198th Signal Battalion (ESB)

April 07, 2011

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The Delaware Army National Guard's 198th Regiment (1st Delaware) is the parent organization for all of Delaware's Guard units. Its rich heritage dates from January 1776 when it was organized as Colonel John Haslet's Delaware Regiment of the Continental Army, thus earning the Regiment its titles as "The First Regiment of the First State." Members of the Regiment fought through every major battle of the Revolution and stood with General Washington as he accepted the surrender of the British at Yorktown.

The Regiment saw action in the War of 1812, where companies of militia drove off a British naval squadron that sought to control the vital Delaware River at Lewes. In the Mexican War, a company of volunteers fought with the 11th Infantry Brigade of the regular Army. During the Civil War, eleven battle streamers were added to the Regimental colors. The Regiment volunteered but failed to see action for the first time in the outfit's history during the Spanish-American War.

Along the Mexican border in 1916, it received the vital training that was to pay off in World War I. The Regiment saw action during World War I as the 59th Pioneer Infantry.

During World War II, the 198th Coast Artillery Regiment, the first U.S. unit to leave for overseas after the attack on Pearl Harbor, served with distinction in the South Pacific earning campaign streamers for the Northern Solomons (with arrowhead device for the assault landing on the Mono Island in the Treasuries) and Luzon, as well as the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. During the Korean War, as a separate battalion of antiaircraft artillery was ordered into Federal Service.

A sweeping reorganization in January 1970 gave rise to the organization that today carries the lineage and honors of the Regiment, the 198th Signal Battalion.

Since this reorganization, soldiers from the 198th have trained around the world from Korea and Egypt to Germany. In 2007, the 198th returned home after a yearlong deployment in Baghdad, Iraq.

During its more than 200 year history, the citizen-soldiers of the First Delaware Regiment have spent more than 23 years on active duty, serving in 35 battles and campaigns from Long Island, New York, to Luzon in the Philippines. Today, The First Regiment stands ready to serve Delaware and the country.

The First Regiment Today

The First Regiment provides command, control, and supervision of organic and assigned units. To provide nodal and extension communications support for the Combatant Commanders of unified or specified commands, Army Service Component Commanders (ASCC), or Joint Task Force/Joint Forces Land Component Commands (JTF/JFLCC).

The 198th Signal Battalion provides installation, operation and maintenance of one large node center switch, two small extension switches, the supporting Line of Sight (LOS), Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) assets, network management, cable and wire assets, and data services for an Integrated Theater Signal Battalion(ITSB).