The 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment (United States) nicknamed the Straight Arrows—was a field artillery battalion in the United States Army. The Regimental motto is Festina Lente ("Make Haste, Slowly"). World War I Constituted on 5 July 1918 in the National Army as Battery D, 42nd Field Artillery, an element of the 14th Division. It was organized on 10 August 1918 at Camp Custer, Michigan. Serving in one campaign of the First World War, Alsace 1918, the unit returned to Camp Custer, Michigan where it was demobilized on 7 February 1919. Pre-WWII The unit was reconstituted on 1 October 1933, in the Regular Army as Battery D, 42nd Field Artillery. It was absorbed on 1 October 1940, by Battery A, 42nd Field Artillery Battalion. Battery A, 42nd Field Artillery was redesignated on 1 October 1940, as Battery A, 42nd Field Artillery Battalion, and activated at Fort Benning, Georgia, as an element of the 4th Division (later redesignated as the 4th Infantry Division). World War II Battery A, 42nd Field Artillery Battalion participated in 5 campaigns in the Second World War: Normandy (with arrowhead indicating participation in the initial assault), Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe. After the war, Battery A, 42nd Field Artillery Battalion was inactivated on 16 February 1946, at Camp Butner, North Carolina. Cold War Battery A, 42nd Field Artillery Battalion reactivated on 15 July 1947, at Fort Ord, California, before being consolidated on 28 June 1950, with Battery A, 42nd Coast Artillery Battalion (which had been first organized in 1907). The consolidated unit designated as Battery A, 42d Field Artillery Battalion). Former Battery D, 42nd Field Artillery, was reconstituted on 1 April 1957, in the Regular Army and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Battalion, 42nd Artillery. It was redesignated on 23 April 1959, as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Howitzer Battalion, 42nd Artillery, and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division with its organic elements concurrently constituted. The Battalion activated on 6 May 1959 at Fort Lewis, Washington. It was redesignated on 1 October 1963, as the 4th Battalion, 42nd Artillery. Vietnam War The Battalion served as part of the 4th Infantry Division through 11 campaigns in Vietnam, arriving in August 1966 as a towed 105mm howitzer battalion to render direct support to the 4th's 2nd Brigade. The unit participated in the following campaigns: Counteroffensive Phase II Counteroffensive Phase III Tet Counteroffensive Counteroffensive Phase