1st Battalion - 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
On order, 1st battalion, 7th air defense artillery rapidly deploys worldwide in support of xviii airborne corps, joint, combined or us unilateral operations to conduct integrated air and missile defense operations, and provide defense of assigned critical assets from air breathing and tactical ballistic missile threats, to allow freedom of ground maneuver and domination of any adversary.
1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery, was originally constituted on 8 March 1898 in the Regular Army as Battery A, 7th Regiment of Artillery. It organized on 29 March 1898 at Fort Slocum, NY. The unit was reorganized and redesignated on 13 February 1901 as the 72d Company, Coast Artillery, Artillery Corps. It was redesignated on 2 February 1907 as the 72d Company, Coast Artillery Corps.
It was subsequently reorganized and redesignated in July 1916 as the 1st Company, Fort Screven [Georgia]; on 31 August 1917 as the 1st Company, Coast Defenses of Savannah, on 1 June 1922 as the 72d Company, Coast Artillery Corps, and on 1 July 1924 as Battery A, 7th Coast Artillery. It inactivated on 7 April 1930 at Fort Hancock, NJ.
The unit reactivated on 1 July 1939 at Fort Hancock, NJ, and inactivated on 7 April 1944 at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. It was disbanded on 14 June 1944.
The unit was reconstituted on 28 June 1950 in the Regular Army, and concurrently consolidated with Battery A, 126th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion which had been constituted on 25 February 1943 in the Army of the United States as Battery A, 126th Coast Artillery Battalion, activated on 10 May 1943 at Camp Haan, CA, and subsequently reorganized and redesignated on 28 June 1943 as Battery A, 126th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion before being inactivated on 3 January 1946 at Camp Patrick Henry, VA.
The consolidated unit was redesignated as Battery A, 7th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, but was redesignated on 13 December 1951 as Battery A, 7th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion. It activated on 20 December 1951 at Camp Edwards, MA.
It was redesignated on 30 June 1955 as Battery A, 7th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion.
It inactivated on 1 September 1958 in Germany, and was concurrently consolidated with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Howitzer Battalion, 7th Artillery (active) (organized in 1916), and the consolidated unit was designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Howitzer Battalion, 7th Artillery, an element of the 1st Infantry Division (its organic elements were constituted on 8 February 1957 and activated on 15 February 1957).
It was redesignated (less former Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Howitzer Battalion, 7th Artillery) on 1 September 1971 as the 1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery, and inactivated at Fort Riley, KS (former Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Howitzer Battalion, 7th Artillery, concurrently reorganized and redesignated as the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery - hereafter separate lineage).
1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery, activated 13 September 1972 at Fort Bliss, TX. It inactivated on 16 June 1987 at Fort Bliss, TX.
The unit reactivated on 16 December 1988 in Germany.
On 21 December 1998 Headquarters U.S. Army Europe announced plans to realign its air defense artillery units to comply with the Army's Patriot Standardization Plan. As a result of the plan, USAREUR realigned its three Patriot missile battalions with their twelve missile batteries, two maintenance companies and one maintenance team into two battalions with five batteries and one maintenance company each. The 1-7 ADA Battalion, with its Headquarters and Headquarters Battery and B and C Batteries moved from Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Kaiserslautern, Germany, to Ft. Bliss, TX.
