36th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)

36th Field Artillery Regiment
Coat of arms
Active	1918
Country	United States
Branch	Army
Type	Field artillery
Motto(s)	IN ORDER
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia

The 36th Field Artillery Regiment is a field artillery regiment of the United States Army.

The 36th Field Artillery Regiment was organized on 7 August 1918 at Camp McClellan, Alabama, as a 155 mm howitzer regiment, and assigned to the 12th Division. It reached a peak strength of 1,733 men, 40 horses, and 12 155mm howitzers, organized as a regimental headquarters battery and six firing batteries. The regiment trained for combat but did not deploy overseas. After the end of the war, the regiment rapidly transferred its soldiers and equipment to other units, and it was demobilized on 8 February 1919.

2d Battalion, 36th Field Artillery, consisting of battalion headquarters and Batteries C and D, was reactivated on 1 October 1933 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, by transfer of all personnel and equipment from 2d Battalion, 5th Field Artillery, which was inactivated. At that time, D Battery 5th Field Artillery was the oldest unit in the active army, tracing its lineage to the New York Provisional Company of Artillery, formed by Alexander Hamilton on 6 January 1776. Throughout the second world war, many of the soldiers of the 36th Field Artillery, especially the second battalion, would still consider themselves to be the "Alexander Hamilton Battery". The battalion was equipped with the French 155mm rifle, Model 1917, known as the G.P.F., and the 240mm gun, and was one of the heaviest artillery units in the army. In the fall of 1939, the battalion was expanded to a full regiment, with headquarters and three battalions of two firing batteries each. Most of the soldiers required for the expansion were draftees inducted under the 1940 Selective Service Act. The rapid expansion of the unit, with many completely raw recruits, presented a tremendous training challenge and opportunity, and the regimental leadership began forming the unit into the cohesive, highly skilled unit that was to become one of the most-requested artillery assets in the European Theater. At the same time, the 240mm gun battery was transferred to become the nucleus of the newly activated 79th Field Artillery, and the regiment was all 155mm guns. In late 1940, the regiment was reorganized to two battalions, each with three firing batteries, headquarters battery, and service battery. Just before the fall 1941 Carolina Maneuvers, the regiment was given two of the new American M1 155mm guns, later called the "Long Toms" by the British. This was the first tactical test of the new gun, which proved to be a great success. The two sections were organized as a temporary "X" Battery, under the command of Lieutenant (later Colonel) Robert Reed. Lieutenant Reed experimented with new tactics, taking advantage of the longer range and better mobility of the new gun to fire on division and corps headquarters that were out of range of the older guns. These tactics later formed the basis of the operating procedures for the regiment in combat.