The history of the 1^st Missile Battalion, 4^th Artillery, dates back to 1 June, 1821, when the parent unit, the 4^th Artillery Regiment, was organized from existing independent companies of artillery. The battalion inherits twenty-five of its twenty-six battle honors from Batteries I and K. Battery I originated in 1817 as Peter's Company Corps of Artillery, Southern Division, and served as Battery I, 4^th Artillery Regiment, during the entire life of the regiment [1821-1901]. Battery K was organized in 1838 and served with the regiment until it was dissolved in 1901.

During the life of the 4^th Artillery Regiment, Batteries I and K served gallantly in five engagements during he Indian Wars, three engagements during the Mexican War, and seventeen engagements during the Civil War.

In 1901, the 4^th Artillery Regiment was broken up into independent batteries of the Corps of Artillery, but in 1924 it was reconstituted and reorganized as the 4^th Coast Artillery Regiment and assigned to the Panama Canal Department. It was there that Batteries L and M were constituted as new batteries of the regiment, the 3^rd Battalion consisting of Batteries I, K, L, and M. The twenty-sixth battle honor was awarded the regiment for its service in Panama during World War II. When in 1944 the 4^th Coast Artillery Regiment was again reorganized into the 4^th Coast Artillery Battalion [HD], the 3^rd Battalion was concurrently disbanded.

The 3^rd Battalion, 4^th Coast artillery Regiment, was reconstituted and redesignated as the 44^th AAA Gun Battalion at Camp Stewart, GA, on 1 April 1951. The battalion arrived at Lewiston, NY in October, 1952 to establish its portion of the AAA defense of the Niagara Frontier. On 22 March 1955 the battalion was redesignated as the 44^th AAA Missile Battalion [NIKE] and soon thereafter became the first operational NIKE battalion in the defense of the Niagara-Buffalo area.

The Department of the Army has since redesigned the 44^th as the 1^st Missile Battalion [NIKE-HERCULES], 4^th Artillery Regiment, in keeping with the conversion from AJAX to HERCULES missiles, and as part of the Army-wide program to reorganize separate battalions into elements of famous regiments. It is significant that a battalion carrying the colors and heritage of the valiant 4^th Artillery Regiment should defend the Niagara Frontier with the most advanced operational air defense weapons.

The 1^st Battalion was made up of a headquarters battery, and Batteries B and C. Batteries A and D were eliminated from an active status by reduction to zero strength. Battery A was turned over to the 2d Missile Battalion, 106^th Artillery, NY Army National Guard on 8 August 1960. Batteries B and C are both double batteries, each having NIKE-AJAX, and NIKE-HERCULES fire units.

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The detachment was organized using personnel reassigned from the firing batteries with the addition of newly trained officers who finished their Officers' Basic Missile Course at Ft. Bliss, TX. The unit was located in the specifically constructed, bomb-proof Missile aster Building, at the Lockport Air Force Station, Routes 425, and 31, just west of Lockport, NY.

The command center was in communication with, and directed fire from all NFBU Defense firing batteries, and later firing batteries which had been turned over to the NY National Guard.

The operational staff of this detachment consisted of a Lt. Colonel who was Detachment Leader, a Major Assistant, and approximately 8 enlisted personnel with administrative duties. Four "shifts" were formed to man the Operations Room and equipment on a 24-hour basis. The shifts created their own work schedule which called for a shift to work 8-hours, and then off 24 hours, on a rotating basis; weekends called for 2 shifts to be off, while another worked 8 am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday, and the fourth worked 6pm-8am. Each shift ran this schedule each month.

The shifts each were commanded by a Captain, with 4 Lieutenants, and 22 enlisted persons. Two Lieutenants were assigned as S&E officers [Surveillance and Entry] who used raw radar data to identify aircraft targets. The two others were Tactic Monitors who received the targets on synthetic electronic screens and who then assigned firing batteries to each target. This worked to prevent overkill on any one target, and prevented insertion of a target with no firing action.

The detachment was supported by a small [10-15 persons] Signal Corps unit, which supplied spare parts for the equipment, and other trouble-shooting and maintenance activities. Also, the detachment was fully supported by the 2d Group command structure and facilities located at Fort Niagara, NY.