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1st Battalion - 204th Air Defense Artillery Regiment

The 1-204 ADA is assigned to the 631st Field Artillery Brigade, Grenada, MS; which is assigned to the 66th Troop Command, Mississippi Army National Guard.

As of mid-1997, the 1-204 ADA had two missions -- one Federal and one State. When Federalized and mobilized, as a Corps Avenger Battalion the unit would deploy by air assigned to the 108th ADA Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, to provide low-altitude air defense against all air-breathing threats for critical corps assets.

Tactical missions range from the previously mentioned General Support corps mission, to Reinforcing missions to the 82nd Airborne Division, 101st Air Assault Division, and 24th Mechanized Division. In this corps mission, the 1-204 ADA Battalion is the only low-altitude corps level air denfense artillery unit available for deployment at this time.

As of mid-1997, while several other battalions are currently fielding the Avenger weapon system, as of mid-1997, only the 1-204 ADA Battalion had completed the Total Package Fielding. Additionally, at that time, only the 1-204 ADA Battalion was scheduled to receive the C2I Digital Command, Control, and Intelligence system required to communicate with the rest of the air defense community.

As a National Guard Battalion, the 1-204 ADA also has two state missions. On a constant basis, the battalion is prepared, when ordered by the Governor of Mississippi, to support civilian authorities during disasters or times of civil unrest. The 1-204 ADA is one of three battalions on the priority state duty list, the others being a Combat Engineer Battalion and the other a Military Police Battalion.

With the deactivation of the Active Components last Corps Avenger battalion drawing near, the 1-204 ADA was to be the only fielded Corps Avenger battalion in the Total Army for the turn of the century.

The unit has worked closely with 11th ADA Brigade, 108th ADA Brigade, 1-2 ADA Battalion (Avenger), and the 185th Aviation Group in JSTE, CIDTE, and Roving Sands military exercises.