Photo By Maj. William Carraway | Soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Battery A, 118th Field Artillery...... read more read more
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In 2025, the Georgia National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment, added two national level awards to its long history of laurels that date to the American Revolution.
in August 2025, the 1-118th received the Major General Milton A. Reckord Trophy, presented annually by the National Guard Association of the United States to the top Army National Guard battalion demonstrating the highest levels of training and readiness. The award was formally presented during the NGAUS National Conference in Milwaukee.
The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) presented the Walter T. Kerwin Jr. Readiness Award to the 1-118th October 12, 2025. The Kerwin Award recognizes the outstanding Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve units with the highest levels of readiness. Only one National Guard and Reserve unit is selected each year.
A key element in both award evaluations was the battalion’s 2024 mobilization to the Central Command area of operations. From December 2023 to November 2024, the battalion operated as Task Force Defender defending critical assets with Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar systems which the battalion had not previously employed. The battalion operated an array of air defense assets providing coverage for ten separate locations within the Central Command area of responsibility. Additionally, the battalion provided force protection during Joint Logistics Over the Shore operations.
The 2024 deployment represented the latest chapter in the unit’s history which spans more than 270 years. The earliest elements of the 1-118th were organized April 18, 1751, in Savannah. Its guns defended Savannah in 1778 and again during the War of 1812. Elements of the 118th served during the American Civil War and Spanish American War and deployed to France during World War I. The 1-118th was one of seven Georgia National Guard Battalions to go ashore at Normandy and fought from France to Germany in World War II earning three Meritorious Unit Citations for actions in Europe as well as the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at Mortain, France, where its guns shattered a German attack. The 1-118 deployed to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2009 and 2018 receiving a fourth Meritorious Unit Citation for its actions in Afghanistan from 2009-2010.
| Date Taken: | 11.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.21.2025 09:55 |
| Story ID: | 552021 |
| Location: | SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, US |
| Hometown: | SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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