The Field and Staff of the 72nd Artillery was organized on May 4, 1918 at Ft. Williams, Maine. Headquarters Company, Supply Company and Batteries A and B were then organized soon after also at Ft. Williams. These Companies were organized from Personnel transfers from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 17th, 18th 19th and 23rd Companies, Coast Defenses of Portland, Maine then stationed at Ft. Williams, and from the 13th Company stationed at Ft. Baldwin.

Batteries C and D were organized at Ft. McKinley, Maine from personnel transfers from the 10th, 11th, 12th 15th, 16th, 24th, 26th, 27th, and 28th Companies at Ft. McKinley.

Batteries E and f were organized at Ft. Preble, Maine with personal transferred from the 9th, 22nd, and 29th Companies at Ft. Levett, and the 6th, 7th and 21st Companies at Ft. Preble.

Once the 72nd Artillery was at war time strength they moved to Montreal, Canada and waited for ship transportation. On August 7, 1918 the Cunard Line ship SS Takada arrived and the 72nd Artillery, CAC boarded for England. They arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on August 14, 1918 where they awaited aboard the ship for their convoy to assemble. It was on August 25th that the Takada made England where they debarked from the ship. The crossing of the English Channel to Le Havre, France was made on August 29, 1918.

The Field and Staff of the 72nd Artillery when they sailed aboard the Cunard Line SS Takada on August 7, 1919 from Montreal, Canada for France:

Colonel Albert C. Thompson
Lt. Colonel Clarence B. Ross
Major Fruman E. McCammon
Major Cyril L. D. Wells
Captain Otto M. Jank
Captain William P. Norton
Captain Russel D. Lanier
1st Lt. George F. Kettell
1st Lt. George C. Sedley-Brown

Now in France the 72nd was sent to O&T Center No. 2 at Limoges, France where they were assigned to the command of the 35th Artillery Brigade, CAC. Training was started but was not completed until after the Armistice was signed, and they never were used at the front lines in combat. They would have been assigned to the British 9.2-inch Howitzers.

On March 2, 1919 at Pauillac, France near Bordeaux on the Gironde River the 72nd and the 49th Artillery Regiments boarded the SS Panaman for transportation back home to the States. They arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey on March 29, 1919, where the 72nd Artillery went to Camp Upton, New York, and were demobilized at Camp Grant, IL in April 19, 1919.