471st Anti-Aircraft Artillery-Automatic Weapons Battalion (Semi-mobile) Coast Artillery Corps
Constituted 29 August 1942 in the Army of the United States as the 471st Coast Artillery Battalion (Antiaircraft) (Automatic Weapons). Activated 15 October 1942 at Camp Stewart, Georgia. Reorganized and re-designated 30 April 1943 as the 471st Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (Semi-mobile). Departed the San Francisco Port of Embarkation 5 July 1943 and arrived on Guadalcanal on 23 August 1943. Arrived on Florida Island on 24 August 1943 and Emirau Island 24 March 1944. Landed in the Philippine Islands on 21 January 1945. The Battalion was at Clark Field, Philippine Islands at the end of World War-II (15 August 1945 location). Returned to the United States via the Seattle Port of Embarkation on 23 January 1946. Inactivated 24 January 1946 at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Allotted to the Organized Reserve Corps 3 December 1948 and assigned to the Fourth Army n 15 December 1948. Activated 28 December 1948 with Headquarters at Tulsa, Oklahoma. Assigned to the 22d Armored Division on 25 August 1949. Headquarters relocated to El Paso, Texas on 1 July 1950. Relieved from the 22d Armored Division and inactivated at El Paso, Texas on 1 March 1952. (Organized Reserve Corps re-designated as Army Reserve, 9 July 1952.) Re-designated 20 August 1956 as the 471st Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. Activated 1 September 1956 with Headquarters at El Paso, Texas; Inactivated 1 April 1959 at El Paso. CAMPAIGN PARTICIPATION CREDITS: Bismarck Archipelago; Northern Solomons; Luzon. DECORATIONS: Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered: 17 OCTOBER 1944 TO 4 JULY 1945 (471st AAA AW Bn cited per DA GO 47, 1950). Personnel further authorized the Philippine Liberation and Independence Medals and if wounded in the PI, their Wound Medal. COAT OF ARMS: SHIELD: Or, on a pile invected inverted gules a boar's head erased of the field between two flaunches of the second, each charged with a porticullis of the first. CREST: That for the Regiments and separate battalions of the Army Reserve: On a wreath of the colors or and gules the Lexington Minute Man proper. The statue of the Minute Man, Captain John Parker (H.H. Kitson, sculptor) stands on the common at Lexington, Massachusetts. MOTTO: Maneo et Munio (Remain and Defend). SYMBOLISM: The scarlet is the color of the Coast Artillery Corps. The functions of the battalon are symbolized by the wedge shaped pile driving into enemy territory. The flaunche is the heraldic representation of the learning and protection which function is enhanced by the medieval portcullis used to bar the entrance of ancient drawbridges and castles. The State of activation, Georgia, is indicated by the boar's head taken fromn the coat of arms of Sir James Olgethorpe, the founder of the Georgia colony. This narrative courtesy of Mr. James Sawicki. DISTINCTIVE INSIGNIA: The distinctive insignia is the shield and motto of the coat of arms.