1st Battalion - 12th Field Artillery Regiment
The 1st Battalion, 12th Field Artillery was constituted on 3 June 1916 as an element of the 2nd Division. The 12th Regiment arrived in France and fought bravely in four offenses in World War I. Following the armistice, the 12th joined the U.S. Army of Occupation, stationed in the Colenz area, then later returned to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and inactivated. On 1 May 1939, the regiment was reactivated as a 155mm howitzer battalion. The 12th joined the armies staging in England for the invasion of France. On D-Day plus three, the 12th landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy and participated in the breakout from the beachhead. Later, the 12th was in the thick of the fighting of the Battle of the Bulge and it joined in the race across Germany and on VE Day was in Pilson, Czechoslovakia. The 12th returned to Fort Lewis, Washington where it remained until it was inactivated.
When the Korean War broke out, the 12th was reactivated and in July 1950, departed for Korea where it participated in the fighting on the Pusan Perimeter. Later it face the Red Chinese at the Chong-chon river. The unit became Battery A, 12th field Artillery Battalion, an element of the 2nd Infantry Division. A year later, the battalion endured some of the bloodiest fighting of the war at T-bone Mountain, Old Baldy, White Horse Mountain and Pork Chop Hill. In 1954, following the Korean Truce, the battalion returned to fort Lewis, Washington and then moved to Fort Benning, Georgia.
In 1965, with it's Honest John Rockets and 8 inch howitzers, the 1-12th returned to Korea. On 20 February 1971, the unit inactivated at Fort Lewis, Washington, and immediately reactivated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma on 1 April 1971. The 1st Battalion, 12th Field Artillery became the world's first Lance Missile Battalion with a wartime mission to provide nuclear and non-nuclear fires.
The 1-12th began converting to the Multiple Launch Rocket System in August 1992.
During the year 2000, the Raider 1-12 FA (MLRS) conducted many battalion and battery-level FTXs and EXEVALs at Fort Sill.
1-12 FA also deployed its 0&1 to Fort Stewart, Georgia, and the NTC for a successful rotation with the 3d BCT, 3d IN Division, in April.
