4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery
"Iron Thunder"
The 4th Battalion 27th Field Artillery Regiment is a 155mm SP artillery battalion. 4-27 FA supports 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division located in Baumholder Germany.
The advent of the War in Korea and the not so cold Cold War precipitated the need once again for Armored Divisions in the Active Force Structure. On 7 March 1951, the 27th Armored Field Artillery Battalion was activated at Fort Hood, Texas as part of the newly re-activated 1st Armored Division (Old Ironsides). Later the 27th moved to Fort Polk, Louisiana. The following pictures give a brief glimpse of life in the battalion during this period.
On 15 February 1957, Former Battery D (you remember them, the Tank-Destroyers of pre-World War II) 27th Field Artillery Battalion was reconstituted in the Regular Army and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery; redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Howitzer Battalion, 27th Field Artillery on 19 March 1959 and concurrently withdrawn from the Regular Army, allotted to the Army Reserve, and assigned to the 83d Infantry Division.
The 4th Howitzer Battalion, 27th Field Artillery was activated 20 March 1959 at Chillicothe, Ohio as part of the 83d Infantry Division (Ohio Army National Guard). The fledgling 4-27 FA was inactivated on 15 April 1963 and relieved from assignment to the 83rd Infantry Division. And, once again, just like the beginnings of our parent regiment, the 4th Battalion experiences a less than stellar beginning.
On 16 June 1985, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery came on Active Duty; however, this time not with a Division. The Battalion, fielded with the M-270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (this is killing me) was activated in Wertheim, Germany (close to our Constabulary stomping grounds) and assigned to the 72d Field Artillery Brigade. The battalion spent the next five years as a reinforcing unit to the 1st Armored Division (Old Ironsides) with many gunnery rotations to the Grafenwoehr Training Area.
On 2 August 1990, the Army of Iraq invaded its tiny, but very rich neighbor, Kuwait. This invasion set in motion the largest deployment of U.S. Forces since World War II and the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery was an active participant. On 4 November 1990, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery was alerted for service in the Persian Gulf War, deploying in late December 1990 and early January 1991 as an element of the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, VII Corps Artillery. The relationships that the Battalion had established with the 1st Armored Division served it well in the Gulf as the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery was assigned the mission of reinforcing to the 1st Armored Division Artillery. Equipped with 27 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery provided awesome fire power in support of Old Ironsides. The following vignette gives a glimpse into the combat actions of the Battalion during the war.
On 20 February 1991, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery and Battery A, 94th Field Artillery, both equipped with the Multiple Launch Rocket System, moved east from FAA Garcia to a position near the Kuwait-Iraq-Saudi Arabia tri-border area. On 21 February 1991, the Battalion joined with elements of the 1st Cavalry Division Artillery to attack known and suspected enemy locations in Iraq at noon and 1500 hours. During the missions the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery fired 312 rockets on the first mission and 276 rockets on the second mission raining "steel rain" on the enemy and prepping the battlefield for ground offensive operations which began on 24 February 1991. For its service in the Persian Gulf War, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation and three Campaign Participation Streamers.
Following action in the Persian Gulf War, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery returned to Germany with assignment to the 41st Field Artillery Brigade. The battalion was subsequently re-deployed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma and de-activated after eleven years of dedicated and professional service to the nation.
On 16 February 1997, the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery was re-activated at Baumholder, Germany, equipped with the M109A6 Paladin 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer, and assigned to the 1st Armored Division (Old Ironsides). Since its activation the battalion has participated in many national missions and major training exercises. In 1997, the battalion provided Fire Support personnel to the NORDPOL Brigade in Bosnia and most recently Battery A, augmented by slice elements from Headquarters and Headquarters Battery and Service Battery saw action with Task Force Hawk during Operation Noble Anvil in Albania and Kosovo. Additionally, the battalion has conducted realistic training during Exercise Rolling Steel 98 and 99, Exercise Rolling Thunder 99, Grafenwoehr Gunnery, support to the 1st Armored Division and V Corps during Warfighters, and providing direct support field artillery fires and coordination for the 2d Brigade, 1st Armored Division at the Combat Maneuver Training Center.
Charlie Battery had the honor of being the Salute Battery for the 1st Armored Division from May 1999 to July 2000. Their most important and greatest of these was to commemorate the 55th Anniversary of D-Day. During three days in June 1999 Charlie Battery performed retreat ceremonies, salutes, and placed over 18,000 flags on the graves of US Service Members who gave their all during the invasion.
