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| 91st Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) Regiment | |
|---|---|
| Unit name | 91st Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) Regiment |
| Dates | 1924–1944 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Army Coast Artillery Corps |
| Type | Coast artillery, antiaircraft |
| Role | Antiaircraft defense |
| Garrison | Fort Sheridan |
| Notable commanders | Brigadier General Joseph A. Green |
91st Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) Regiment was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps regiment activated in the interwar period and reorganized during World War II to provide antiaircraft defense for continental and overseas installations. The regiment served in the mobilization structure that tied Fort Sheridan and other Great Lakes-region posts to the broader antiaircraft network supporting First Army and Second Army formations, and later contributed personnel and batteries to theater antiaircraft commands in the European and Pacific Theaters.
The unit traces origins to post-World War I coastal defense reforms under the National Defense Act of 1920 and subsequent reorganizations influenced by lessons from the Battle of Britain and evolving air power doctrine. Constituted in the Regular Army as an antiaircraft regiment during the 1920s, the regiment's early years reflected wider shifts led by figures such as Major General John J. Pershing and advisors associated with the War Department General Staff. During the 1930s the regiment participated in training exercises with elements of Coast Artillery Corps formations and coordinated with Air Corps units for gunnery practice and barrage planning.
The regiment was organized with a headquarters battery and multiple antiaircraft battalions and batteries, conforming to tables of organization promulgated by the War Department and the Office of the Chief of Coast Artillery. Units were periodically redesignated, consolidated, and parceled out to harbor defense commands such as Harbor Defenses of Chicago and to field commands preparing for overseas deployment. Lineage involved activations, inactivations, and conversions into separate antiaircraft artillery battalions following the reorganization of coastal defenses directed by senior staff including the Adjutant General of the Army and implemented by commanders at posts like Fort Sheridan and Camp Grant.
With the United States entry into World War II after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the regiment expanded personnel strength, undertook accelerated training with Anti-Aircraft Artillery School cadres, and supplied detachments to continental and expeditionary antiaircraft commands. Batteries and detachments were attached to units supporting Operation Torch staging areas, transatlantic convoys under Convoy HX series procedures, and later to Combined Arms operations with elements of U.S. Army Air Forces fighter groups for integrated air defense. The regiment's elements served under commands that included Antiaircraft Command structures and often coordinated with Navy and Coast Guard units on port defense and convoy escort assignments.
The regiment fielded contemporary antiaircraft materiel including the 3-inch M1903/1917 and later the 90 mm M1 gun, radar sets such as the SCR-268 and SCR-584, and fire-control systems developed in coordination with Bell Laboratories and the National Defense Research Committee. Tactical employment emphasized concentric barrages, proximity-fuzed munitions following the Battle of the Bulge period innovations, and coordination with P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang fighter-bomber patrols for layered defense. Training included live-fire exercises at ranges used by Air Corps Tactical School detachments and joint drills with Coast Artillery School instructors to refine detection, tracking, and engagement procedures against high-altitude and low-level threats.
Elements of the regiment were credited with participation in continental defense and various overseas campaign operations as personnel were reassigned to antiaircraft battalions attached to expeditionary forces in the European Theater of Operations and the Pacific Theater of Operations. Individual batteries and soldiers qualified for awards administered by the Department of the Army, including the Distinguished Service Cross (United States), Silver Star, and campaign streamers associated with campaigns such as Normandy, Northern France, and Iwo Jima when personnel were attached to units participating in those operations. Unit citations and campaign credits followed the redistribution of the regiment's lineal elements into separate antiaircraft battalions.
Following the demobilization after Victory over Japan Day and the broader postwar dissolution of much of the Coast Artillery Corps, the regiment was broken up and its elements reorganized, inactivated, or converted into antiaircraft artillery and later air defense artillery units under peacetime tables directed by the War Department General Orders. Legacy influences persisted in doctrine adopted by the United States Army Air Defense Artillery School and in veterans' associations linking former members with alumni groups at posts like Fort Sheridan and memorials associated with the Coast Artillery Memorials Network. The unit's lineage is reflected in successor air defense formations that served during the early Cold War alongside commands such as United States Army Europe and the Continental Air Defense Command.
Category:Coast artillery regiments of the United States Army