User:Jwerry97/69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade (United States)

WWI Involvement
The 69th was created May 27, 1918, at Fort Worden and was placed into coastal artillery. In August of that same year the brigade was shipped to England. Most of the brigade including the commanding officer Lt. Colonel Edward W. Turner was taken overseas by the ship USS Jason, and since there wasn’t enough room on the Jason for all the officers, the rest were placed on the SS Demosthenes. By the end of August, the 69th were in England and quickly loaded onto steamers taking the brigade to Le Havre France to a training base. Once in France they were able to link up with the 36th Artillery Brigade which was their commanding brigade and they would join two other brigades the 68th, who were equipped with 6-inch American seacoast guns which were taken from the US fortifications back home, and the other battalion under 36th command was the 63rd Artillery who were equipped with 8-inch British Howitzer. The listing of the guns is important because when the US entered the war they did so on short notice meaning their artillery brigades mainly used European coast guns making it very rare for artillery brigades to come over with any guns at all. This was the case for the 69th when they arrived, they had no guns that were assigned to them. This soon changed as the 69th would receive 5-inch M1897 guns from the US 28 to be specific. They were the only artillery brigade in the entirety of the allied forces to have 5-inch guns. The issue with these guns is there was no ammo for them in Europe and guns are just big pieces of steel if there's nothing to fire out of them. The war ended shortly after they arrived though just 2 months after they got there the treaty was signed and the 69th never saw combat, but had the war continued the 69th and their 5 inch guns would have been a key player in invading Germany and ending the war through force. After the war ended the 69th arrived back home on the USS Mercury in February of 1919, and their 5-inch guns were never shot and shortly declared obsolete by the military. The guns were likely scrapped for the metal, destroying a part of unit history that is now only documented. For their service, the 69th did receive a participation streamer for their time in France. Though their time there was short they are still recognized for their small participation in the war. Shortly after returning home the 69th would be demobilized in May of 1919.