Field Artillery Branch (United States)

Field Artillery
Field Artillery branch insignia, featuring two crossed field guns
Active	Created 17 November 1775
Country	United States of America
Branch	United States Army
Type	Combat arms
Home station	Fort Sill, Oklahoma, United States
Nickname(s)	King of Battle God of War Red Leg
Patron	Saint Barbara
Branch colors	Scarlet and Brass

The Field Artillery Branch of the United States Army was founded on 17 November 1775 by the Continental Congress, which unanimously elected Henry Knox "Colonel of the Regiment of Artillery". The regiment formally entered service on 1 January 1776. Artillery of all types was part of the Artillery Corps until 1901, when the Corps was split into battery-sized units, called companies at the time, of Field Artillery and Coast Artillery. In 1907 the Artillery Corps was reorganized into the Field Artillery and the Coast Artillery Corps. Although presently Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery are separate branches, both inherit the traditions of the Artillery branch.

The mission of the Field Artillery is to destroy, defeat, or disrupt the enemy with integrated fires to enable maneuver commanders to dominate in unified land operations.

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.