Field Artillery Branch (United States) - History

History

The Field Artillery is one of the Army's combat arms, traditionally one of the three major branches (with Infantry and Armor). It refers to those units that use artillery weapons systems to deliver surface-to-surface long range indirect fire. Indirect fire means that the projectile does not follow the line of sight to the target. Mortars are not field artillery weapons; they are organic to infantry units and are manned by infantry personnel.

The term field artillery is to distinguish from the Air Defense Artillery, and historically, from the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (or Coastal Defense Artillery), a branch which existed from 1901–1950. In 1950, the two branches were unified and called simply Artillery, until Air Defense Artillery was made into a separate branch in 1968. The insignia of the Field Artillery branch is a pair of crossed field guns (19th century style cannons) in gold, and dates back to 1834.

The officially stated mission of the Field Artillery is to destroy, neutralize, or suppress the enemy by cannon, rocket, and missile fire and to help integrate all fire support assets into combined arms operations.

The home of the Field Artillery and the Field Artillery School are at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Field artillery is called the "King of Battle". Conflicts in the 20th century saw artillery become exponentially more effective as indirect fire methods were introduced immediately prior to WWI. During World War I and World War II, field artillery was the single highest casualty-producing weapons system on any battlefield.

Members of the Field Artillery are referred to as "redlegs" because during the American Civil War they were distinguished by scarlet stripes down the legs of their uniform pants. The use of colors to distinguish branches of the United States Army dates to 1851. Branch colors are found on the shoulder straps of officers wearing the blue dress uniform and on branch of service scarves authorized for wear with a variety of uniforms.