3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment
"Pacesetters"

The mission of the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, "Pacesetters," is to provide timely and accurate lethal indirect fire support for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, along with synchronizing the effects of non-lethal fires for the commander in support of any worldwide deployment or contingency operation. It would also, on order, prepare to operate as a motorized maneuver battalion, combining both maneuver and traditional fire support against any enemy on the modern battlefield.

The 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment was originally constituted on 5 July 1918 in the National Army as Battery C, 29th Field Artillery, an element of the 10th Division. It was organized on 11 August 1918 at Camp Funston, Kansas, where it was demobilized on 4 February, 1919.

The unit was reconstituted on 24 March 1923 in the Regular Army as Battery C, 29th Field Artillery Battalion. It was activated on 1 August 1940 at Fort Benning, Georgia, as an element of the 4th Division (later redesignated as the 4th Infantry Division). It was reorganized and redesignated on 1 October 1940 as Battery C, 29th Field Artillery Battalion. The unit inactivated on 14 February, 1946, at Camp Butner, North Carolina.

The unit was reactivated on 15 July 1947 at Fort Ord, California. It was inactivated on 1 April 1957 at Fort Lewis, Washington, and relieved from assignment to the 4th Infantry Division.

The unit was redesignated on 30 April, 1959, as Battery C, 29th Artillery, and was concurrently withdrawn from the Regular Army, allotted to the Army Reserve, and assigned to the Second United States Army. The unit was activated on 1 June 1959 at Westminster, Maryland. It was relieved on 1 January 1966 from assignment to the Second United States Army and assigned to the First United States Army.

The unit was redesignated on 1 September, 1971, as Battery C, 29th Field Artillery, before inactivating on 16 September 1979 at Westminster, Maryland.

The unit was withdrawn from the Army Reserve on 1 April 1984 and allotted to the Regular Army. It was concurrently redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, and activated at Fort Carson, Colorado, with its organic elements concurrently constituted and activated.

In December 2004, as part of the transformation of the 4th Infantry Division to the US Army's modular force structure, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artllery Regiment was inactivated and relieved from assignment to the 4th Infantry Division. It was rorganized and redesignated as 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment and reactivated assigned to the reorganized and redesignated 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. As part of the modular transformation, assets previously held at division level, but habitually attached to a division's brigades during operations were made organic to the modular brigade combat teams. 3-29th Field Artillery became the organic field artillery battalion for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

As of 1 January 2006 the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, an element of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division was participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of the larger Task Force Band of Brothers, which was led by 101st Airborne Division commanding general, Major General Thomas Turner. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team's mission included training the Iraqi Security Forces, assisting in the rebuilding of the Diyala Province infrastructure, as well as continuing to root out the anti-Iraqi forces that inhabit the region.

The 4,000 troops in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, which included 3-29th Field Artillery, had 9 forward operating bases (FOBs) spread across 1,500 square miles of Iraq north of Baghdad, from Samarra to Taji. The headquarters was at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, a logistics support area about 12 miles from FOB Eagle.