroidered VIETNAM 1967
  • Valorous Unit Award, streamer embroidered SAIGON
  • Meritorious Unit Commendation, streamer embroidered VIETNAM 1968–1969
  • Army Superior Unit Award for 1987
  • Valorous Unit Award 1st Battalion 4th ADA 2004 OIF

Coat of arms

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.
  • 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.
  • Motto
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.
  • Crest
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.