1 January 1942, The 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery was redesignated as the 1st Battalion, 94th Armored Artillery Battalion and was assigned to 4th Armored Division 5 days later.

1 January 1957.  The Department of the Army redesignated The Artillery and Guided Missile School as The U.S. Army Artillery and Guided Missile School. 

1 January 1969, The U.S. Army Artillery and Missile School was officially redesignated as the U.S. Army Field Artillery School.

2 January 1904, The Russo-Japanese War broke out.  The war introduced the first effective use of indirect fire for field artillery (using an observer to adjust fire) to the world when the Japanese employed it against the Russians.  After the war, the American army slowly adopted indirect fire.

3 January 1777, With help from Thomas Procter’s 4th Continental Artillery, Washington defeated the British at the Battle of Princeton.  Some historians regard the victory here on par with the Battle of Trenton in December 1776 because it cleared New Jersey of British troops.

4 January 1943, The antiaircraft artillery proximity fuse was employed for the first time when the USS Helena employed it in the Pacific Ocean against enemy aircraft.  The fuse was later adopted for field artillery use.

4 January 1993. The Fort Sill stood up Training Command as part of a major reorganization.  The reorganization abolished the Target Acquisition Department, made it a division in the Fire Support and Combined Arms Department, eliminated the Communications and Electronics Department because the Army moved field artillery signal MOS training to Fort Gordon, and merged the Directorate of Training and Doctrine and Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization to create the Directorate of Training and Evaluation.  This reorganization gave the School two teaching departments:  Gunnery and Fire Support and Combined Arms Operations in Training Command.

5 January 1967, Amphibious operations along the MeKong Delta began.  The Field Artillery was forced to adapt by introducing riverine artillery.  Field artillery units placed light, towed artillery pieces on barrages.

6 January 1776, Alexander Hamilton formed his field artillery battery, called Alexander Hamilton’s battery, that later became 1-5th Field Artillery.

7 January 1799, Daniel Tyler was born.  In 1828 he went to France under the direction of the War Department to study French field artillery carriages.  He returned in 1829 with information that the French were modifying British field artillery carriages for their own use.  Based the complete set of drawings that he brought back from France, the War Department constructed several experimental French carriages for American use.  The War Department never did adopt the experimental French carriages.

8 January 1869, The site of Fort Sill was staked out by MG Philip H. Sheridan who led a campaign into Indian Territory to stop hostile Native American tribes from raiding white settlements in Texas and Kansas.

9 January 1902, The 29th Battery of Field Artillery arrived at Fort Sill to start the transition of changing the post from a cavalry to field artillery post.

10 January 1941, The War Department established the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Sill to train field artillerymen for combat in World War II.  It was closed on 30 April 1946.

11 Jan 1812, A congressional act authorized two regiments of artillery, the 2nd and 3rd Artillery Regiments, to augment the 1st Artillery Regiment and the Light (Horse) Artillery Regiment in preparation for war against Great Britain.

11 January 1757, Alexander Hamilton was born and later served as a field artilleryman in the American Revolution.  He formed a battery called the Hamilton battery during the American Revolution that later became the 1-5th Field Artillery.

12 January 1983, the Army completed the operational and organization plan for the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) to replace the Tactical Fire Direction System (TACFIRE) in the drive to improve automated gunnery.

13 January 1865, Despite an impressive array of coast and siege artillery, Fort Fisher, North Carolina, fell to a combined Union land and naval siege.  Fort Fisher embraced one mile of sea defense and one-third of a mile of land defense to defend the port that was the last remaining supply route for the Army of Northern Virginia from the coast to the interior.  Unlike older fortifications built of brick and mortar, Fort Fisher was made mostly of earth and sand which was ideal for absorbing the shock of heavy explosives. The sea face, equipped with 22 coast artillery guns, consisted of a series of 12-foot-high batteries bounded on the south end by two larger batteries 45 and 60 feet high. Of the smaller mounds, the land face was equipped with 25 siege guns distributed among its 15 mounds. 

14 January 1867, Alfred Nobel unveiled his dynamite as a high explosive.  The U.S. Army later tried to employ dynamite as propellant for field artillery by developing a dynamite gun.  Because dynamite was too unstable, the dynamite gun was never successful.

15 January 1918, Employing balloons and fixed-wing aircraft, the School for Aerial Observers at Fort Sill was fully operational training aerial observers to locate enemy targets to be engaged with field artillery fire.

15 January 1962, President Kennedy informed news reporters that the United States was not fighting in Vietnam.  Technically, he was correct but Americans, including field artillerymen, were serving as combat advisers and getting wounded as a result of combat action.

16 January 1953, The Department of the Army established the Army Aviation School at Fort Sill to train Army aviators.  The school moved to Fort Rucker in 1954 because the Army Aviation School grew so rapidly that it required additional facilities that could not be provided on Fort Sill.

17 January 1931, Fort Sill submitted a $11 million construction plan to the War Department for new quarters and a permanent administration building for the Field Artillery School.  The War Department approved the building program, but it was never completed carried out.  It did serve as a guide to subsequent building efforts.

18 January 1991, The 6-27th Field Artillery launched two Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to neutralize two Iraqi surface-to-air missile sites in support of Operation Desert Storm.

19 January 1809, Edgar Allan Poe was born.  Although Edgar Allan Poe was more noted as a poet and writer, he attained the rank of Sergeant Major of Artillery and served as an artificer who prepared shells for firing.

20 January 1969, Department of the Army officially redesignated the U.S. Army Artillery and Missile School as the U.S. Army Field Artillery School effective 1 January 1969.

21 January 1968, The Battle of Khe Sanh began as a diversionary attack during Tet Offensive.  Field Artillery played a key role in destroying North Vietnamese attackers that were besieging the city.

21 January 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders.

22 January 1947, War Department General Order Number 11, dated 22 January 1947, officially redesignated the Coast Artillery School as the Seacoast Artillery School as a branch of The Artillery School, the Antiaircraft Artillery School as a branch of The Artillery School, and Field Artillery School as The Artillery School.

23 January 1892, John E. Clancy, a musician, Company E, 1st Artillery, received the Medal of Honor for rescuing wounded comrades at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, while under enemy fire.

24 January 1847, Concentrated cannon fire from Colonel Sterling Price’s regiment killed 150 insurgents hold up in a thick-walled church and led to the capture of 400 more during the Taos Revolt in New Mexico.

25 January 1907, Congress passed an act that separated the Coast Artillery and the Field Artillery into independent branches of artillery.

25 January 1907, The 1st Field Artillery Regiment was constituted and later organized from field artillery units at Fort Riley, Kansas.

26 January 1863, Major General Joseph Hooker, who was commissioned a second lieutenant of artillery in the 1st Artillery Regiment, assumed command of the Army of the Potomac.

26 January 1995, The Commandant of the Field Artillery School wrote that the school fully supported the Total Army School System that linked the reserve and active component training and education into one school system to ensure standardization to abolish the Regular Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard school systems. 

27 January 1973, Colonel William B. Nolde, the last American combat casualty of the Vietnam War, was killed during a North Vietnamese mortar and field artillery attack at An Loc.

28 January 1973, A cease fire went into effect in the Vietnam War.  The cease-fire began on time, but both sides violated it.  South Vietnamese forces continued to take back villages occupied by the communists in the two days before the cease-fire deadline and the communists tried to capture additional territory. 

28 January 1917, American forces under Black Jack Pershing, including field artillerymen from Fort Sill, were recalled from Mexico after nearly 11 months of fruitless searching for Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa, who was accused of leading a bloody raid against Columbus, New Mexico.

29 January 1887, Congress approved creating the Cavalry and Light Artillery School to drill and train cavalry and light artillery on the modern battlefield.  Funding and the unavailability of personnel prevented opening the school until 1892.  The Spanish-American War of 1898 later forced the school to close.

30 January 1968, Tet Offensive in Vietnam War began.  Fire support for 1st Infantry Division proved to particularly impressive.  The division estimated over 70 percent of the enemy killed came from air and field artillery strikes.  During the Tet Offensive that lasted through May 1968, 1st Division Artillery fired 8,880 rounds.

31 January 1958, The U.S. Army launched the Explorer satellite using a modified Redstone ballistic missile to carry it into space.  The Redstone was a field artillery weapon system designed to carry a conventional or an atomic warhead.

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February 1989, The Field Artillery School started small group instruction with the Field Artillery Officer Advance Course 2-89. This was a major breakthrough because the Officer Advance Course had been conducted in a large group format of 60 or more students up to this time. Small group instruction revolved around classes of 12-15 students per one instructor.

1 February 1952, First Lieutenant Lee R. Hartell received the Medal of Honor. Though mortally wounded his intrepid actions contributed to stemming the enemy onslaught and enabled his company to maintain its stronghold.

2 February 1901, A Congressional act increased the size of the Army to 100,000 and discontinued the artillery regimental system that dated back to 1821 by creating the Corps of Artillery composed of Coast Artillery of 126 companies and Field Artillery of 30 batteries. Congress recognized the radical different missions of the Coast Artillery and the Field Artillery but created a corps of artillery with two artillery sub-branches. The act also provided for a Chief of Artillery.

2 February 2006, The Joint and Combined Integration Directorate, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, hosted the Army’s first close air support training for joint fire observers.

3 February 1953, Military personnel fired the first Corporal surface-to-surface missile. The Corporal was a field artillery system.

4 February 1922, General of the Armies John J. Pershing sent a letter to the McGlachlin Board under Brigadier General Edward F. McGlachlin, the former commandant of the School of Fire for Field Artillery, endorsing the board’s recommendations. The board recommended consolidating the three officer courses at one Army post to reduce costs and recommended locating them at Fort Benning, Georgia, because it the sufficient land for firing ranges. With support from Pershing, the War Department, however, consolidated all field artillery officer courses at Fort Sill in 1922 with the option of finding a more suitable location in the near future.

5 February 1918, Taking an unprecedented step, the School of Fire established entrance requirements for all students and returned all officers to their regiments who failed to meet them. This measure eliminated unprepared officers and permitted the curriculum to go beyond basic gunnery to advanced gunnery.

6 February 1945, The Battle for Manila during World War II began in earnest. During the course of the battle for the city, American field artillerymen resorted to point-blank firing to destroy Japanese positions.

7 February 1971, Operation Dewey Canyon II ended, but U.S. units continued to provide support for South Vietnamese army operations in Laos. In accordance with a U.S. congressional ban, U.S. ground forces were not to enter Laos. Instead, the only direct U.S. support permitted were long-range cross-border artillery fire, fixed-wind air strikes, and helicopters to airlift Saigon troops and supplies.

8 February 1940, The Field Artillery School reduced its Officer Regular Course from 35 weeks to 18 weeks to permit officers to participate in the spring corps maneuvers. The school did this by going to a 6-day school week, abolishing the Christmas leave, and condensing some material and eliminating less essential material.

9 February 1956, The first surface-to-surface guided missile battalion to be assigned to Fort Sill arrived from Fort Bliss, Texas.

10 February 1967, The Officer Candidate School was redesignated as the Officer Candidate Brigade, U.S. Army Artillery and Missile School.

11 February 1973, The first American POWs were released by North Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1972, 766 Americans became confirmed POWs, of whom 114 died in captivity. After the Paris Peace Accords (1973), 651 allied military prisoners returned to American control from Hanoi and South Vietnam.

12 February 1789, Ethan Allen died. He and Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga and seized the cannon there. The cannon were later dragged to Boston to besiege the British.

13 February 1991, The 1-27th Field Artillery conducted an artillery raid under the direction of the 1st Cavalry Division in the build up to Operation Desert Storm’s ground war. In less than five minutes, three hundred MLRS rockets destroyed twenty-four Iraqi targets.

14 February 1962, President Kennedy authorized U.S. military advisors, including field artillerymen, to return fire if fired upon. In effect, Kennedy acknowledged that U.S. forces were involved in the fighting, but he wished to downplay any appearance of increased American involvement in the war.

15 February 1835, Union General Alexander Stewart Webb was born in New York City. When the war broke out, Webb was assigned to defend Ft. Pickens, Florida, but was soon called to Washington and placed in the artillery in the army guarding the capital. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 as assistant to the chief of artillery, Major William Barry. A year later, Webb was in charge of the field artillery at the Battle of Malvern Hill at the end of the Seven Days battles. In that engagement Union cannon devastated attacking Confederate infantry, and Webb was commended for leading the artillery line. General Daniel Butterfield later said that Webb's leadership saved the Union army from destruction.

15 February 1918, The War Department established the Office of the Chief of Field Artillery to train and equip the Field Artillery for combat in World War I. Major General William J. Snow, a former commandant of the School of Fire for Field Artillery, was the first chief.

16 February 1823, Cpt John D. Imboden was born. While commanding a field artillery battery at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861) in the American Civil War, his eardrum was perforated leading to deafness. He also effectively fired counterybattery against Union batteries that day to help stop the Union advance.

17 February 1966, In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, General Maxwell D. Taylor, a graduate of the Field Artillery School in 1933, stated that a major U.S. objective in Vietnam was to demonstrate that wars of liberation were costly, dangerous and doomed to failure.

18 February 1865, Confederate forces evacuated Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, after a 19-month artillery siege by Federal forces.

18 February 1865, Federal forces occupied Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, after a lengthy siege from Federal ironclads and shore batteries. Rifled Federal cannon battered down brickwork fortifications designed to withstand smoothbore artillery projectiles, but did not batter down the endurance of the Confederate artillerymen who manned the forts throughout.

19 February 1943, The Battle of Kassarine Pass in World War II began. The newly developed fire direction center would later play a key role in massing field artillery fires to stop German advances on Tebessa and Thala as they raced out of Kassarine Pass.

20 February 2002, TRADOC System Manager for Field Artillery Tactical Data Systems pointed out that software developmental problems had delayed AFATDS 00 by pushing fielding from 2000 into 2002.

21 February 1916, The Battle of Verdun in World War I began. The battle opened with a 9-hour long artillery bombardment of 1,000,000 artillery shells. The German general Von Falkenhayn intended the battle to bleed the French white by inflicting many casualties and permitting the Germans to break through the French line and giving them a direct route to Paris.

21 February 1951, Korean War mobilization caused The Artillery School to reactivate the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School with fifty-three officer candidates attending the first course. The 23-week Field Artillery OCS course graduated 3,517 second lieutenants during the Korean War.

22 Feb 1943, Massed fires from BG S. LeRoy Irwin’s division artillery from 9th ID stopped German assault on Thala in North Africa, forcing the Germans to retreat back to Kassarine Pass.

22 Feb 1943, Massed fires from BG Clift Andrus’s division artillery from 1st ID stopped German advance on Tebessa and forced Germans to retire back to Kassarine Pass.

23 February 1847, Major General Zachary Taylor’s army of 5,000 effectively employed its field artillery to defeat the much larger Mexican army under Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista. Captain Braxton Bragg’s battery galloped into action at a critical time and successfully repelled a Mexican charge.

23 February 1903, BG Wallace F. Randolph became Chief of Artillery and served in this position until 21 January 1904.

24 February 1991, The 42nd, 76th, and 142nd Field Artillery Brigades launched a fiery bombardment to support the breaching operation to start the ground war in Operation Desert Storm. More than 350 field artillery pieces fired 11,000 rounds and 414 MLRS rockets in a field artillery preparation of 30 minutes. Besides crushing Iraqi morale, this massed fire destroyed 50 tanks, 139 armored personnel carriers, and 152 field artillery pieces.

24 February 1942, Sergeant Jose Calugas received the Medal of Honor. As a mess sergeant in Battery B, 88th Field Artillery, Philippine Scouts, he ran 1,000 yards across a shellswept area to take command of a gun position which had lost its personnel. Organizing a volunteer squad, he placed the gun back in commission and fired effectively against the enemy although the position was under constant and heavy Japanese fire during the Battle of Bataan, Philippine Islands, 1942.

25 February 1960, The first successful test flight of a Pershing missile was conducted.

26 February 1903, Richard Gatling, the inventor of the Gatling gun which served as a field artillery weapon and was mounted on a field carriage, died.

27 February 1903, Brigadier General Wallace F. Randolph became the first Chief of Artillery after Congress created the Corps of Artillery in 1901. He served in this position until 21 January 1904.

28 February 1991, The Gulf War ended by driving Iraq out of Kuwait. During the 100-hour ground war, American field artillery fired 57,168 rounds. Of that total the Americans shot 32 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles.

29 February 1968, During the battle around Khe Sanh in South Vietnam, intelligence showed the enemy was moving toward the eastern perimeter of the friendly camp at Khe Sanh. The fire support coordination center called for saturating the enemy route of march. Massed artillery, tactical air, and B-52 strikes devastated the route. Although the killed figure was never accurately determined, Montagnard tribesmen reported finding 200-500 bodies stacked in rows along the trails and woods leading to the camp.

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1 March 1954, The United States detonated a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll. This further raised the question about the relevance of ground forces, including field artillery and antiaircraft artillery, in modern warfare because of the American intention to rely upon massive retaliation which called for the use of strategic airpower to fight American wars.

1 March 1965, Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, a former field artillery officer, informed South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States is preparing to send 3,500 U.S. Marines to Vietnam to protect the U.S. airbase at Da Nang.

2 March 1821, Congress passed the Reorganization of the Army Act. The act consolidated the Light Artillery Regiment, the Artillery, and the Ordnance Department into four regiments of artillery of nine companies each. Each regiment had field, siege, and coast artillery units. One company in each regiment was designated as a light (horse) artillery company but never organized until 1838 under Secretary of War, William Poinsett.

3 March 1991, The after action report of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment praised the Field Artillery for furnishing effective and responsive fire support on 24-26 February 1991 which included the Battle of 73 Easting during Operation Desert Storm.

4 March 1776, Under the cover of constant bombing from American artillery, Brigadier General John Thomas slipped 2,000 troops, cannons and artillery into position at Dorchester Heights, just south of Boston, on this day in 1776. Under orders from General George Washington, Thomas and his troops worked through the night digging trenches, positioning cannons and completing their occupation of Dorchester Heights.

5 March 1792, Congress authorized recruiting two infantry regiments and an artillery battalion for duty on the frontier in the Ohio River Valley.

6 March 1836, Santa Anna’s Mexican army overwhelmed the Alamo after a 13-day artillery siege.

6 March 1998, The Commandant of the Field Artillery School endorsed a proposal to revamp the Field Artillery Captain’s Career Course for National Guard officers. The proposal allotted two years to complete three phases of training. Phase one would employ communications technologies, such as email, multimedia data bases, and virtual libraries, would consist of common core and branch specific subjects, would be performed at the officers’ own pace and home station, and would be completed during the first Total Army Training System year. The second part of phase one (Phase IB) would consist of both asynchronous and synchronous instruction and would rely upon communication technologies, such as desktop video teleconferencing, would enable live, real-time interaction between instructors and students, and would be completed in the first six months of the second Total Army Training System year. Phase two would be done during the second six months of the second Total Army Training System year with multiple active duty training periods (weekend drills) being conducted. Phase three would be staff process of eight inactive duty training periods and a two-week active duty training period. With the pilot Field Artillery Captain’s Career Course-Distance Learning scheduled for 2001 and with full implementation in 2002, Field Artillery Captain’s Career Course-Distance Learning would replace the existing Field Artillery Officer Advance Course-Reserve Component, promised to improve training because it would be more intensive and challenging and to produce a more tactically and technically competent reserve component officer.

7 March 1862, Massed fire from Major General Samuel Curtis’s Union forces blunted the Confederate attack under Major General Sterling Price at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and saved Arkansas and Missouri for the Union.

8 March 1916, Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. This raid let to the closure of the School of Fire for Field Artillery on 9 May 1916 to provide troops for Pershing’s expedition into Mexico.

9 March 1942, A War Department reorganization abolished the Chief of Field Artillery that had existed since 1918 when Major General William J. Snow was made Chief of Field Artillery to guide field artillery training for World War I. It also abolished the Chief of Coast Artillery.

9 March 1961, The Army type classified the M18 Field Artillery Digital Automated Computer (FADAC) as the first digital computer designed to compute technical fire direction data.

10 March 1930, Major General Harry G. Bishop became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 9 March 1934.

10 March 1934, Major General Upton Birnie, Jr., became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 25 March 1938.

10 March 1987, The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command directed the FA Schools to implement small group instruction in their officer courses, especially the officer advance courses.

11 March 1967, Operation Junction City, an extensive search-and-destroy operation, continued to rage. Besides division artillery from the 1st and 25th Infantry Division, II Field force committed six field artillery battalions to the operation.

12 March 1895, Major General William C. Lee was born. He was considered the father of the airborne concept and first commander of the 101st Airborne Division which introduced the concept of parachuting towed 75mm howitzers into battle and employing gliders to carry towed 75mm howitzers into battle. 101st Division’s artillery consisted of 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, the 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, and the 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion.

13 March 1954, Viet Minh began its siege of Dien Bien Phu with heavy artillery bombarding French positions. The siege ended on 7 May 1954 when the last French position was overrun.

14 March 1776, Alexander Hamilton received a commission as a captain in a New York artillery company.

14 March 1933, The Civilian Conservation Corps was established under U.S. Army management with Fort Sill being one of the headquarters. Over the next two years, the Commanding General of Fort Sill managed CCC companies in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. In 1935 this responsibility was passed on to civilian managers in Oklahoma City.

15 March 1916, The First Aero Squadron assigned to Fort Sill to develop aerial observation techniques for field artillery fire left for Mexico with Pershing’s expedition.

15 March 1993, TRADOC approved the revised operational requirements document that redesignated Closed Loop Artillery Simulation System as Fire Support Combined Arms Tactical Trainer.

16 March 1802, The Reorganization Act reduced the Army’s number of artillery regiments from two to one that was composed of field, siege, and coastal artillery.

16 March 1911, Captain Dan T. Moore wrote the War Department complaining about the presence of POW Apaches on Fort Sill because their presence would limit the size of the firing ranges for the proposed School of Fire for Field Artillery to be opened on Fort Sill.

17 March 1776, The British evacuated Boston after almost a month-long siege by American artillery.

18-29 March 1946, The Field Artillery School conducted its first major postwar field artillery conference to glean the lessons learned from World War II. Decisions made laid out field artillery equipment, doctrine, weapon design for the next 10 years.

19 March 1959, The 1st Field Artillery Regiment was consolidated with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Antiaircraft Artillery Group, and 1st and 54th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalions and redesignated as the 1st Artillery.

20 March 1926, Major General Andrew W. Hero, Jr., became Chief of Coast Artillery. He served until 21 March 1930.

20 March 2004, an Army white paper outlined the modular division and corps and abolished division artilleries.

21 March 1963, Engineers and production planners visited Fort Sill to observe field artillery tactics and techniques to apply them to a new missile being developed that would be called the Lance. With the Lance, the Field Artillery was trying something new. Instead of developing a weapon system and then developing tactics and techniques for it, the Field Artillery was setting the criteria and then having a weapon developed to meet the criteria.

22 March 1930, Major General John W. Gulick became Chief of Coast Artillery and served until 21 March 1934.

23 March 1943, Massed fires from II Corps Artillery at the Battle of El Guettar destroyed 30 German tanks.

24 March 1939, Chief of Field Artillery, MG Robert M. Danford, tasked the Field Artillery School to develop a mobilization plan for training field artillery officers and soldiers in the event of war.

25 March 1938, Major General Robert M. Danford became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 9 March 1942 when the Office of the Chief of Field Artillery was abolished as part of a major War Department reorganization.

26 March 1934, MG William F. Hase became Chief of Coast Artillery and served until 20 January 1935.

27 March 1918, Major General William J. Snow, Chief of Field Artillery, submitted a comprehensive plan to the War Department to train field artillerymen for duty in France. It included expanding the School of Fire and organizing a Field Artillery Training Replacement Depot, a Field Artillery Central Officer Training School, and brigade firing centers to improve and standardize training.

27 March 1944, The 194th Field Artillery landed at Anzio, Italy, to support the attacks of the 45th Infantry Division of the Oklahoma National Guard. For more than a month the battalion remained virtually stationary in the 10-mile beachhead even though it fired a steady stream of fire and received severe barrages of incoming fire. The battalion received more casualties during this campaign than in any other during the war.

28 March 1945, The last V-1 rocket hit London. The V-1 served as the model for American ground-to-ground and ground-to-air rockets of the 1950s

29 March 1973, The last U.S. troops left Vietnam, nine years after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964.

30 March 1814, The Reorganization Act of March 1814 created the Corps of Artillery of twelve battalions (forty-eight companies) by merging the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Artillery Regiments that had been formed to defend the coasts and retained the Light (Horse) Artillery Regiment with the intention of properly equipping it. Congress never did properly equip the Light Artillery Regiment.

31 March 1936, Major General Archibald H. Sunderland became Chief of Coast Artillery and served until 31 March 1940.

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1 April 1940, Major General Joseph A. Green became Chief of Coast Artillery and served until 9 March 1942 when a War Department reorganization abolished the Office of the Chief of Coast Artillery.

2 April 1991, Brigadier General Frank L. Miller, Jr., commanding general of III Corps Artillery, Fort Sill, emphasized that improvisation governed mobilization for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

3 April 1952, Commanded by 1st Lieutenant John H. Chandler, Company A, 35th Infantry had the mission of patrolling Noname Ridge to kill or capture any enemy encountered. On Noname Ridge, Chandler’s patrol saw and heard enemy movement that appeared to be coming towards the Americans. Chandler called for field artillery fire, but it failed to stop the enemy advancement. The continued enemy advancement led to brisk small arms fire between Chandler’s patrol and the North Koreans. The intense enemy fire wounded ten Americans and caused Chandler's patrol to withdraw under the cover of field artillery fire. Although the patrol failed to capture any enemy soldiers and had suffered ten casualties, Chandler attributed his patrol’s safe return to effective fire support and team work.

4 April 1898, George Uhrl of the Light Battery F, 5th U.S. Artillery, received the Medal of Honor for his actions at White Oak Swamp Bridge, Virginia, in 1862. He was one of three who under heavy fire of the advancing enemy voluntarily secured and saved from capture a field gun belonging to another battery and which had been deserted by its officers and men.

5 April 1862, The Union army under Major General George B. McClellan initiated an artillery siege of Yorktown, Virginia. The siege lasted until 3 May 1862 when Confederate forces retreated towards Richmond, Virginia.

6 April 1917, There were 246 officers and 5,470 enlisted soldiers in the U.S. Army’s field artillery when the United States declared war on Germany. The National Guard had 541 officers and 12,275 enlisted soldiers in its field artillery.

6 April 1945, First Lieutenant James E. Robinson, Jr., of A Battery, 861st Field Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, played a key role in defeating German positions. Eight hours of desperate fighting over open terrain near UnterGriesheim, Germany, swept by German machine gun, mortar, and small arms fire decimated A Company, 253rd Infantry, and robbed it of its commanding officer and most of its key enlisted personnel when Lieutenant Robinson rallied the remaining 23 uninjured riflemen and a few walking wounded. Carrying his heavy radio for communication with American field batteries, he led his men through intense fire in a charge against the objective. Ten German infantrymen in foxholes threatened to stop the assault, but Lieutenant Robinson killed them at point-blank range with rifle and pistol fire and then pressed on with his men to sweep the area of all resistance. Soon afterwards, he was ordered to seize the defended town of Kressbach. He went to each of the 19 exhausted survivors with cheering words and instilled in them courage and fortitude before leading them forward. In the advance a shell fragment seriously wounded him in the throat. Despite great pain and loss of blood, he refused medical attention and continued the attack, directing field artillery fire even though he was mortally wounded. Only after the town had been taken and he could no longer speak, did he leave the command that he had inspired to victory and walked 2 miles to an aid station where he died from his wounds. By his intrepid leadership Lieutenant Robinson was directly responsible for Company A accomplishing its mission against tremendous odds.

6 April 1978, 1lt Elizabeth A. Tourville became the first female commissioned officer in the Field Artillery upon transferring from the Ordnance Branch. She attended FAOBC 10-78 where she served as class leader and later graduated from the Pershing Officer Course.

7 April 1917, MG Erasmus W. Weaver became Chief of Coast Artillery and served until 23 May 1918.

8 April 1952, The Redstone missile system, a field artillery system, officially received its popular name. Previously, this missile was known as the Hermes Cl, MAJOR, URSA, XSSM-G-14, and XSSM-A-14.

9 April 1942, 75,000 American and Filipino troops surrendered to Japanese at Bataan.

10 April 1941, Lieutenant Colonel H.L.C. Jones, director of the Gunnery Department, demonstrated the fire direction center to the Chief of Staff of the Army, General George C. Marshall, convincing him to adopt it.

10 April 1990, Major General Raphael J. Hallada, Commandant of the Field Artillery School, announced the school’s intention to develop a lightweight version of the MLRS that eventually evolved into HIMARS.

11 April 1862, Colonel Charles H. Olmstead surrendered Confederate Fort Pulaski, Georgia. The fort was designed to withstand fire from smoothbore cannon, but the Union employed rifled artillery that breached one of the fort’s four corners permitting shells to pass close by the main powder magazine. This was one of the first uses of rifled artillery against a fortification designed to withstand smoothebore cannon fire.

12 April 1808, Congress added a light artillery regiment to the Regular Army. Because Congress failed to provide any funding, only one company was ever formed. It was organized with Captain George Peter as commander and was disbanded in 1809 when Secretary of War, William Eustis, dismounted the company, sold the horses, stored the guns, and issued muskets to company’s soldiers. Eustis believed that it was too expensive to maintain the company.

13 April 1955. The Department of the Army redesignated The Artillery School as The Artillery and Guided Missile School and The Artillery Center as The Artillery and Guided Missile Center because of the addition of rockets and missiles to the Field Artillery. The Artillery and Guided Missile School taught courses on surface-to-surface guided missiles and rockets, while The Antiaircraft Artillery and Guided Missile School at Fort Bliss, Texas, taught courses on surface-to-air guided missiles.

14 April 1965, The Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered deploying the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Vietnam. It arrived in May 1965 accompanied by the 3-319th Field Artillery.

15 April 1953, Officer Candidate School area on Fort Sill was named “Robinson Barracks” in honor of 1lt James E. Robinson, Jr., a graduate of the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his action in an attack near Untergriesheim, Germany in 1945.

16 April 1990, A fact sheet produced in the Field Artillery School outlined the Army’s revised plan for fielding the OH58D. The Army planned to arm the helicopter, use it as a multipurpose light helicopter, and cut back the number fielded to the Field Artillery. Initial testing indicated that the OH58D would be used in a field artillery role for target acquisition and observation, but subsequent tests indicated the helicopter’s suitability for attack cavalry and scout units.

17 April 2007, The Field Artillery Training Center was flagged as the 434th Field Artillery Brigade. The Field Artillery Training Center’s history extended back to the Field Artillery Replacement Center established in 1950 at Fort Sill to meet the need for replacements in Korea. After the war, it moved to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. On 23 April 1959 Fort Sill became the unit’s permanent home.

18 April 1940, The 18th Field Artillery Regiment was officially designated as school troops by the War Department to prevent them from being sent to various training maneuvers and depleting the Field Artillery School of troops to support training.

18 April 1940, The War Department endorsed the Field Artillery School’s mobilization plans for wartime production of trained officers and soldiers.

19 April 1898, The Spanish American War forced the War Department to close down the Cavalry and Light Artillery School at Fort Riley, Kansas, to send soldiers to war. It remained closed until the school year of 1903-1904 when it reopened as the School of Application for Cavalry and Light Artillery.

20 April 1945, Seventh Army captured Nuremberg, Germany, the site of Nazi Party rallies in the 1930s. The Oklahoma 45th Infantry Division with its division artillery participated in capturing the city.

20 April 1971, The Pentagon announced the rise of “fragging” incidents (the tossing of live grenades) against officers and noncommissioned officers, including field artillery officers and noncommissioned officers, was on the rise because of the decline of morale and public support for the Vietnam War.

21 April 1919, The War Department redesignated the School of Fire for Field Artillery as the Field Artillery School and tasked it to train Regular Army and National Guard officers and enlisted soldiers. The school focused its instruction on general technical training, furnished some instruction in the handling of a battery to prepare officers for battery command, and conducted enlisted specialist courses in mechanics, horseshoeing, saddlery, and carpentry, and other subjects.

22 April 1896, Allen Thompson received a Medal of Honor. As a private in Company I, 4th New York Artillery, Thompson made a hazardous reconnaissance through the timber preceding the Union line of battle at White Oak Road, Virginia, in 1865, signaling the troops and leading them through the obstructions.

23 April 1959, Fort Sill became the permanent home to the Field Artillery Training Center to train enlisted soldiers. It was assigned to the Field Artillery School.

24 April 1967, At a news conference in Washington, Gen. William Westmoreland, the senior U.S. commander in South Vietnam and the former commander of the 34th Field Artillery Battalion during World War II, caused controversy by saying that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.” This criticism of the antiwar movement was not received well by many in and out of the antiwar movement who believed it was both their right and responsibility to speak out against the war.

25 April 1935, Fort Sill lost responsibility for the discipline and administration of Civilian Conservation Corps companies when the CCC headquarters was moved to Oklahoma City.

26 April 1990, A briefing by the Field Artillery School for the CG TRADOC outlined the challenges facing the Field Artillery with the Conventional Forces Europe Reduction Talks that would reduce military forces in Europe. The school projected that smaller armies would be defending the same ground that larger armies had in the past creating gaps in the line and anticipated that the Field Artillery would have to develop weapons systems that would cover the gaps and that improved technology would have to make up the difference in smaller forces.

27 April 1990, The Army signed a contract with Magnavox to produce AFATDS software.

28 April 1933, Fort Sill began preparations to receive Civilian Conservation Corps companies. Between 1933 and 1935, the commanding general of Fort Sill supervised 41 CCC companies in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

29 April 1812, The U.S. Military Academy originally created as a school for military engineers was reorganized around a four-year military science curriculum to include drilling in infantry and artillery tactics. The War of 1812, however, precluded implementing the reforms.

30 April 1976, The Department of the Army approved counterfire doctrine and the FIST.

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May 1907, The last cavalry regiment departed Fort Sill and Fort Sill became solely a field artillery post.

1 May 1745, Colonial forces under Sir William Pepperell began their artillery siege of the French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island during the King George’s War. The colonists with Richard Gridley in command of the artillery eventually captured the fortress on 16 June 1745, but it was returned to the French in accordance with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle in 1748.

1 May 1945, Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, Commanding General of the Army Ground Forces that oversaw training, directed the Field Artillery School and Antiaircraft Artillery School to develop a Professor of Military Science and Tactics Orientation Course to train select officers for duty as professors of military science and tactics in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs at American universities to create a pool of trained reserve officers for mobilization and deployment if necessary and Ex-Prisoner of War Orientation Course to make POWs current with new systems.

1 May 2007, The 1st Armored Division artillery inactivated as the last division artillery in the Army because of the creation of fires brigades and brigade combat teams as part of the Transformation of the Army.

2 May 1863, At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Major General Stonewall Jackson outflanked the Union army under Major General Joseph Hooker and hit Hooker’s left flank composed of the XI Corps hard. In response to the onslaught that day Captain Hubert Dilger opened fire with his battery of six Napoleons and two other batteries to slow down the advance but eventually had to fall back because of withering small arms fire. This action helped Hooker’s XII Corps stall the attack and prevent a complete disaster.

3 May 1946. The School completed teaching the last World War II wartime class. The School trained over 200,000 students between July 1940 and May 1946.

3 May 1965, the 173rd Airborne Brigade with its supporting field artillery, the 3-319th Airborne Field Artillery, departed for Vietnam, becoming the first Army combat unit in the country.

4 May 1955, The Artillery Officer Candidate School was renamed the Artillery and Guided Missile Officer Candidate School.

5 May 1933, The Chief of Field Artillery, Major General Harry G. Bishop, ordered the Field Artillery School to test an experimental battalion of light, truck-drawn field artillery. The school completed its report on 14 October 1935, recommending that motorization should move gradually as engineering defects were eliminated and as an adequate supply of motor vehicles could be obtained.

6 May 1968, The U.S. military had 54 field artillery battalions in theater in South Vietnam in various supporting roles.

7 May 1861, Virginia authorized its inspector-general to raise 6 batteries of four guns each for its militia. These batteries formed the nucleus of the Army of Northern Virginia.

7 May 1954, The Viet Minh overran the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu after employing an effective air defense that choked off all air support and resupply and after an effective field artillery siege.

8 May 1846, Major General Zachary Taylor’s field guns effectively rained canister fire on the Mexican Army during the Battle of Palo Alto to pave the way for an American victory in the Mexican War of 1846-1848.

8 May 1918, The War Department organized its first Field Artillery Replacement Center, Camp Jackson, South Carolina, to train field artillerymen for combat in France during World War I.

8 May 2002, The Secretary of Defense cancelled work on the next-generation Crusader self-propelled 155mm howitzer intended to replace the M109 Paladin 155-mm. Self-propelled Howitzer.

9 May 1794, Congress established the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers. The artillerists were to serve on the frontier and coast with the latter being more important because of the fear of an invasion of the country’s coasts.

9 May 1916, The War Department closed the School of Fire for Field Artillery and sent instructors and students to the Mexican border for duty with the Pershing Expedition into Mexico. The school did not open again until July 1917 to begin preparations for training officers for duty in France during World War I.

10 May 1775, Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, along with Benedict Arnold, captured Fort Ticonderoga, New York. The Allen’s and Arnold’s action stalled a planned British invasion from Canada and captured British cannon. Later in the year, Henry Knox dragged the artillery captured at the fort to Boston to lay siege to the British in the city.

11 May 1969, The American called in Cobra gunships, also known aerial rocket artillery, in support of a hasty assault on Hill 937 during the Vietnam War. The gunships mistook a friendly command post for an enemy one and attacked it, leading to friendly casualties and disrupting the American assault. However, the gunship attack confirmed the presence of many NVA troops that were gathering for battle. The battle for 937, also known as Hamburger Hill, lasted through 20 May 1969.

12 May 1780, The British captured Charleston, South Carolina, after a lengthy artillery siege. Major General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered an entire American army after holding out as long as he could.

13 May 1864, At Battle of Newmarket, 247 cadets of the Virginia Military Academy marched forward and captured Federal artillery suffering 10 killed and 47 wounded.

14 May 1863, At the Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, Confederate casualties were estimated at 845 killed, wounded, and missing. In addition, 17 artillery pieces were taken by the Federals. Union casualties totaled 300 men of whom 42 were killed, 251 wounded, and 7 missing. Under orders from General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate forces never put up a good fight because they were ordered to evacuate the city.

15 May 1991, Major General Thomas G. Rhames praised the Field Artillery’s support on 24 February 1991 that paved the way for the maneuver forces to open Operation Desert Storm’s ground war. That day, three hundred fifty field pieces fired over 11,000 rounds and MLRS launchers fired 414 rockets. The massive barrage destroyed 50 tanks, 139 armored personnel carriers, and 152 field artillery pieces.

16 May 1828, William Congreve died. He developed the Congreve rocket during the 1790s that the British eventually adopted and employed during the Napoleonic Wars. The British used Congreve rockets to bombard Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812 which inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner” that became the American national anthem.

17 May 1951, The Battle of Soygang, Korean War, began and ended on 23 May 1951. During the course of the battle, 21 field artillery battalions fired over 300,000 rounds in support of X Corps.

18 May 1824, The War Department formed the Artillery School of Practice at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, to train coast artillerymen.

19 May 1863, General U.S. Grant had all of his forces in place to begin the artillery siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The city fell in July 1863 after a lengthy siege.

20 May 1916, The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Act that provided for an increase in the size of the peacetime Army to 175,000 soldiers. It authorized 65 infantry regiments, 25 cavalry regiments, 21 field artillery regiments, 7 engineer regiments, 2 mounted engineer battalions, 263 coast artillery companies, 8 aero squadrons, and supporting formations during wartime.

21 May 1863, Union forces surrounding Port Hudson, Louisiana, started their siege. The siege lasted 48 days before Confederate forces finally surrendered.

22 May 1933, On this day, Major General William Cruikshank, Commandant of the Field Artillery School, closed down training to accommodate Civilian Conservation Corps responsibilities. Beginning in May 1933, Fort Sill served as a reception center for incoming members of the Civilian Conservation Corps and supervised 41 Civilian Conservation Corps companies in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. To accomplish this task Cruikshank had to employ his staff and faculty. He released about sixty percent of his staff, faculty, and school troops for duty with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Along with the extra duties associated with post construction, supporting the Civilian Conservation Corps left two officers per battery and eighteen key instructors to carry on training in the school, causing severe instructor shortages by the end of May 1933.

22 May 1947, The first U.S. ballistic missile was successfully fired. The Corporal E, the first U.S. surface-to-surface guided ballistic missile, accepted guidance corrections, attaining a range of 63.5 miles and an altitude of 129,000 feet. It was powered by the first U.S. developed and tested large-thrust rocket motor.

23 May 1991, In a report to the Commanding General of Fort Sill, Major General Raphael J. Hallada, the 75th Field Artillery Brigade praised the 6-27th Field Artillery for its performance in Operation Desert Storm when it fired six Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) missiles to destroy surface-to-air missile sites on 18 January 1991.

24 May 1920, MG Frank W. Coe became Chief of Coast Artillery and served until 30 June 1920.

25 May 1953, Troops from Fort Sill fired the world’s first atomic artillery round at Frenchman’s Flat, Nevada, from a 280-mm. gun. The 280-mm. gun, known as Atomic Annie, was moved to Fort Sill for permanent display.

25 May 1987, Dedication of Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.

26 May 1944, The Army approved the desired military characteristics for a guided missile that eventually led to the Corporal guided missile of the 1950s.

27 May 1778, Congress reorganized the artillery regiments of the Continental Army as part of an overall reorganization of the army. Congress retained the four regiments created in 1776, provided twelve companies for each, and cut the number of field grade officers to reduce costs. This action slowed down promotions and caused many artillery officers to transfer to infantry regiments where promotions were faster. Of the four regiments, three had twelve companies, and one had eight.

28 May 1968, The Department of the Army recommended separating the Air Defense Artillery and the Field Artillery into separate artillery branches after being consolidated in 1950.

29 May 1866, LTG Winfield Scott died. During the War of 1812, he drilled his infantry and field artillery to perform effectively on the battlefield. In the Battles of Chippewa and Lundy Lane his field artillery out performed British field artillery to pave the way for American victories.

30 May 1941, Brigadier General Edmund L. Gruber died on this day. He wrote the song, “The Caissons Go Rolling Along” while assigned to the 5th Field Artillery in 1908.

31 May 1907, War Department General Order Number 118 formed the Field Artillery into six regiments (three mounted, two mountain, and one horse) of two battalions each. The Field Artillery achieved a new status within the War Department by becoming an official combat arm branch. Before it had been subordinate to the Coast Artillery that had received most of the money and attention because it defended the country’s vulnerable harbors against enemy naval attacks.

31 May 1965, The 3-319th FA participated in the largest air assault conducted to date in Vietnam as a part of Task Force Stuart. The task force consisting of cavalry troops, an engineer platoon, and a composite platoon made up of volunteers from the support battalion secured a landing zone and guided in CH-47 Mohave helicopters carrying the howitzers. The landing was so successful that the howitzers were in position and firing in a few hours in support of another landing zone for Task Force Dexter, a reinforced infantry element of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

31 May 1984, the Army awarded a contract to Magnavox to produce software for the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS).

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June-August 1922, The War Department consolidated the Field Artillery Basic Course, the Field Artillery Battery Officers Course, and the Field Artillery Advanced Course at Fort Sill in preparation for the academic school year of 1922-1923 that began in September.

1 June 1953, The Army authorized separating the Army Aviation School from The Artillery School at Fort Sill effective on 1 July 1953. The Aviation School trained officers to be pilots for air observation and other missions.

1 June 1954, The first eight Honest John rocket batteries were fully equipped.

1 June 1988, On-site Inspection Agency began the inspection of 130 Soviet Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty sites. That same day, Soviet inspection teams began inspecting NATO INF treaty sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States, including Fort Sill.

2 June 1875, The first telegraph line into Indian Territory was completed between Fort Sill and Fort Richardson, Texas.

3 June 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Defense of 1916. It permitted expanding the Regular Army to a peacetime strength of 175,000 over 5 years and a wartime strength of 300,000. The act permitted expanding the Field Artillery from 6 to 9 regiments during peace and 21 during wartime. When the act was signed the Regular Army had 246 field artillery officers and 5,470 enlisted personnel.

4 June 1920, Congress passed the National Defense Act of 1920 which governed Army organization until 1950. The new law retained the Coast Artillery and Field Artillery as separate branches even though the motor vehicle gave unprecedented mobility to the former to fight on the modern battlefield, defined their missions, and preserved the Chief of Coast Artillery and the Chief of Field Artillery.

4 June 1798, Congress created a second regiment of artillerists composed of field and coastal artillery to fight a potential war against France as a result of the XYZ Affair stemming from the United States treaty with the British in 1794.

4 June 1985, MG Eugene S. Korpal became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 17 Aug 1987.

5 June 1913, The Department Commander for the Eastern Department, Governors Island, New York, wrote to the Chief of Staff of the War Department, Major General Leonard Wood, about the School of Fire for Field Artillery. He congratulated the school on developing highly trained field artillery officers.

6 June 1942, The War Department established Army Aviation at Fort Sill concurrently with the adoption of organic air observation for the Field Artillery.

6 June 1944, During the D-Day invasion, the 111th Field Artillery Battalion floated its guns to shore on Omaha Beach and lost all but one gun. The 7th Field Artillery Battalion lost six pieces. The 7th and 111th were only two of many field artillery units that participated in the D-Day assault.

7 June 1995, MG Randall L. Rigby became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 7 Jun 1997.

7 June 1997, MG Leo J. Baxter became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 11 Aug 1999.

8 June 1965, American troops, including field artillery and air defense artillerymen, were given orders to fight offensively in Vietnam.

9 June 1847, Developed by William Hales, a British inventor, Hales rockets were in full production at the Washington Arsenal. By 30 June 1847, over 2,000 had been made. General Winfield Scott’s successful use of the Hales rocket at Veracruz, Mexico, in March 1847 heightened the demand.

9 June 1977, MG Donald R. Keith, Commandant of the Field Artillery School, put the finishing touches on his letter to MG J.K. Thurman, the Commander of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, about the need to refine counterfire. Keith sent the letter to Thurman on 11 June 1977.

10 June 1775, John Adams proposed creating a Continental Army out of the soldiers laying siege to the British, including creating an artillery regiment composed of siege, coast, and field batteries.

11 June 1877, Samuel N. Benjamin received the Medal of Honor for gallant services as an artillery officer from Bull Run to Spotsylvania, Virginia, during the Civil War.

12 June 1944, The Germans fired the first V-1 rocket against London. This rocket was the lineal ancestor of American field and air defense artillery rockets of the 1950s.

13 June 1942, The Germans fire their first V-2 rocket. It was the ancestor of American field and air defense rockets of the 1950s.

14 June 1911, Captain Dan T. Moore wrote the War Department complaining about the water supply on Fort Sill. He feared without finding additional water sources, locating the School of Fire for Field Artillery on Fort Sill would be difficult. Moore’s concern prompted the City of Lawton to permit Fort Sill to use some of its water supply and caused Fort Sill to dig additional wells to increase the water supply.

14 June 1968, Department of the Army General Order Number 25 established Air Defense Artillery as a separate combat arms branch. This order officially split the Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery into separate branches after being merged as The Artillery since 1950.

15 June 1958, the Army standardized the T29 electro-mechanical analog computer as the M15 Gun Data Computer to solve technical fire direction. It was replaced by FADAC in the 1960s.

15 June 1950, The War Department inactivated the Sea Coast Artillery School at Fort Irwin, California.

15 June 1993, MG John A. Dubia became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 7 Jun 1995.

16 June 1923, Commandant of the Field Artillery School, Major General Ernest Hines, wrote in his annual report about the poor condition of the school’s facilities and recommended starting a building program to erect permanent buildings for the school because most of the school’s buildings were temporary and dilapidated and built during World War I.

17 June 1745, The American colonists and their British allies captured French Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island after a lengthy artillery siege. Richard Gridley of Massachusetts gained fame for his effective handling of the artillery. He later rose to be a colonel and formed Gridley’s Regiment of Artillery in 1775 at the beginning of the American Revolution.

18 June 1911, The School of Fire for Field Artillery was founded with Colonel Dan T. Moore as the first commandant. Its establishment provided the U.S. Army with its first facility dedicated solely for the instruction, training, and development of field artillery doctrine and techniques.

19 June 1989, Retired General Donald R. Keith, a former CG of Fort Sill, wrote the current CG of Fort Sill about the necessity of retaining counterfire in the light division. Because of recent concerns the ability of the light division to furnish counterfire, some senior field artillery officers urged moving counterfire to the corps that supported light divisions.

20 June 1905, Brigadier General Samuel M. Mills became Chief of Artillery. He served until 30 September 1906.

20 June 1909, Construction of New Post began to accommodate the increased garrison. It was built west of the Old Post on the site which had been Custer’s 7th Cavalry parade ground in 1869.

20 June 1946, Major General Clift Andrus became commandant of the Field Artillery School and served in that position until 15 April 1949.

21 June 1951, The first test firing of the Honest John rocket took place. Upon being fielded in 1954, it gave the Field Artillery a rocket with nuclear capabilities.

22 June 1894, Adelbert Ames received the Medal of Honor for remaining in the field in command of a section of Griffin’s battery, directing its fires after being severely wounded and refusing to leave the field until too weak at the Battle of First Bull Run, July 1861.

22 June 1950, Major General A.M. Harper, the Commandant of the Field Artillery School, first complained about the quality of the officers who had graduated from the integrated officer courses that taught field artillery and antiaircraft artillery subjects. He said that they were not technically competent to train their units because they had insufficient technical training in their integrated courses.

22 June 1954, The first Honest John rocket arrived at Fort Sill to usher The Artillery School into the nuclear age.

23 June 1964, General Maxwell D. Taylor was appointed ambassador to South Vietnam. As an army officer, he graduated from the Field Artillery School in 1933 as a captain and later served as a division artillery commander of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II but missed out on the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne because he was attending a staff conference in the United States.

24 June May 1898, At the Battle of Las Guasimas in the Spanish-American War, the American army under Major General Joseph Wheeler opened the battle with fire from his M1885 3.2 inch field guns and then employed Civil War era skirmishers at the head of their advancing columns to capture Las Guasimas ridge. The battle showed the U.S. that the old linear Civil War tactics did not work effectively against Spanish troops who had learned the art of cover and concealment from their own struggle with Cuban insurgents and never made the error of revealing their positions while on the defense. The Spaniards were also aided by new smokeless powder Mauser rifles which also aided their remaining concealed even while firing. American soldiers were only able to advance against the Spaniards in what are now called fire team rushes, four-to-five man groups advancing while others laid down supporting fires.

25 June 1957, The Field Artillery School unveiled its 1957-1958 Extension Course Program. The most important change made involved reducing the Advance Extension Course by 180 hours to make comparable in length to the resident associate course for National Guard and Army Reserve field artillery officers.

26 June 1989, In the raging debate over the location of counterfire for the light division (should it be retained in the light division or moved to the corps), LTG William H. Harrison, CG, I Corps, advocated keeping it in the light division even though it had the potential of being overwhelmed with counterfire responsibilities. Regardless of its location, he believed that counterfire had to be proactive by attacking enemy indirect fire systems and forces before they fired.

27 June 1912, Fort Sill received information that the War Department planned to transfer the School of Musketry from the Presidio of Monterey, California, to Fort Sill.

27 June 1940, The National Defense Research Committee was formed to improve the accuracy, speed, and reliability of sound and flash ranging equipment which was vital to effective counterbattery fire.

27 June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, causing President Truman to deploy U.S. military forces to Korea to stem the invasion. With this, the Antiaircraft Artillery School at Fort Bliss, Texas, and The Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, started expanding to train the increase student load.

28 June 1778, American artillery under Henry Knox stopped the British advance at Monmouth Courthouse, New Jersey. Together with aggressive infantry assaults, the artillery forced the British to retreat towards New York.

28 June 1950, Congress passed the Army Organization Act of 1950 that legally recognized the Infantry, Armor, and Artillery as statutory combat arms, among other things. The Army inactivated the Coast Artillery and the Sea Coast Artillery School, legally merged Antiaircraft Artillery and Field Artillery as one branch to economize, and solidified the practice of integrated training for officers and cross assigning them while preserving specialized training for enlisted personnel as either field artillerymen or antiaircraft artillerymen.

28 June 1958, the Army signed a contract with Autonetics, a division of North American Aviation Incorporated to develop the Field Artillery Digital Automated Computer (FADAC). It was a solid-state transistorized, electronic computer that calculated technical fire direction.

29 June 1905, A provisional regiment of field artillery for training purposes was organized at Fort Sill with the first troops arriving that day.

29 June 1950, The Department of the Army established the Army Antiaircraft Command with headquarters in the Pentagon. Major General Willard Irvine, an antiaircraft artillery officer, served as the first commander.

29 June 1951, The first round of five feasibility demonstration flight tests was conducted at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, to demonstrate that a large, unguided rocket could deliver a 1,500 pound payload to a range of 20,000 yards with acceptable accuracy. Results of the five-round demonstrations which ended 7 August 51 established the technical feasibility of the Honest John rocket.

30 June 1894, John Cook died on this day. He volunteered at the age of 15 to act as a cannoneer and served on a gun under a terrific fire of the enemy at Antietam, Maryland, in 1862.

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July 1973. The first issue of the Field Artillery Journal to appear in twenty-three years was published.

1 July 1862, Colonel Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac under Major General George B. McClellan, emplaced 340 guns on the summit of Malvern Hill during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 and caused 5,000 Confederate casualties as they attacked up the hill.

1 July 1898, Captain George S. Grimes’s four-gun battery poured field artillery fire on Spanish positions on San Juan Hill, Santiago, Cuba, causing the Spanish to retreat.

1 July 1908, MG Arthur Murray became Chief of Coast Artillery and served in this position until 14 March 1911.

1 July 1920, Major General Frank W. Coe became Chief of Coast Artillery. He served until 19 March 1926.

1 July 1920, Major General William J. Snow became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 19 December 1927.

1 July 1940, The Field Artillery School started its mobilization classes as the Army began preparing for possible combat action in Europe.

1 July 1941, The War Department established the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill to train enlisted soldiers to be officers.

1 July 1953, The Army Aviation School at Fort Sill was organized to conduct tactical training for pilots and mechanics of all branches using light aircraft or helicopters became fully operational and picked up the training formerly taught by the Department of Air Training that dated back to 6 June 1942. The Department of Air Training was discontinued on 1 July 1953.

1 July 1957, The Army redesignated the U.S. Army Artillery and Guided Missile School as the U.S. Army Artillery and Missile School and the U.S. Army Artillery and Guided Missile Center as the U.S. Army Artillery and Missile Center.

1 July 1975, The Field Artillery Training Center became a separate major command on Fort Sill. Previously, it had been under the Field Artillery School.

2 July 1869, General Phillip Sheridan officially named Fort Sill in memory of his West Point Classmate, Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed at the Battle of Stones River, Tennessee, 31 December 1862.

3 July 1863, The Battle of Gettysburg ended with Pickett’s charge into massed Union artillery positioned by Colonel Henry J. Hunt of the Army of the Potomac.

4 July 1808, Captain George Peters light (horse) artillery battery staged an impressive demonstration for Congress to illustrate the necessity of light artillery. It was the only battery of the Light (Horse) Artillery Regiment authorized in 1808 that was ever mounted.

4 July 1901, President William H. McKinley opened the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache reservations to white settlement.

5 July 1814, The American artillery batteries supporting the charge of Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott’s brigade was faster and more accurate in their fire than was the Royal Artillery at the Battle of Chippewa near Niagara Falls. In honor of the victory of Chippewa, the West Point cadets were uniformed in the gray that they wear today

6 July 1973, The Army activated the branch-immaterial Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill closed its doors.

7 July 1944, Massed fires from nine XIX Corps Artillery battalions paved way for American breakout at St. Lô, France.

8 July 1826, Benjamin Henry Grierson was born. In the 1870s he commanded the 10th Cavalry, an all black cavalry unit at Fort Sill.

9 July 1850, President Zachary Taylor died. Under his command field artillery batteries during the Mexican War of 1846-1848 at Palo Alto, Palma de Resaca, and Buena Vista performed effectively to help defeat larger Mexican forces under Santa Anna.

9 July 1916, The last field artillery officer left the School of Fire for Field Artillery and Fort Sill for duty on the Mexican border with General Pershing who had the mission to track down Pancho Villa.

10 July 1941, The first Field Artillery Officer Candidate Course class arrived at Fort Sill as the Army and Fort Sill began mobilizing in response to the war in Europe.

11 July 1789, Congressional act created the U.S. Marine Corps.

12 July 2002, Colonel Heidi V. Brown became the Army’s first woman commander of an air defense artillery brigade when she accepted command of the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas.

13 July 1987, BG Fred F. Marty became the Assistant Commandant of the Field Artillery. He later served as the Chief of Field Artillery, the Commandant of the Field Artillery School, and the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill (19 Jul 1991-15 Jun 1993).

14 July 2006, The 6th Battalion, 52nd ADA , the Ironhorse Battalion, part of the 31st ADA Brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas, uncased its flag at Fort Sill to become the first ADA unit on Fort Sill.

14-15 July 1918, At the outset of an unprecedented field artillery bombardment on 14-15 July 1918, First Lieutenant George P. Hays of the 10th Field Artillery, 3rd Division, lost his lines of communication to neighboring field artillery units. Despite the hazards of a runner, he immediately set out to establish contact with neighboring command posts and two French batteries. He visited their positions so frequently that he was responsible for massed fire on the enemy. During the performance of his duties, seven horses were shot under him, and he was severely wounded. His actions under severe enemy fire helped check the advance of the enemy and let to a Congressional Medal of Honor.

15 July 1957, The U.S. Army Artillery and Guided Missile School organized the Guided Missile Department to teach the functioning, operation, and maintenance of all field artillery guided missile systems.

16 July 1834, Colonel Henry Dodge conferred with a group of Comanches along Cache Creek near present-day Fort Sill and later met with the Wichitas to the west of the Wichita Mountains near Fort Sill. As a result of the meetings, the federal government signed treaties at Fort Gibson with Comanches in 1835 and Wichitas in 1837 to end their raids into the territory of the Five Civilized Tribes to the east and created a temporary but an uneasy peace to the territory until the mid-1860s.

17 July 1863, Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory, the largest Civil War battle in Indian Territory. Union field guns played a critical role in decisively defeating Confederate forces, allowing Union to seize control of Indian Territory for Union.

17 July 1902, An Act of Congress on 2 February 1901 divided the Artillery arm into Coast Artillery and Field Artillery. The Artillery insignia was modified by the addition of a plain scarlet oval at the intersection of the crossed cannons. On 17 July 1902, the Coast Artillery insignia was created by the addition of a gold projectile on the red oval.

18 July 1917, The 35th Division was constituted as one of the 17 National Guard divisions authorized for service in World War I. The division was organized on 25 August 1917 at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma (part of Fort Sill), from the National Guard of Kansas and Missouri. Captain Harry Truman served in the division in D Battery, 129th Field Artillery.

19 July 1911, The War Department designated Captain Dan T. Moore as first commandant of the School of Fire for Field Artillery.

19 July 1991, MG Fred F. Marty became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 15 Jun 1993.

20 July 1954, The Chief of Staff of the Army approved transferring the Army Aviation School from Fort Sill to Fort Rucker, Alabama, to bring an end to 12 years of aviation training at Fort Sill.

21 July 1861, At the First Battle of Bull Run, Union and Confederate commanders learned that they could not push their artillery in front of their lines to within canister range (350-500 yards) of enemy lines as was the practice because both sides were equipped with rifled muskets with ranges exceeding 300 yards. Rifled muskets made this tactic that dated back to 1807 suicidal.

22 July 1881, The first volume of The War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies was published. The volume provided a detailed record of field artillery actions during the American Civil War.

23 July 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson accepted Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s recommendation to increase the country’s military commitment to South Vietnam. The arrival of the 1st Cavalry (Air Mobile) Division with its aerial rocket artillery and helicopter-transported towed artillery in August 1965 came as a result of the increased commitment.

24 July 1989, A Fort Sill message to the U.S. Army Aviation Center reaffirmed that budget cuts were forcing the Army to cut the number of OH58D helicopters to be purchased and that the Army planned to transfer OH58Ds dedicated to field artillery missions to more urgent missions.

25 July 1814, American field artillery under Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott outduelled British field artillery at Lundy’s Lane during the War of 1812.

25 July 1944, LTG Lesley McNair, former assistant commandant of the Field Artillery School, was killed in action during the breakout at St. Lô.

26 July 1759, The French evacuated Fort Ticonderoga, New York, and left it to the British during the French-Indian War of 1755-1763, leaving stores and cannon behind.

26 July 1944, The first German V-2 rocket hit Great Britain. The V-2 was the predecessor of the field artillery and air defense artillery rockets.

27 July 1917, Colonel William J. Snow of the 4th Field Artillery reported for duty as the commandant of the School of Fire for Field Artillery to provide trained field artillery officers for combat duty in France during World War I.

27 July 1996, The Chief of Staff of the Army approved TRADOC’s Professional Military Education Study for captains and permitted TRADOC to implement the findings of the study that led to Captain’s Career Course that was divided into branch-specific training at the branch or service school and staff process training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

28 July 1915, The first air unit in the U.S. military service, the First Aero Squadron, arrived at Fort Sill to conduct experiments in aerial observation of field artillery fire.

29 July 1975, Under direction from the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the Field Artillery School formed the Close Support Study Group to examine ways of improving forward observation. The group recommended creating a fire support team (FIST) to coordinate field artillery fires, naval gunfire, close air support, and mortar fires.

29 July 1996, The Commanding General of TRADOC, General William W. Hartzog, told TRADOC school commandants to redesign their courses to be consistent with the Total Army Training System (TATS) that had the objective of standardizing training for the active and reserve components, to establish distance learning classrooms to beam training beyond the schoolhouse, and to connect the Internet.

30 July 1815, Thomas Jackson Rodman, a U.S. Army artilleryman, was born. He developed rifled wrought-iron artillery pieces used extensively during the American Civil War.

30 July 1946, The first American rocket to reach 100 miles in altitude was fired at White Sands, New Mexico.

30 July 1985, The Field Artillery School officially announced its opposition to small group instruction and mentoring because they were resource intensive and the school lacked the resources to implement them. The school urged the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command to study small group instruction and mentoring more before implementation.

31 July 1777, The United States Congress passed a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connections that he should have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States Continental Army.

31 July 2006, A Block IA record test readiness review of the XM982 Excalibur was conducted in preparation for the record test of August-September 2006.

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August 1922, The 1st Observation Flash Battery to detect enemy field artillery was activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, by transferring men from the 5th and 17th Field Artillery Regiments.

1 August 1990, The final draft Operational and Organization Plan for a light multiple rocket launcher was ready for distribution.

2 August 1939, The Field Artillery School completed a report conducted at the request of the Chief of Field Artillery to test a six-gun battery and a four-battery battalion. The report indicated that the six-gun battery provided greater fire power than the four-gun battery and had a greater density of fire but that it was harder for the executive officer to control and more cumbersome. The school recommended serious consideration be given to forming six-gun batteries. The four-battery battalion was more difficult to handle than the three-battery battalion and provided better support for the infantry during displacements. If the number of guns in a battalion were to be increased the school recommended adding a fourth firing battery to the battalion then considering a six-gun battery.

2 August 1951, Secretary of the Army approved the Ordnance Technical Committee recommendation for the formal development of the basic Honest John.

2 August 1955, Congress approved expanding Fort Sill by approximately, 20,000 acres.

3 August 1917, A small contingent of French officers with combat experience in World War I reported to the School of Fire for Field Artillery to serve as instructors.

3 August 1983, The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command approved the Field Artillery School pilot Warrant Officer Entry Course for implementation. Because of frequent rewrites, the course was not implemented until February 1986 and became the basis for other TRADOC warrant officer entry courses for the other branches.

3 August 1946, The Field Artillery School taught its first postwar Artillery Battery Officer Course to train battery grade officers with 2 to 5 years of experience in their duties. The course covered field artillery and antiaircraft artillery subjects.

4 August 2005, MG David C. Ralston became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 13 September 2007.

5 August 1917, The 321st Field Artillery Regiment was constituted as part of the National Army and was assigned to the 82nd (All American) Division. The 321st along with its two sister regiments, the 319th and the 320th, was officially activated as part of the 157th Field Artillery Brigade on 29 August 1917 at Camp Gordon, near Atlanta, Georgia. It was later reorganized and redesignated on 15 August 1942 as Battery C, 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion, an element of the 101st Airborne Division, making it one of the first field artillery units designed to be airlifted into battle.

6 August 1901, Federal officials auctioned off lots in what became present-day Lawton to white settlers. Lawton was named after Major General Henry W. Lawton who had been quartermaster at Fort Sill, had earned a Medal of Honor, and had participated in capturing Geronimo.

6 August 1902, David L. Smith received the Medal of Honor. While serving in Battery E, 1st New York Light Artillery during the American Civil War. When a shell struck an ammunition chest exploding a number of cartridges and setting fire to the packing tow, he procured water and extinguished the fire, thus preventing the explosion of the remaining ammunition.

6 August 1945, The Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, to end World War II. For many Americans, including government leaders, the bomb ended the need for ground forces, including field artillery.

7 August 1782, George Washington created the Purple Heart Award.

7 August 2006, The Commanding General of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill (USAFACFS), Major General David C. Ralston, wrote in a memorandum to the VCSA that field artillery leaders at all levels have experienced the atrophy of field artillery-specific skills.

8 August 1917, Construction of Henry Post Army Airfield was begun on the same site used by the First Aerial Squadron in 1915. It was named after Lieutenant Henry B. Post of the 25th Infantry who was killed in an airplane accident near San Diego, California in 1914 while he was attempting to set an altitude record.

8 August 1929, Snow Hall, the Field Artillery School’s main academic building, burned down. Named after Major General William J. Snow, Snow Hall housed the Field Artillery School headquarters and a majority of the classrooms.

9 August 1951, The Secretary of the Army decided to accelerate fielding of the Honest John rocket to get to the field faster.

9 August 1990, The Commanding General of Fort Sill, MG Raphael J. Hallada, made supporting Operation Desert Shield the number one priority for the installation.

10 August 1990, The Field Artillery School informed the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command about the possibility of employing a light multiple rocket launcher called the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System to furnish counterfire with the contingency and light forces.

11 August 1999, MG Toney Stricklin became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 23 Aug 2001.

12 August 1990, As the U.S. military geared up for possible combat action in the Persian Gulf after Iraq had invaded Kuwait early in August 1990, Fort Sill determined that all Fort Sill unit and personal equipment would be shipped at wartime readiness, that deploying units would have all of their soldiers, and that all personnel would be qualified with their personal weapons, would be trained in nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) warfare, and would be fully capable of performing their wartime missions. Any less commitment would be irresponsible and potentially disastrous

13 August 1987, The Field Artillery reaffirmed the need to modernize the Q-36 by adding improved electronics and by mounting it on a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle to improve mobility and meet the needs of the light forces.

14 August 1954. The Artillery School officially opened Snow Hall (B730) to replace McNair Hall built in the 1930s. It housed classrooms and administrative offices and was air conditioned. The building had 190,000 square feet of floor space and facilities to accommodate 2,500 students and furnished the school with a centralized location for classrooms and headquarters.

14 August 1991, The Army approved the Interim Fire Support Automation System (IFSAS) for the light forces. It was to be used until the Automated Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) could be fielded.

15 August 1917, Colonel William J. Snow presented his plan to the War Department to expand the School of Fire’s physical plant to accommodate the influx of students being trained for combat in France.

15 August 1950, The Department of the Army established the Artillery Replacement Center which worked in conjunction with The Artillery School for the duration of the Korean War. It trained enlisted soldiers in various field artillery military occupational skills until 1 December 1953 when it was closed.

16 August 1812, Under the cover of siege artillery and naval gunfire, British General Isaac Brock attacked Fort Detroit at the beginning of the War of 1812. Fearing a slaughter as casualties mounted and the aggressive intentions of the British Native American allies, Major General William Hull surrendered the fort without a fight, giving the British control of the fort and its artillery and small arms.

16 August 2008, A ceremony at Fort Sill marked the arrival of the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade from its home in Fort Bliss, Texas, to its new location at the post in southwest Oklahoma. The brigade’s red-and-yellow-guidon was unfurled to symbolize the move, which is part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act, or BRAC, which directed the collocation of the ADA School and FA School at Fort Sill.

17 August 1863, Federal batteries and naval guns bombard Fort Sumter.

17 August 1990, The first III Corps Artillery units on Fort Sill received their alert notices for movement to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Shield.

18 August 1965, U.S. Marine Corps launched an offensive against Chou Lai that lasted 6 days. Field artillery, close air support, and naval gunfire killed 700 Viet Cong.

19 August 1847, Serving as infantry, artillerymen and infantry attacked Contreras during the Mexican War.

20 August 1794, Major General Anthony Wayne’s small King howitzers participated in the victory over the Miami Indians in the Northwest Territory, opening the land for white settlement with the Treaty of Greenville of 1795.

20 August 1987, MG Raphael J. Hallada became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 19 Jul 1991.

21 August 1987, The Field Artillery School reaffirmed the Army’s intention of fielding AFATDS software using a block approach. The software will be fielded in three blocks with each building upon the previous to get the software to the field more rapidly with block three being the objective software.

22 August 1986, The Army completed its Army Fire Support Automation Plan to automate fire support in the heavy and light forces. This plan superceded the Army Modified AFATDS Plan of September 1985.

23 August 2001, MG Michael D. Maples became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 9 Dec 2003.

23 August 2006, The Commanding General of Fort Sill chartered the Field Artillery War on Terrorism Reset Task Force to develop a concept plan to reset (retrain) the Field Artillery force because units, officers, and soldiers were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without ever employing their field artillery skills. They basically had to reacquire their field artillery skills that had been diminished because of the lack of use.

24 August 1897, Frederick Fuger received the Medal of Honor for succeeding to command when all of his battery’s officers had been killed or wounded. He fought gallantly with the remaining gun until the Federal battery was ordered to withdraw at Gettysburg in July 1863.

25 August 1918, The Air Services Flying School’s first class reported for training at Fort Sill. The school trained officers to be aerial observers for field artillery.

26 August 1901, Maxwell Taylor, a noted field artillery officer, was born. He was the division artillery commander of the 101st Airborne Division in World War Two and contributed to the development of the Pentomic army divisions in the 1950s.

26 August 1960, The 5th Field Artillery was consolidated with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 5th Artillery Group, 24th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion, and the 1st Battalion, 5th Coast Artillery and redesignated as the 5th Artillery.

27 Aug 2007, Dignitaries from the ADA School and FA School participated in a ground-breaking ceremony for the new ADA Advanced Individual Training facilities on the Fires Center of Excellence campus on Fort Sill Boulevard across from the Henry Post Army Airfield.

28 August 2002, The Army Acquisition Executive attended a review that detailed the new program to deliver the Unitary Excalibur in three versions, called spirals, and subsequently approved the program.

29 August 1533, Pizarro executed last Incan emperor, Atahuallpa. After winning Emperor Atahuallpa's trust, Pizarro laid an ambush for the Inca leader and his army. Buckling under an assault by the terrifying Spanish artillery and cavalry thousands of Incas were slaughtered. Pizarro imprisoned Atahuallpa, exacted a room full of gold as ransom for his life, and then treacherously executed him

30 August 1945, MG Louis E. Hibbs became Commanding General of Fort Sill and Commandant of the Field Artillery School. He served in these positions until 4 June 1946.

30 August 1945, The War Department organized the Patch Board under Lieutenant General Alexander Patch to review and recommend the proper organization for the Army. The board recommended merging the Coast Artillery and Field Artillery into one artillery, among other proposals.

31 August 1992, The Army approved the Call-for-Fire Trainer (CFFT) operational requirements document.

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September 1935, The September 1935 edition of Digest in FA Developments, first announced to field artillerymen the development of the fire direction center.

1 September 1958, The 4th Field Artillery was consolidated with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Antiaircraft Artillery Group, 4th and 20th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalions, and the 44th Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion and redesignated as the 4th Artillery.

2 September 1854, Paul Vielle was born in Paris, France. He developed a smokeless propellant known as nitrocelloluse that became an effective propellant in American and European field artillery weapons in the 1890s.

2 September 1893, William B. Avery received the Medal of Honor for handling his battery with greatest coolness under the heavy fire at Tranter’s Creek, North Carolina, in 1862.

2 September 1990, B Battery, 6-27th Field Artillery received a rush call from General Norman Schwartzkopf to ship its MLRS launchers to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Shield.

3 September 1950, At the beginning of September 1950 the North Koreans began a powerful drive against the southern end of the Pusan Perimeter defended by the U.S. 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions. The enemy pushed the infantry units back and then attacked several batteries of field artillery. Among the field artillery units, the heaviest fighting took place within the gun positions of Battery A, 64th Field Artillery Battalion. Around his battery position, Captain Leroy Anderson set up ten defensive posts including four .50-caliber machine guns, three .30-caliber machine guns, one observation and listening post, and two M16 halftracks each mounting four .50-caliber machine guns. Early in the morning the main North Korean attack hit the south end of the battery position and partially surrounded the battery. This forced several gun crews to interrupt their firing missions and to take cover in their gun pits as friendly soldiers opened fire with their machine guns and as the rest of the gun crews started firing on the ridgeline to slow down the North Korean advance. The rest of the gun crews eventually had to abandon their guns for protection to a gully where the Americans rallied by organizing a stiff defense with help from the battery's battalion which was by now firing explosive shell onto the enemy.

4-7 September 1967, Battle of Que Son Valley (Operation Swift). By late afternoon of 4 September 1967, four Marine companies from the 1st Marine Division were barely hanging on to their respective enclaves. All four companies were under resolute attack by vastly numerically superior NVA forces that, no doubt, had carefully planned the trap. Only the timely arrival of Marine jet fighter-bombers and the pinpoint accuracy of Marine field artillery prevented the Marine infantry companies from being overrun. Despite a large and growing toll of wounded and dead Marines, the night of September 4-5 was used to good advantage in aggressive air and artillery strikes against several NVA positions.

5 September 1862, Major General George B. McCellan made Colonel Henry J. Hunt his chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac. Hunt played a critical role in developing the field artillery into an effective fighting force while he served as chief of artillery.

5 September 1946, The Field Artillery School conducted its first postwar Artillery Officer Advance Course for officers with 5-12 years of experience. The course taught field artillery and antiaircraft artillery subjects.

6-7 September 1863, The Union initiated an artillery siege of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, after an unsuccessful assault. After enduring almost 60 days of heavy shelling, the Confederates abandoning the fort.

7 September 1847, Major General Winfield Scott developed his plans to attack El Molino del Rey in his campaign to Mexico City. The following day, Captain Benjamin Huger’s 24-lbrs opened fire with solid shot to batter down the wall of El Molino del Rey. After taking a severe beating, the Mexican retreated under artillery fire from a battery of 6-lbrs.

8 September 1944, The first German V-2 rockets landed on London, heralding in an age of rockets and missiles. The Americans later adopted rockets and missiles as field artillery and antiaircraft artillery based upon the V-2 technology.

9 September 1957, The 40th Field Artillery Missile Group (Redstone), the first heavy missile group organized in the U.S. Army, was transferred from Fort Carson, Colorado, to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

9-10 September 2005, B Battery, 3-13th Field Artillery fired GMLRS to destroy insurgent strongholds Tal Afar from a distance of more than fifty kilometers. This was the first time that Guided MLRS rockets were fired in combat.

11 September 1901, The School for Cavalry and Light Artillery, formerly the Cavalry and Light Artillery School, reopened. However, the lack of students and facilities forestalled opening until 1903.

11 September 1918, The Battle of St. Mihiel began with a huge artillery barrage from 3,010 guns ranging in size from 58mm to 16 inches, arranged in 667 batteries to pave the way for the American infantry to attack. The American guns fired 838,800 rounds.

11 September 2005, A Battery, 3-13th Field Artillery fired six Guided MLRS rockets to destroy the Mish’al Bridge and to prevent its use by insurgent forces in the Al Anbar province in Western Iraq.

12 September 1917, The War Department approved Colonel William J. Snow’s plan to expand the School of Fire’s physical plant to handle the soldiers to be trained for combat in World War I. This led to hastily constructed wooden buildings being built northwest of Old Post.

13 September 1954, The Artillery School began classes in the newly constructed Snow Hall. The classes were taught in the academic (B) wing of the building.

14 September 1819, Henry Jackson Hunt was born. During the American Civil War, he served as the Chief of Artillery for the Army of the Potomac. At Malvern Hill in July 1862 and on the 3rd day of Gettysburg, he massed his field artillery to stop Confederate charges and torn them apart.

15 September 1911, The School of Fire for Field Artillery officially opened its doors to its first class of officers.

16 September 1945, The Field Artillery School’s post World War II peacetime courses were in full swing.

17 September 1862, Pointblank field artillery fire from Confederate and Union field artillery produced 12,400 Union casualties and 8,000 Confederate casualties at Battle of Antietam.

17 September 1946, The Replacement and School Command under the orders of the Army Ground Forces tasked the Field Artillery School to develop a plan to consolidate the Field Artillery School, the Antiaircraft Artillery School, and Coast Artillery School to save money and personnel but never directed the school to consolidate the schools at one location.

18 September 1942, The first pilots from the Department of Training, Field Artillery School, graduated. They were trained as aerial observers for field artillery.

19 September 1966, Col A.D. Pickard, Chief of the Artillery Branch, Officer Personnel Directorate, Office of Personnel Operations, initiated “The Artillery Branch Study” to determine if the integrated Artillery branch composed of Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery was responsive to the Army’s needs. The study recommended separating the Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery.

20 September 1842, Lord James Dewar, physician who invented the vacuum flask and cordite, a smokeless powder, was born. Cordite was used as a propellant and a bursting charge in field artillery weapons.

21 September 1933, The War Department announced that the Public Works Administration had allotted $4 billion for construction at Fort Sill. Among other things, the funding paid for constructing a new administration building, later named after Lieutenant General Lesley McNair in 1944.

22 September 1989, The U.S. Army Aviation Center announced the Army’s revised fielding plan for OH58Ds would allocate 51 of the 207 helicopters to the fire support role, 131 to air cavalry and attack units, and 25 to the training base.

23 September 1985, A Fort Sill report on the Army and Air Force Joint Tactical Missile System program reaffirmed the Army’s intention to develop a short-range, ground-launched missile armed with terminal-guided submunitions. This missile system evolved into the Army Tactical Missile System.

24 September 1976, MG David E. Ott completed his tenure as Commandant of the Field Artillery School. As commandant, he was responsible for developing the FIST and counterfire doctrine.

25 September 1984, The U.S. Army Armament, Munitions, and Chemical Command gave the U.S. Army Field Artillery School permission to start developing the Backup Computer System to back up the Battery Computer System.

26 September 1939, Chief of Field Artillery, Major General Robert M. Danford, directed the Field Artillery School to find ways to employ organic field artillery aerial observation.

26 September 1949, The Artillery School established the Department of Airborne and Special Operations to develop airborne artillery doctrine, policy, procedures, and technique.

27 September 1917, The first wartime class (World War I) composed of 100 officers arrived for training at the School of Fire for Field Artillery.

28 September 1982, MG John S. Crosby became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 3 Jun 1985.

29 Sep 1939, Chief of FA, MG Robert M. Danford, lectured the Army War College about the need to retain horse-drawn artillery because self-propelled and towed artillery had not yet proven themselves to be reliable.

29 September 2006, BAE Systems, Minneapolis, Mn, unveiled the future combat system’s non-line-of-sight cannon firing platform. The firing platform was the first step toward the development of an NLOS-C prototype scheduled to begin testing in 2008.

30 September 1946, The Field Artillery School began preparing for the consolidation of the Coast Artillery School, the Antiaircraft Artillery School, and the Field Artillery School into one Artillery School at Fort Sill.

30 September 1985, The Field Artillery School stopped teach sound and flash ranging to locate hostile batteries. Sound and flash ranging had been taught at the school since the 1920s.

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October 1941, MG Robert M. Danford, Chief of Field Artillery, witnessed a fire direction center in operation for the first time and gave his approval.

1 October 1906, Brigadier General Arthur Murray became Chief of Artillery. He served until 30 June 1908.

1 October 1919, In his annual report to the Chief of Staff, the Chief of Coast Artillery, Major General Frank W. Coe, urged the War Department to reconsider his branch’s mission. According to Coe, the day was over when the Coast Artillery should be thought in terms of only maintaining platform-mounted heavy artillery and mine defenses for harbor defense. Recognizing that modern naval guns had rendered coastal fortifications obsolete, that tractor-drawn and railway-mounted coast artillery guns of the Coast Artillery had performed well during the war as field artillery to attack strong fortifications, and that thousands of coast artillerymen had served in field batteries, he urged merging the Field Artillery and Coast Artillery.

1 October 1988. A major Field Artillery School reorganization inactivated the Weapons Department. Weapons instruction moved the Gunnery Department. This gave the school four training departments: Gunnery, Fire Support and Combined Arms, Target Acquisition, and Communications and Electronics. The 30th FA (provisional) of three battalions was created. The Gunnery Department had the 3-30 FA (FAOBC). The Fire Support and Combined Arms Department had 5-30 FA (FAOAC). The 1-30 FA provided personnel management for staff.

1 October 2001. Fort Sill’s Training Command created the Futures Development Integration Center by consolidating some functions from the Warfighting Integration and Development Directorate and the Directorate of Combat Developments.

2 October 1997, The Field Artillery School reaffirmed Army’s opposition to adopting the German PzH2000 self-propelled 155mm howitzer as a replacement for the Paladin and need for the Crusader because it met all of the fire support requirements for the twenty-first century.

3 October 1918, The Infantry School of Musketry, later renamed the Infantry School, officially moved from Fort Sill to Fort Benning, Georgia.

3 October 1950, The Artillery Replacement Training Center’s name was changed to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center.

4 October 1989, TRADOC issued a revised fielding plan for the OH58D helicopter. The plan transferred OH58Ds from fire support roles to scouting and reconnaissance roles and supplanted the OH58D with the OH58A/C in field artillery roles.

4-7 October 1894, Apaches POWs, including Geronimo, from Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, arrived at Fort Sill.

5 October 1877, Chief Joseph of Nez Perce formally surrendered to the U.S. Army under Major General Nelson Miles. During his campaign against Chief Joseph, Miles dragged along a light 1.65-inch breechloading Hotchkiss field gun and used it effectively to prod Chief Joseph to surrender. He was one of the few field commanders on the post-Civil War frontier who employed field artillery when campaigning against Native Americans.

6 October 1781, French and American siege of British at Yorktown began with artillery bombardment.

7 October 1871, President Grant declared Fort Sill to be a permanent fort.

7 October 1879, The first telephone lines were installed at Fort Sill. This was only three years after the telephone had invented.

8 October 1941, Chief of Field Artillery, MG Robert M. Danford, recommended that the Chief of Staff of the Army, General George C. Marshall, should assign light aircraft to the field artillery for testing as organic aerial observation.

8 October 1946, The War Department consolidated HQ Fort Sill and HQ Field Artillery School.

9 October 1976, MG Donald R. Keith became the Commanding General of Fort Sill and the Commandant of the Field Artillery School. He served in these positions until 2l Oct 1977.

9 October 1781, The Americans and French intensified their bombardment of British positions at Yorktown. During the artillery siege General Marquis de Lafayette, who had come to regard himself as an American, enthusiastically shouted about the roar of cannon, “We fire faster than the French. Upon my honor I speak the truth. American Artillery -- one of the wonders of the Revolution.” The infantry moved forward to within 400 yards and secured an advance position, into which the artillery moved. At this range the combined artillery poured a devastating stream of iron into the cramped and crowded enemy. Finally, on 17 October 1781 Cornwallis surrendered.

10 October 1965, The 1st Cavalry Division began combat operations near Pleiku, Vietnam. For the Field Artillery, this was a groundbreaking experience. All of the division’s field artillery was airlifted (105mm towed howitzers) by helicopters or was aerial rocket artillery (armed helicopters). The division contained 434 helicopters and had the capability to move one-third of its combat power at one time into terrain inaccessible to normal infantry vehicles.

11 October 1892, Harry L. Hawthorne received the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Wounded Knee which was the last Indian battle that the Army fought.

11 October 1926, Thirteen enlisted soldiers were found guilty of arson and received prison sentences ranging from two years to thirty-two years for burning down Field Artillery School buildings.

11 October 1945, The 1st Guided Missile Battalion was activated at Fort Bliss, Texas.

12 October 1917, Major August Trowbridge assumed responsibility for developing sound-and-flash ranging in the American Expeditionary Forces to detect enemy field artillery positions. Once developed, sound-and-flash ranging permitted AEF field artillery units to engage hidden enemy field artillery that was disrupting the advance of the friendly infantry and wreaking havoc with friendly lines. During the war sound-and-flash ranging units were assigned to the Coast Artillery which had the heavy guns and much of the counterbattery mission. After the war, the Field Artillery assumed responsibility for sound-and-flash ranging.

13 October 2006, The U. S. Army Training and Doctrine Command tasked the U.S. Army Field Artillery School to participate in a pilot program of the new Army learning model for the Captain’s Career Course with the goal of having the new Captain’s Career Course being taught by FY 2008. To shorten training time and reduce an officer’s time away from an operational unit, TRADOC wanted the Captain’s Career Course to revolve around distance learning and school house learning. Distance learning would form the foundation of the school house training and be completed in the officer’s unit before attending the Captain Career Course. At the present the career course did not have any distance learning.

14 October 1968, U.S. Defense Department officials announced that the Army and Marines would be sending about 24,000 men, including field artillerymen and air defense artillerymen, back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours because of the length of the war, the high turnover of personnel resulting from the one year of duty, and the tight supply of experienced soldiers. This decision had an extremely negative impact on troop morale and the combat readiness of U.S. forces elsewhere in the world as experienced troops were transferred to meet the increased personnel requirements in Vietnam.

14 October 1935, The Field Artillery School completed a study on motorizing light field artillery as directed by the Chief of Field Artillery, MG Harry G. Bishop. It recommended that motorization should move gradually as engineering defects were eliminated and as an adequate supply of motor vehicles could be obtained.

15 October 1964, The Secretary of Defense directed that the Army Air Defense System for the 1970s (AADS-70s) program name be changed to Surface-to-Air Missile, Development (SAM-D) program. In 1975 SAM-D successfully engaged a drone at the White Sands Missile Range. In 1976 it was renamed the Patriot Air Defense Missile System.

15 October 1997, Training Command on Fort Sill signed a memorandum of agreement to bring one Digital Training Access Center on line to store the digital record copy of approved training materials, to install more computer-enhanced classrooms to support institutional training and serve as a platform to export training to distance learning facilities, and to construct three computer-enhanced classrooms dedicated to distance learning.

16 October 2006, During a briefing to update the status of the Fires Center of Excellence being created as a result of BRAC, Fort Sill and Fort Bliss leaders learned that scrubbing the Fires Center of Excellence TDA would produce a savings of 396 positions. Any more than this would hinder mission accomplishment.

17 October 1777, Artillery fire from positions high above the British army at Saratoga, New York, led to General John Burgoyne’s surrender and the eventual French entrance into the American Revolution.

17 October 1781, Lord Cornwallis of the British army surrendered his army to American and French military forces at Yorktown, Virginia, after a lengthy artillery bombardment that destroyed British fortified positions.

18 October 1945, The Patch Board headed by Lieutenant General Alexander Patch submitted its report to the War Department recommending replacing the Cavalry branch with the Armor branch and combining the Coast Artillery and Field Artillery into one artillery branch. Merging the two artilleries was seen as a wise, economical move because both Coast Artillery and Field Artillery used cannons.

19 October 1978, The Army System Acquisition Review Council approved full-scale development of the Tactical Fire Direction System (TACFIRE), the Army’s second-generation digital field artillery computer. This computer would computer technical and tactical fire direction.

20 October 2006, A mobile training team from the Field Artillery School completed conducting its first Tactical Information Operation Course in a mobile training team format before deploying to Iraq. The course trained key personnel how to identify a target and select the appropriate lethal or non-lethal effects to generate the desire effects and taught them how to integrate information operations into the military decision making process.

21 October 1867, Treaty of 21 October 1867 reserved the land upon which Fort Sill sets for the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches.

22 October 1977, MG Jack N. Merritt became Commanding General of Fort Sill and the Commandant of the Field Artillery School. He served in these positions until 26 Jun 1980.

23 October 1917, C Battery, 6th Field Artillery, equipped with the French 75mm field gun fired the first field artillery round for the U.S. Army in World War I in the Lorraine.

23 October 1983, Four members of the Field Artillery School Target Acquisition Battery were killed and one was wounded when the Marine Barracks in Beruit, Lebanon, was bombed by terrorists. The Target Acquisition Battery was composed of staff and faculty of the Field Artillery School and had been deployed to Beirut, Lebanon on 4 August 1983 in support of the 24th Marine Amphibious and the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force.

24 October 1973, Yom Kippur War ended on this date. The war emphasized to the U.S. Army and the Field Artillery School the necessity of combined arms warfare, the necessity of precision guided munitions, the requirement for over-the-hill target acquisition capabilities, and the need to suppress enemy air defenses.

25 October 1983, During Operation Urgent Fury (the invasion of Grenada), field artillerymen of the 82nd Airborne Division provided timely and effective fire support as part of a joint task force to rescue endangered American students.

26 October 1968, The 1st Infantry Division troops launched Operation Birmingham in Tay Ninh Province to destroy Viet Cong forces and base camps in the area. The 1st Infantry Division transported 72 field pieces into the province using all means of transportation.

26 October 1871, Major General Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter, died. He translated a French light artillery drill regulation from French into English. His English translation, Instruction for Field Artillery: Horse and Foot, was published by the War Department in 1839 and adopted in 1841.

27 October 1873, Joseph F. Glidden applied for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and was generally considered the inventor of barbed wire. Barbed wire when coupled with machine guns and field artillery led to the stalemate and trench warfare of World War I.

28 October 1893, Edward M. Knox received the Medal of Honor for recapturing four Union guns and capturing two Confederate guns at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863.

29 October 1886, James T. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for voluntarily assisting in the working on a gun at Petersburg, Virginia, 1865.

29 October 1967, Viet Cong attacked the South Vietnamese district capital of Loc Ninh. American and South Vietnamese forces responded with a massive air and field artillery attack. Two days later the Viet Cong attacked again. Sighting down their tubes, American field artillerymen fired 575 rounds at pointblank range in 5 hours. By the time that the battle was over the paint on the howitzers had blistered and burned off, but the enemy had been chopped to pieces. The Americans killed 238 Viet Cong on that day.

30 October 1991, The Army designated the Crusader and its resupply vehicle as the lead system in the Armored Systems Modernization Program to develop a new tank, a new infantry fighting vehicle, and a combat mobility vehicle.

31 October 1890, Patrick Ginley received the Medal of Honor for gallantly firing charges of canister into a body of enemy about to seize the position and helped recapture Union guns at Reams Station, Virginia, 1864.

31 October 1944, MG Ralph McT Pennell became the Commanding General of Fort Sill and the Commandant of the Field Artillery School. He served in these positions until 30 Aug l945.

31 October 1934, Because of the increasing importance of signal communications in the Field Artillery and because the Signal School’s course did not offer enough practical schooling in the problem of small troop units, the Field Artillery School requested permission from the War Department to conduct a communications course especially designed for field artillery officers. The school received approval in December 1934. The communications course started in the fall of 1935.

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1 November 1862, The Confederate Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office issued General Orders No. 81 which outlined the organization of Confederate light artillery.

1 November 1946, The Army Ground Forces established the Armored, Artillery, and Infantry Centers. The Antiaircraft Artillery School, the Sea Coast Artillery School, and The Artillery School fell under The Artillery Center.

1 November 1946, the War Department redesignated the Field Artillery School as The Artillery School with the Antiaircraft Artillery School at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Sea Coast Artillery School, at Fort Winfield Scott, California, as branches of The Artillery School. The merger did not mean physical collocation. Each school stayed at its existing location.

1 November 1952, The United States tested its first hydrogen bomb. This led to the Eisenhower Administration’s Massive Retaliation doctrine which challenged the relevance of ground forces, including field artillery and antiaircraft artillery, in modern warfare.

2 November 1887, John Corcoran received the Medal of Honor. Along with 20 other artillerymen, he voluntarily accompanied an infantry assault and turned the captured guns upon the enemy at Petersburg, Virginia, 1865.

3 November 1954, The Artillery School taught its first officer Honest John rocket course. The Honest John was the first rocket system in the field artillery inventory.

3 November 2003, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) at the Joint Staff approved fielding GMLRS.

4 November 1862, Richard J. Gatling received a patent for his multi-barrel gun, better known as a Gatling gun. It could fire up to 200 rounds a minute and was employed as field artillery piece because it was mounted on a field artillery-like carriage.

4 November 1891, Orlando Ward was born in Macon, Missouri. He succeeded Carlos Brewer as director of the Gunnery Department in the Field Artillery School and helped develop the fire direction center in the 1930s.

5 November 1758, Field Artillery paved the way for Frederick the Great’s victory at Rossbach against the French.

5 November 1899, Clarence M. Condon, received MOH for action on 5 November 1899 in the Philippines. While in command of a detachment of 4 men, charged and routed 40 entrenched insurgents, inflicting on them heavy loss.

5 November 1984, The Field Artillery School told the Army about its intention to phase out sound and flash ranging instruction in 1985 in favor of radar instruction.

5 November 2003, the Army announced its intentions to begin the Basic Officer Leader Course I, II, and III for second lieutenants in 2006.

6 November 1632, King Gustavus Aldophus of Sweden killed in action. He pioneered the use of field artillery as a close support weapon at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631.

6-7 November 1945, the U.S. Army Ground Forces Replacement and School Command at Birmingham, Alabama, conference directed its service schools, including the Field Artillery School and Antiaircraft Artillery School, to start interim peacetime courses for officers and enlisted soldiers by January 1946. The schools would teach these courses until September 1946 when they would initiate their regular peacetime courses.

7 November 1966, The beehive round was fired for the first time in combat by Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery in Vietnam.

8 November 1990, President Bush ordered 100,000 additional troops, including field artillery and air defense artillery, into the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Shield.

9 November 1984, “Three Servicemen Statute” added to Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

10 November 1775, The official birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps.

10 November 1964, Secretary of War, Robert McNamara, said that the United States did not plan to send any combat troops to Vietnam.

11 November 1918, The doughboys of Battery E, 11th Field Artillery carefully loaded the 95-pound shell into Calamity Jane, the name of their favorite 155mm Schneider artillery piece. With the round in place, the men locked it into the breech and prepared to pull the lanyard. An officer, looking at his watch, stepped forward. Raising his hand, he kept his eye on his watch, waiting for the second hand to reach twelve. When it did he dropped his hand. A soldier yanked the lanyard. Calamity Jane fired. It was 1100 hrs, 11 November 1918. World War I was over.

11 November 1956, The army song “The Army Goes Rolling Along” was dedicated by the Secretary of the Army. It was not officially announced until Dec 12, 1957. Originally known as the “Caisson Song,” it was composed by Lieutenant Edmund L. Gruber of the 5th Field Artillery Regiment in 1908.

11 November 1982, The Vietnam Veterans War Memorial was officially dedicated to the 58,000 American military personnel that lost their lives in the Vietnam War. Among these were field artillerymen and air defense artillerymen.

12 November 1971 President Richard Nixon set February 1, 1972, as the deadline for the withdrawal of an additional 45,000 U.S. troops, including field artillerymen and air defense artillerymen, from Vietnam. U.S. troop withdrawals had begun in the fall of 1969. After the February withdrawals were complete, the total U.S. force strength in South Vietnam was 139,000. Nixon said that most offensive activities were now being undertaken entirely by the South Vietnamese and that U.S. ground forces were “now in defensive positions.” He further stated that 80 percent of the forces that were in Vietnam when he took office had come home, and that American casualties had dropped to less than 10 a week.

13 November 1944, The commander of the 547th Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion was ordered to provide a platoon of automatic weapons in support of the 379th Infantry Regiment of the 95th Infantry Division. The orders were to deploy four 40mm Bofors guns and 4 towed Quad .50 machineguns to fire on Fort Jeanne d’Arc of the Metz fortress group. This fort was in reasonably good repair with 12 large guns capable of hitting anything. The antiaircraft guns were to support an attack by the 2nd Battalion, 379th Infantry to capture the approaches south of the fort and open the way for the reduction of the fort’s positions. After several days of fierce fighting, 2nd Battalion, 379th Infantry destroyed the tunnels around the fort, clearing the way for the Allies to turn the northern flank of the German bridgehead west of the Moselle River.

13 November 1978, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering directed the Army to find a successor to the Tactical Fire Direction System. This tasking led to the development of the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System.

14 November 1940, the Field Artillery School began its wartime advanced course. It was discontinued in February 1942 because too many field artillery officers lacked the requisite background.

14-17 November 1965, At the Battle of the Ia Drang in Vietnam, American field artillery demonstrated airmobile artillery’s and aerial rocket artillery’s ability to furnish effective fire support and played a key role in defeating NVA regular forces preparing for an offensive to the coast of Vietnam.

15 November 1940, The first 75,000 drafted men reported for duty at basic training reception centers. To handle field artillery basic training load, Fort Sill opened the Field Artillery Replacement Center on 10 January 1941 and closed it on 30 April 1946

16 November 1945, The War Department redesignated the Department of Air Training of the Field Artillery School as the Army Ground Forces Air Training School effective 7 December 1945. During World War II the Department of Training only trained air observers and mechanics for the Field Artillery. The redesignation broadened the mission to training air observers for all of the Army’s ground forces.

16 November 1945, In a move that stirred up some controversy, the United States shipped 88 German scientists to America to assist the nation in its production of rocket technology. Most of these men had served under the Nazi regime and critics in the United States questioned the morality of placing them in the service of America. Nevertheless, the U.S. government, desperate to acquire the scientific know-how that had produced the terrifying and destructive V-1 and V-2 rockets for Germany during WWII, and fearful that the Russians were also utilizing captured German scientists for the same end, welcomed the men with open arms. These scientists, including Werner von Braun, paved the way for the development of field artillery ground-to-ground rockets and missiles and air defense artillery ground-to-air rockets and missiles in the 1950s.

17 November 1775, Henry Knox assumed the position of chief of artillery for the Continental Army, marking the birthday of the Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery.

18 November 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent in 18,000 military advisers to South Vietnam. They included field artillery officers and noncommissioned officers. The field artillery advisory team consisted of a captain and a senior noncommissioned officer and was assigned to division and corps artilleries. The team advised the South Vietnamese on the tactical employment of field artillery, among other duties.

19 November 1863, President Lincoln made his famous Gettysburg Address commemorating the dead, including field artillerymen under Colonel Henry. J. Hunt who withstood Pickett’s charge on the 3rd day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

19 November 1915, The First Aero Squadron conducted its first cross-country flight when it took off from Fort Sill for Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

20 November 1917, The British launch the Battle of Cambrai in World War I. It was the first use of tanks in combat and a demonstration of the effectiveness of field artillery fire and tanks working together in combat.

20 November 1946, Subsequent to the creation of The Artillery Center, Major General Cecil Andrus, Commandant of The Artillery School presented his view on the consolidation of the Coast Artillery School, Antiaircraft Artillery School, and Field Artillery School. Andrus totally eliminating the Coast Artillery School and Antiaircraft Artillery School and replacing them with a Department of Harbor Defense and a Department of Antiaircraft Firing in The Artillery School to achieve even more economies and actual physical consolidation. Equally important, Andrus urged purchasing or leasing land near Childress, Texas, about 180 miles west of Fort Sill for antiaircraft artillery firing ranges. Lieutenant General Jacob Devers, commander of Army Ground Forces, rejected Andrus’s proposals because they would be too disruptive, too expensive, and too radical. He also noted that Fort Sill lacked sufficient land to conduct all of the projected artillery training. As a result, neither the Coast Artillery School nor the Antiaircraft Artillery School was abolished as Andrus urged for the reasons outlined.

21 November 1975, The Field Artillery School published the Close Support Study Group’s (formed by MG David E. Ott) report that laid out the requirements and organization of the fire support team.

21 November 1990, The 142nd Field Artillery Brigade of the Arkansas Army National Guard was federalized to support Operation Desert Shield and deployed as a whole to Iraq. It was the only Army National Guard unit to serve in this capacity. It supported the 1st Infantry Division during the breaching operations as a part of VII Corps.

22 November 1967, General William Westmoreland declared victory at the battle for Dak To which began on November 3 when 4,500 U.S. troops from the U.S. 4th Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade engaged four communist regiments of about 6,000 troops in the Central Highlands. The climax of the operation came in a savage battle that began on November 19 on Hill 875, 12 miles southwest of Dak To. Total U.S. casualties included 285 killed, 985 wounded, and 18 missing. During the battle, American field artillery fired over 170,000 rounds.

22 November 1914, German artillery bombardment destroyed Ypres, France.

22 November 1969, 6th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery left Vietnam after two years of service there.

23-25 November 1863, Battle of Chattanooga occurred. On the third day of the battle, poorly placed Confederate field artillery ineffectively bombarded Union forces as they attacked up Missionary Ridge whereas Union artillery was effective against Confederate positions on the ridge and even knocked out Confederate batteries.

24 November 1874, Joseph Glidden received a patent for barbed wire. Along with field artillery fire and machine gun fire, barbed wire later played a key role in creating the stalemate in World War I.

25 November 1790, Veteran Corps of Artillery formed in New York City. The Veterans Corps of Artillery was organized on Evacuation Day (November 25) in 1790 at the City Arms tavern by the corner of Broadway and Thames Street, to provide a corps of artillery to guard New York against any potential attempt by Mother Britain to remonstrate her wayward daughter America. The earliest record currently existing of any public display by the Corps dates from Evacuation Day 1793, when a salute was fired to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the evacuation of British forces from New York.

26 November 1864. During the first Battle of Adobe Wells, Colonel Kit Carson’s First Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, of about 400 soldiers, including Apache scouts and auxillaries, confronted 3,000-7,000 Comanches, Kiowas, and Kiowa-Apache who had been raiding wagon trains along the Santa Fe Trail. After suffering from sporadic attacks, he employed two mountain howitzers to cover his retreat to Fort Bascom, New Mexico, where he disbanded his regiment.

27 November 1950-12 December 1950, Chosin Reservoir. FA played a key role in the breakout of UN forces to safety after being attacked by Chinese army.

27 November 1950, Task Force McClean/Faith was formed by 7th Infantry Division to support 1st Marine Division at Chosin Reservoir. The 57th Field Artillery Battalion composed of 105-mm. howitzers was part of the task force.

28 November 1971, The 7/15th Artillery ceased combat operations in the Republic of South Vietnam. The unit colors were returned by a Guard of Honor to Ft. Lewis, Washington, and the 7/15th Artillery was subsequently deactivated. During the Battalion’s 4 years and 4 months in Vietnam, the Fighting Fifteenth fired over 360,000 rounds of deadly and accurate heavy artillery fire, were credited with 850 enemy Killed By Artillery, destroyed over 1,200 reinforced bunkers, and destroyed numerous other hard targets.

28 November 1956, The U.S. Secretary of Defense limited the Nike Zeus’s range to 200 miles. This restriction was rescinded 12 months later once Sputnik 1 had orbited the earth. This then allowed the US Army to then develop the Nike Zeus B which overcame some of the limitations already present and known in the Nike Zeus A. The Nike Zeus was a three-stage, solid fuel missile carrying a nuclear warhead. Since it was almost impossible to actually hit an incoming missile, the objective of the system was to get the warhead close enough to destroy the intruder with a nuclear blast. As the system evolved its name changed to the Nike X, then to the Sentinel, and finally to the Safeguard.

29 November 1950, Lieutenant Colonel John. U.D. Page left X Corps Headquarters at Hamhung with the mission of establishing traffic control on the main supply route to 1st Marine Division positions and those of some Army elements on the Chosin Reservoir plateau. Having completed his mission, Page was free to return to the safety of Hamhung but chose to remain on the plateau to aid an isolated signal station and became cut off from elements of the Marine division. After rescuing his jeep driver by breaking up an ambush near a destroyed bridge, Page reached the lines of the surrounded Marine garrison at Koto-ri. He then voluntarily developed and trained a reserve force of assorted army troops trapped with the Marines. By exemplary leadership and tireless devotion he made an effective tactical unit available. In order that casualties might be evacuated, an airstrip was improvised on frozen ground partly outside of the Koto-ri defensive perimeter which was continually under enemy attack. During two such attacks, Page exposed himself on the airstrip to direct fire on the enemy and twice mounted the rear deck of a tank, manning the machine gun on the turret to drive the enemy back into a “no man’s land.” On 3 December while being flown low over enemy lines in a light observation plane, Page dropped hand grenades on Chinese positions and sprayed foxholes with automatic fire from his carbine. After ten days of constant fighting, the Marine and Army units in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir had succeeded in gathering at the edge of the plateau, and Page was flown to Hamhung to arrange artillery support. In this and succeeding actions, Page enabled friendly forces to stand off the enemy after being mortally wounded on 10 December 1950.

30 November 1864, At the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, Major General John B. Hood’s Confederate forces attacked the entrenched Union forces. Cannon and musket smoke was so thick that the participants could not tell friend from foe. The battle ended the fighting capabilities of the Army of the Tennessee.

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1 December 1968, The Air Defense Artillery branch which was created on 20 June 1968 was authorized to wear modified Artillery insignia, crossed field guns with missile.

2 December 1911, Captain Dan T. Moore, the first commandant of the School of Fire for Field Artillery wrote the War Department about the school’s priorities. He said that the school should concentrate upon teaching the student officers how to shoot indirect fire and to minimize time teaching tactics because the students were inadequately prepared for gunnery instruction. They could barely do direct fire.

2 December 1944, The 95th Infantry Division with fire support from its field artillery attacked the Saar River Bridge near Saarlautern, Germany, and seized the bridge on 3 December 1944. That day house-to-house fighting brokeout in Saarlautern, Germany, that lasted through 19 December 1944.

3 December 1863, LTG James Longstreet of the Confederate army abandoned his siege of the Union army under MG Ambrose Burnsides at Knoxville, Tennessee. The Union was heavily fortified, and Confederate cannons commanded by Colonel Edward P. Porter could not break down Union defenses.

4 December, The U.S. field artillery celebrates St. Barbara, the patron saint of artillerymen.

4-5 December 1974, The Field Artillery School hosted a field artillery conference for corps, division, and group field artillery commanders to determine the lessons learned from recent wars, especially the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973. At this conference MG David E. Ott, the Commandant of the Field Artillery School, presented his concept for the FIST and counterfire.

5 December 1890, Carlos Brewer was born in Mayfield, Kentucky. As the director of the Gunnery Department in the Field Artillery School from 1929 to 1933, he modernized computing technical fire direction and paved the way for the fire direction center.

5 December 1950, Third Infantry Division formed Task Force Dog to serve as covering force for 1st Marine Division operating by Chosin Reservoir. The 92nd Armored Artillery Battalion of 105-mm. self-propelled howitzers was part of the task force.

5 December 1861, Richard Gatling applied for a patent for his gatling gun that would later serve as a field artillery weapon because it was mounted on a field artillery carriage.

6 December 1942, U.S. field artillery employed time-on-target for the first time in Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II at Buna, Papau.

7 December 1945, To train the necessary number of liaison aircraft pilots and mechanics, the Army Ground Forces redesignated the Field Artillery School’s Department of Air Training as the Army Ground Forces Air Training School and placed the school under the Commandant of Field Artillery School with an assistant commandant directly in charge. The Army Ground Forces then made Brigadier General William W. Ford, a flying enthusiast, a key participant in the development of organic field artillery aerial observation in the 1930s and 1940s, and the first director of the Department of Air Training from 1942 to 1943, the assistant commandant.

7 December 2006, The Field Artillery School’s 30th Field Artillery Regiment became the 428th Field Artillery Brigade. The 30th Field Artillery Regiment had served the school since 1 February 1989.

8 December 1918, Brigadier General Andrew Hero, Jr., who went on to serve as Chief of Coast Artillery, issued his board’s report where he criticized the Air Service for providing inadequate aerial observation for the Field Artillery during World War I. To solve the problem Hero recommended creating organic air observation for the Field Artillery.

8 December 1987, President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to reduce nuclear arms. The treaty led to the elimination of the Army’s Pershing II missile and the Soviet SS-20 missile and the inactivation of Field Artillery Pershing units.

8 December 1967, The Army awarded a contract to Litton Industries’ Data Systems Division of Van Nuys, California, to develop the Tactical Fire Direction System (TACFIRE), a second generation fire direction computer that could compute tactical and technical fire direction.

9 December 2003, MG David P. Valcourt became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 4 Aug 2005.

10 December 1930, Secretary of War Patrick J. Hurley designated Fort Sill as the permanent home of the Field Artillery School after years of debate over the best location.

11 December 1934, The Field Artillery Museum was formally opened in the old Geronimo Guardhouse.

11 December 1945, First Lieutenant James E. Robinson, Jr., received the Medal of Honor for leading a little band of American soldiers as a forward observer near Untergriesheim, Germany, in 6 April 1945. Despite being mortally wounded by shell fragments, he refused medical attention and continued the attack against German positions.

12 December 1957, The Army officially announced that “The Army Goes Rolling along” was the Official U.S. Army song. The song originally written by Lieutenant Edmund L. Gruber of the 5th Field Artillery in 1908 was initially known as the “Caisson Song.”

12 December 1946, The Field Artillery School closed the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School that had opened in July 1941 to meet the needs of the Army during World War II.

13 December 1862, Massed Confederate artillery fire helped defeat Union forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

14 December 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his decision to increase aid to South Vietnam. This included sending more field artillery advisers to help organize and train the South Vietnamese army’s field artillery. He also agreed to send in combat troops to support South Vietnamese army in combat operations.

15 December 1948, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery was inactivated. The unit earned a Presidential Unit citation for action during Operation Overlord.

15 December 1956, The Nike B antiaircraft artillery missile was renamed the Nike Hercules. Hercules was the only nuclear-armed surface-to-air weapon (AAA/ADA), which was operational with the U.S. Army. Development of an improved Nike missile began in 1952, with the primary goal to develop a missile with a significantly higher performance than MIM-3 Nike Ajax, known simply as Nike, which could still be used with the existing Nike ground equipment. After it had been shown that the Nike Ajax could not be equipped with then existing nuclear warheads, nuclear armament became another goal for the new missile. The SAM-A-25 Nike B program was formally established in June 1953.

16 December 1944, The Germans launch their Ardennes campaign to split the Americans and British into two parts and drive to the English Channel to capture Antwerp, Belgium. VIII Corps artillery was forced to withdraw hastily to save its guns and personnel. Because division commanders had orders prohibiting division artillery from firing into neighboring sectors, they had difficulties massing fires to stop the German attack and could not respond effectively with field artillery fire.

17 December 1944, During the Battle of the Bulge, the Americans employed the VT fuse for the first time against ground targets. The fuse increased the effectiveness of field artillery fires.

17 December 1944, Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion was slaughtered at Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge by German Kampfgruppe Peiper which was part of the 1st SS Panzer Division. German participants in the atrocity were later tried and convicted at the Dachau trials of 1946.

18 December 1950, The Chief of Army Field Forces approved opening an Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill to support the Korean War effort.

19 December 1950, Crossed field guns was designated at the Artillery branch insignia that included field artillery and antiaircraft artillery. This insignia was superceded on 2 January 1957 by a new insignia consisting of crossed field guns surmounted by a missile.

20 December 1927, Major General Fred T. Austin became Chief of Field Artillery and served until 15 February 1930.

20 December 1989, The United States launched Operation Just Cause to oust strongman Manuel Noreiga of Panama. Supporting light artillery played a key role in reducing the headquarters of the Panama Defense Forces to rubble with devastating fires from howitzers in a direct support role.

21 December 1944, The American 1st, 2nd, and 99th Infantry Divisions massed sixteen battalions of field artillery to halt the German attack in the critical area of Berg-Butgenbach-Elsenborn during the Battle of the Bulge.

22 December 1944, BG Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne that was surrounded by the Germans at Bastogne, Belgium, uttered his famous response to the German request to surrender by saying “Nuts.” American field artillery played a role in keeping Bastogne from being overrun by the Germans.

23 December 1947, Bell Laboratories demonstrated its transistor for the first time. The transistor made possible the development of the Field Artillery Digital Automated Computer (FADAC) late in the 1950s that was designed to compute technical fire direction. FADAC depended upon transistors and made a significant breakthrough in gunnery computation by taking a step forward to complement manual gunnery.

24 December 1809, Christopher “Kit” Carson was born. On 26 November 1864 at the First Battle of Adobe Wells, Colonel Kit Carson’s First Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, of about 400 soldiers, including Apache scouts and auxillaries, confronted 3,000-7,000 Comanches, Kiowas, and Kiowa-Apache who had been raiding the Santa Fe, New Mexico, wagon routes. Directed by Major General James H. Carleton, Carson marched his small force to Adobe Wells, in the Texas panhandle. After suffering from sporadic attacks, he employed two mountain howitzers to cover his retreat to Fort Bascom, New Mexico, where he disbanded his regiment.

25 December 1868, At Soldier Springs, Indian Territory, Colonel A.W. Evans’ two mountain howitzers lobbed spherical case into Comanche village. One shell was a dud, and the other exploded causing the Native Americans to scatter. Evans did not pursue because his horses were too tired. Although Evans’ column was smaller than Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer’s column that fought at the Battle of the Washita in November 1868, it nevertheless played a key role in Sheridan’s winter campaign of 1868-1869 to drive the Native Americans back onto the reservations in western Indian Territory.

26 December 1776, Alexander Hamilton’s battery played a key role in defeating Hessian troops by preventing them from forming up into combat lines of battle during the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolution.

26 December 1944, An organized attack by German formations near Sommocolonia, Sericho River Valley, Italy, heavily shelled friendly positions, forcing U.S. infantry forces to withdraw from the town. First Lieutenant John R. Fox and members of his observer party for the 598th Field Artillery remained behind on the second floor of a house to direct defensive fires. He called for field artillery fire increasingly closer to his own position. He told his battalion commander to bring the fires in closer. His battalion commander protested that the bombardment would be too close to Fox’s position. Lieutenant Fox gave his adjustment, requesting the barrage to be fired. The distance was cut in half to 30 yards. The Germans continued to press forward in large numbers, surrounding Fox's position. Lieutenant Fox called again for field artillery fire with the commander protesting that the fire would hit him and his observer team. The last communication from Fox was fire it. This action taken by Lieutenant Fox, even though it cost him his life, earned him a Medal of Honor and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, causing about 100 German deaths and delaying the advance until friendly infantry and artillery units could be reorganized to meet the attack.

26 December 1944, The 4th Armored Division made contact with Bastogne with the support of 35 field artillery battalions to help lift the siege of the city and 101st Airborne Division.

27 December 1776, Henry Knox was promoted to brigadier general of the Artillery and authorized to raise three artillery regiments to support the expansion of the Continental Army.

28 December 1835, Captain Francis L. Dade was leading the 4th Infantry, a company each from the 2nd Artillery and the 3rd Artillery, a six-pounder gun, and a ration train from Tampa Bay to Fort King. His command was ambushed by Seminoles to open the Seminole War in Florida.

29 December 1890, Five hundred troops of the 7th Cavalry Regiment supported by four 1.65-inch Hotchkiss mountain guns decisively defeated the Sioux at Wounded Knee, marking the end of the Indian Wars in North America.

30 December 1944, C Battery of the 492nd Field Artillery Battalion fired the battalion’s first round in combat after arriving in Europe on 17 December 1944 as part of the 11th Armored Division in the attack on Remagne.

30 December 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed for his crimes against the Iraqi people.

31 December 1862, BG Joshua Sill was killed in action at the Battle of Stones River, Tennessee. Fort Sill was named in honor of General Sill.

31 December 1892, Cyrus Sears received the Medal of Honor. Although he was severely wound, he fought with his battery until the cannoneers and horses were nearly all killed or wounded at Iuka, Mississippi, 1862.

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