Original Item. Only One Available. The Air Defense Artillery Branch is the air defense branch of the United States Army, specializing in the use of anti-aircraft weapons (such as surface-to-air missiles) to conduct anti-aircraft warfare operations. In the U.S. Army, these groups are composed of mainly air defense systems such as the Patriot Missile System, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), and the Avenger Air Defense system which fires the FIM-92 Stinger missile.

The Air Defense Artillery branch descended from Anti-Aircraft Artillery (part of the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps until 1950, then part of the Artillery Branch) into a separate branch on 20 June 1968. On 1 December 1968, the ADA branch was authorized to wear modified Artillery insignia, crossed field guns with missile. The Branch Motto, "First To Fire", was adopted in 1986 by the attendees of the ADA Commanders' Conference at Fort Bliss. The motto refers to a speech given by General Jonathan Wainwright to veterans of the 200th Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) stating they were the 'First to Fire' in World War II against the Empire of Japan.

This is a lovely swallowtail guidon for the Headquarters of the 5th Battalion, 14th Air Defense Artillery. We haven’t been able to find much on this unit’s history, making for a great research project. The guidon is at full length, but the insignia, numbers, and letters have very heavy damage and loss of material on both sides. One side displays better than the other, but the damage is extensive. The Air Defense Artillery has a very interesting insignia, with what appears to be a Sidewinder Missile over the normal Field Artillery cannons.

A lovely guidon, ready for framing and display!