1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment
"Copperheads"
The mission of the 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, "Copperheads," is to conduct training and prepare for combat, and, on order, deploy to a theater of operation by sea, land and air to provide lethal fires in support of combat operations in the Global War On Terrorism (subsequently Overseas Contingency Operations) and in the interests of national defense.
The 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery was constituted as Battery A, 17th Field Artillery on 1 July 1916. It was organized on 6 June 1917 at Camp Robinson, Wisconsin. Immediately after its conception, the 17th Field Artillery as a whole saw action on the battlefields of World War I. It had been assigned on 21 September 1917 to the 2nd Division. The unit received the French Croix de Guerre on three separate occasions as a result of its service in the Aisne-Mame, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne Campaigns. In 1919, the 17th gained the distinction of being the first unit ever to raise the American Flag over a German Fortress, the Ehrenbreitstein Castle, subsequently depicted on the Unit Crest.
After returning from service in World War I, the 17th Field Arillery as a whole was relieved on 18 December 1920 from assignment to the 2nd Division. It was assigned on 22 July 1929 to the 1st Division. It was relieved on 1 January 1930 from assignment to the 1st Division and reassigned to the 2nd Division. It was relieved on 16 October 1939 from assignment to the 2nd Division.
During World War II, the 17th Artillery again distinguished itself while fighting in numerous campaigns in North Africa and Western Europe. The 17th Field Artillery was first committed to combat with the 1st Infantry Division in Tunisia on 23 March 1943, when the 10th German Panzer Division attacked in force, penetrating, the 17th Field Artillery's positions before being forced back. Following the end of the North African Campaign, the 17th Field Artillery fought across Italy and France. The unit was reorganized and redesignated on 1 March 1944 as Battery A, 17th Field Artillery Battalion. The 17th Field Artillery Battalion crossed the Phine into Germany on 1 April 1945.
The Battalion as a whole fired 150,014 rounds in support of operations in the European Theater; and earned campaign streamers for Tunisia, Sicily (w/arrowhead), Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Southern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe; and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with gilt star. After returning from Europe the unit was inactivated on 16 April 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.
The unit was reactivated on 1 August 1946 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma along with the rest of the 17th Field Artillery Battalion. The 17th Field Artillery Battalion participated in 10 campaigns during the Korean conflict, fighting as part of the beleaguered Eighth Army within the Pusan Perimeter. The 17th Field Artillery Battalion remained in nearly constant combat for the duration of the war. For its actions in Korea the 17th Field Artillery Battalion received campaign streamers for the UN Defensive, UN Offensive, CCF Intervention, First UN Counteroffensive, CCF Spring Offensive, UN Summer-Fall Offensive, Second Korean Winter, Korea Summer-Fall 1952, Third Korean Winter, and Korea Summer 1953. The 17th Field Artillery Battalion won the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation and a Presidential Unit Citation for valor.
The Battery A, 17th Field Artillery Battalion was reorganized and redesignated on 1 June 1958 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Howitzer Battalion, 17th Field Artillery. Its organic elements were constituted on 24 April 1958 and activated 1 June 1958. The unit was redesignated on 20 June 1964 as the 1st Battalion, 17th Artillery and again on 1 September 1971 as the 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery.
The 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery distinguished itself during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Battalion earned campaign streamers for the Defense of Saudi Arabia and Liberation and Defense of Kuwait campaigns.
During the year 2000, 1-17th Field Artillery deployed for 6 weeks to Yuma Proving Ground for Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) limited user tests. The Battalion brought 8 M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers and a full complement of support vehicles to Yuma to conduct 4 fire missions consisting of 24 rounds apiece, each at a different time of day. SADARM tests had been ongoing at Yuma Proving Ground since the late 1980s but, unlike earlier stages of testing focused on research and development, this test required that projectiles be fired in strict accordance with existing Army battlefield doctrine. Targets were self-propelled howitzers and a Soviet-model command and control vehicle concealed behind protective berms and under camouflage netting in an area 12 miles from the Paladins, as they would be in combat. Each of the target howitzers was in operating condition during the test, and heaters in their gun tubes mimicked recently fired weapons. During the tests, Battery A, 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery successfully engaged a threat array with 96 SADARM rounds, paving the way for the further development of SADARM.
The SADARM test also gave the Battalion an opportunity to train intensively in a variety of areas. Soldiers fired more than 1,500 high-explosive rounds during their 6-week stay, a number they would normally fire in an 8-month period. The unit also loaded and airdropped ammunition from a C-17 aircraft and direct-fired its howitzers against scrap vehicles. The units used its Mk 19 Mod 3 and M203 grenade launchers and fired the .50 caliber machine guns mounted on each vehicle.
In 2006, III Corps Artillery was inactivated and its subordinate brigades reorganized and redesignated as fires brigades, part of the US Army's modular force structure. The 1st Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment remained part of the reorganized and redesignated 75th Fires Brigade, which remained at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. By that time, the Battalion consisted of a Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3 combat-ready Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) batteries, and the attached 571st Forward Support Company from the 100th Brigade Support Battalion.
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