With lineage tracing back to 1866, it is the oldest National Guard artillery unit west of the Mississippi River continually serving.

Today, its 2nd Battalion (2-218th Field Artillery) is a part of the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team and is currently headquartered in Forest Grove, Oregon.

During the Bannock War in 1878, the battery was mobilized to defend northeastern Oregon, but it never saw action and the Indians surrendered by September of that year.

In the summer of 1943, the 162nd Infantry Regiment alongside a Brigade of Australian troops assaulted Nassau Bay on the north coast of New Guinea in order to drive the Japanese out of Salamaua.

Japanese snipers, booby traps, and jungle ambushes greeted the artillerymen starting the first day, and the constant rain broken by periods of intense steamy heat marked a difficult campaign ahead.

The 80 men of C Battery hauled their 4 M116 howitzers through 5 miles of jungle by hand, and were forced to cross and recross rivers in the twisting terrain.

Despite the difficulties of moving howitzers through the jungle, the men were dug in on 8 July 1943, six thousand yards from a Japanese controlled hill called, "the Pimple.

[2] As the New Guinea Campaign continued, the 218th Field Artillery supported infantry assaults on countless ridges and enemy strongpoints.

On 4 August, the unit suffered its first combat fatalities when an Australian mortar round fell short and killed a forward observer team of five men.

Several volunteers from the Battalion agreed to serve in infantry companies during the Iraq War (OIF II), including Forward Observer Patrick Eldred.

Serving with B Co, 2-162 Infantry, Eldred called for close artillery and air support over the course of 16 days of desperate fighting during the Battle of Najaf in 2004.