The 2/9th FA ("The Mighty Ninth") was
the first artillery unit of the 25th Infantry Division
to fire an artillery round after arriving in Vietnam
From the 25th Infantry Division "Tropic Lightning News"
magazine, dated 6 March 1967:
2-9th Fires 200, 000th
Lt. Col. Bruce Holbrook, commander of
the 2nd Bn., 9th Arty., "Mighty Ninth," fired the 200,000th round that
the artillery battalion has sent on its way since its arrival in Vietnam.
The ceremony took place recently at Btry. B, nearly 13 months after Gen.
William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, fired the
first round of the "Mighty Ninth" to be fired
in Vietnam by any artillery unit of the 25th Inf. Div.
At the recent ceremony, the executive officer
of the battery, 1st Lt. William H. Farmer Jr., (KIA) of Fayetteville,
N.C., loaded the round into the gun which Col. Holbrook later
fired.
{Webmaster's Footnote: The very first round (Westmoreland) was fired at "C" Battery.}