2nd Battalion - 20th Field Artillery Regiment "Deep Strike"
Answering the call to duty the 2nd Battalion 20th Field Artillery Regiment of Fires Brigade, 4th Infantry Division deployed in December 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where it conducted operations and continued to field new MLRS technology. In January 2006 the Task Force fired the division’s first M31 GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) in support of operations across Iraq.
Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, held a launching ceremony April 17 to present the new MLRS to the 4th Infantry Division. The ceremony consisted of a live-fire exercise attended by key members of the 4th Infantry Division and the 49th Armored Division, Texas National Guard.
The Texas National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment and Delta Battery, 2/20th Field Artillery would round out the 2/20th Field Artillery Battalion in a contingency.
History
The Deep Strike Battalion was first constituted 1 July, 1916, in the Regular Army as Battery B, 20th Field Artillery and was activated in June of 1940 at Fort Benning, Georgia, as an element of the 4th Division, later re-designated as the 4th Infantry Division. In 1957 the Battalion was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division and activated in Korea. In 1960 the Battalion was re-designated the 2nd Rocket Howitzer Battalion, 20th Field Artillery until taking its moniker of 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery in a 1971 redesignation. In 1972, the Battalion was relieved from assignment to the 1st Cavalry Division, assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, and activated at Fort Carson, Colorado. In 1976 the battalion was attached to 8th Infantry Division in Wiesbaden, Germany, where it would remain until it was deactivated in 1984, subsequently reactivated in 1987 and again deactivated in 1992. In September of 1998, 9-1 Field Artillery was reflagged as the 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Battalion. In 2001 the battalion supported the Army’s testing and fielding of the M270A1 launcher and became the first M270A1 MLRS unit in the Army. In March of 2003 the Battalion deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where they performed not only their traditional field artillery tasks, to include firing the Division’s first deep missile fires in combat, but performed armed reconnaissance missions, joint security patrols, cordon and searches, raids, and a wide variety of civil military operations.
