laststandonzombieisland

“Steel Rain” by Frank M. Thomas depicts the 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery (MLRS), Oklahoma Army National Guard, as they send their 227mm M26 rockets into targets in Iraq on the first day of Desert Storm in February 1991, some 35 years ago this month.

National Guard Heritage Painting by Frank M. Thomas, courtesy the National Guard Bureau

With each M26 carrying a massive load of 644 DPICM M77 submunitions, and each M270 vehicle carrying a dozen rockets, the system was so deadly that the Iraqi soldiers called it “steel rain.”

More than 62,000 Army National Guard soldiers were mobilized for Desert Shield, and of these, nearly 39,000 deployed to Southwest Asia. Six ANG field artillery battalions, including 1-158 FA, supported the Desert Storm advance into Iraq.

The battalion, which stood up on 26 February 1920, is still based in Oklahoma as part of the 45th Field Artillery Brigade, although it replaced its MLRS with HIMARS.

They earned eight campaign streamers for WWII from Sicily to Central Europe, four for Korea, one for Desert Storm, and two for GWOT. In addition, the battalion is authorized the French Croix de Guerre with Palm, the ROK Presidential Unit Citation, and an Army Presidential Unit Citation, the latter for Salerno.

The battalion’s Battery B also recently earned the Alexander Hamilton Award for being the best field artillery battery in the National Guard, beating 140 other batteries.