114th Artillery Brigade of 1960: California's Nike-Ajax Missiles

23 hours ago
4 min read

During a brief period from mid-1959 to April 1962, all of the California Army National Guard's air defense artillery units were under the administrative control of the 114th Artillery Brigade (Air Defense) (1). Concurrent to the CARS reorganizations/redesignations, the 114th came to encompass all Nike-Ajax Missile Battalions and 90mm Gun Battalions in the state which had previously been split between the 114th AAA Brigade in SoCal and the 112th AAA Brigade in NorCal.

This was a period of transition for air defense, as the Regular Army was disbanding 90mm gun units for the last time, converting its Nike-Ajax units to Nike-Hercules, and handing over Nike-Ajax sites to the Guard. In 1960, the brigade consisted of the 233d Artillery Group (AD) in NorCal, with 2 Nike-Ajax and 1 Gun Battalion, and the 234th Artillery Group (AD) in SoCal, with 1 Nike-Ajax Battalion and 3 Gun Battalions (1). The 720th Missile Battalion (Nike-Ajax) of Long Beach, which was redesignated as the 4th Missile Battalion, 251st Artillery (Nike-Ajax) as part of the Combat Arms Regimental System or CARS, was the first National Guard unit to take over Army Nike-Ajax sites and would be the model for future handovers.

However, the California National Guard's Nike units were under the operational control of the Regular Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM) rather than the 114th (1, 7, 9). California was part of ARADCOM's 6th Region, which exercised control through the 40th Artillery Bde (AD) covering San Francisco and the 47th Artillery Bde covering Los Angeles, which included 3 Regular Army Nike Battalions and 2 Artillery Groups (Air Defense) each (3, 7). By this point, Gun Battalions don't appear to have been under ARADCOM's OPCON and drilled with the rest of the California ARNG at Camp Irwin (1).

This setup was shortlived, though. During a reorganization of National Guard air defense in 1962, as I detail below, the 114th Artillery Brigade was stripped of all its assigned units and attached to the 40th Armored Division to facilitate the ROAD reorganization. From that point on, Nike-Ajax and newly retrained and relocated Nike-Hercules battalions were independent with their command relationship and ADCON being with the Adjutant General directly, while they remained under the OPCON of the two Regular Army Artillery Brigades (Air Defense) in the state.

The Herculean Reorganization of 1962

From 27 April 1962 California's air defense structure underwent massive reorganization connected to the adoption of the nuclear-armed Nike Hercules by the National Guard. The first hint was when the 3d Gun Battalion, 250th Artillery was detached from the 114th Artillery Brigade on 24 May 1961 and transferred to the 49th Infantry Division in NorCal. It became 3d Howitzer Bn (105mm) (SP), 250th Artillery on 27 April 1962, except for Battery C which became 159th Signal Company (Support) in September 1961 (5).

The same day 3 Nike-Ajax battalions were detached from the Artillery Groups and placed under the direct administrative control of the Adjutant General (5), but remaining under the operational control of the the 6th Region's brigades in the Regular Army (6). The 114th Artillery Brigade and 234th Artillery Group were attached to the 40th Armored Division without subordinate units, while the 233d Artillery Group was attached to the 49th Infantry Division (5). The HHB, 114th Artillery Brigade in particular was used to form the 3d Brigade HHC of the 40th Armored Division during the ROAD reorganization, making it the linear ancestor of HQ, 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (8).

The two Nike-Ajax battalions in the San Francisco Bay Area swapped stations as well, 1-250th Arty's HHB redesignating as 2-250th Arty's HHB. The original 2-250th Arty's operational Batteries B and D were also redesignated as Batteries B and D of 1-250th Arty. While the 1-250th Arty then had 5 on-site batteries (including the HHB), the new 2-250th Arty was left with only 3 (HHB, A, C) as a training status organization and later inactivated (5).

At the same time, A/1-251st Arty (90mm) and all of 2-251st Arty (90mm) were converted into 7th Medium Tank Bn, 185th Armor while 3-251st Arty (90mm) became 3d Howitzer Bn (155mm) (SP), 251st Arty respectively. The remaining 4 batteries of 1-251st Arty (90mm) became the 6th Medium Tank Battalion, 185th Armor in San Diego. All were concurrently transferred to the 40th Armored Division in SoCal (5).