The 4th Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment was constituted on May 8, 1794, in the Regular Army as the 3d Company, 4th Battalion, Corps ofArtillerists and Engineers. The unit was first designated Captain Robert Sweeney's Company of Artillery in 1802 and served actively in the War of 1812. The Battalion’s distinctive lineage spanned two centuries and almost every major conflict throughout
the world in defense of the homeland in Field, Costal and Anti-aircraft Units. During World War II, the 3rd Regiment was broken up into battalions, and the unit was designated briefly as the 520th Coast Artillery Battalion, then as the 3rd Coast Artillery Battalion. The unit was inactivated following the end of the war. In January 1950, the Battalion was reconstituted in the regular Army and consolidated with the 3rd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (Automatic Weapons), an element of the 3rd Infantry Division. It fought throughout the Korean War with the 3rd Infantry Division. In September 2005 the unit was again inactivated. Once again, on July 27, 2010, the 4th Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment is officially activated at Fort Sill to support the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade. The 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade was constituted on January 1, 1918, in the National Army as Headquarters, 31st Heavy Artillery Brigade, Coast Artillery Corps at Key West, Fla. but would see numerous name changes over the lifetime of the unit. The unit rapidly transitioned into World War I where the brigade earned four battle streamers for participation in the campaigns Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, Meuse-Argonne, and Champagne 1918. The unit was demobilized at Fort Lewis, Wash. The brigade was reconstituted October 14, 1936 in the regular Army as Headquarters, 31st Coast Artillery Brigade and was later designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 31st Coast Artillery Brigade. In November of 1942 the brigade was activated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 31st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade as part of the coastal air defense stationed at Camp Haan, Cali. and was later deployed to the European Theater where it participated in and earned three more battle streamers for campaigns in Rome-Arno, Southern France, and the Rhineland. On June 30, 1946, the brigade was deactivated at Laned-Sebold, Germany. Following World War II, the brigade underwent a series of activations and deactivations, reorganizations, and deployments. In response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the brigade formed with nine Hercules and Hawk battalions defending southern Florida from attack by Cuba and the Soviet Union. This unit would encounter numerous activations and inactivations over the years to come to include a 1946 inactivation in Germany, reactivation in 1948 at Fort Bliss, Tex. and in 1958 was reorganized as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 31st Artillery Brigade. The unit would be inactivated in 1960 at McChord Air Force Base, Wash. and then reactivated in 1961 at Lockport Air Force Station in New York. The brigade would finally be redseignated under the name known today, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade on March 15, 1972, and after one final inactivation in 1979 at Homestead Air Force Base in Fla., the brigade would be reactivated again on April 1, 1988, at Fort Hood, Tex. to support III Corps. In February, 1996, the brigade once again received movement orders, this time to Fort Bliss, TX.
31st ADA underwent a BRAC-directed move from Fort Bliss, Tex. to Fort Sill, Oklahoma in July of 2008. In August of 2009, the brigade deployed approximately fifty soldiers from the Headquarters Battery to an undisclosed Southwest Asia for one year in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and returned all of its soldiers home safely in July of 2010. The brigade also deployed a battalion, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery, to an undisclosed Southwest Asia in March of 2010 and are anticipating their arrival back in early 2011. The brigade consists of a Headquarters and Headquarters Battery; 3-2 ADA Bn (Patriot), 4-3 ADA Bn (Patriot), Fort Sill, Oklahoma ; 5-5 ADA Bn (AMD), Fort Lewis, Washington. On order, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade deploys to a Theater of Operations in support of the 32nd AAMDC, conducts decisive air and missile defense operations, and redeploys.
