Atlas D Site 564-A Missile Silo, Cheyenne Wyoming

Atlas D Site 564-A was a three-launcher SM-65D Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile launch complex associated with the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. The site belonged to the first generation of operational U.S. ICBM deployment: above-ground or semi-hardened Atlas D facilities built under urgent Cold War schedules before the Air Force shifted toward more survivable underground Atlas E, Atlas F, Titan, and Minuteman basing.

The operating squadron was the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron. The wing assignment requires a little historical precision: the squadron was first assigned to the 706th Strategic Missile Wing at F. E. Warren, and the 389th Strategic Missile Wing later assumed command responsibilities at Warren after the 706th stood down on July 1, 1961. The site should therefore be understood as a 706th/389th Strategic Missile Wing Atlas D site rather than as belonging to only one wing across its full life.

The site was located northwest of Cheyenne in Laramie County, Wyoming.

The site is no longer active as a missile installation. The 564th Strategic Missile Squadron's Atlas D mission ended in 1964, and the former Atlas D property was excessed to the General Services Administration in 1965. The site area is now in private/ranch use with continuing environmental-history significance because of documented trichloroethene groundwater contamination addressed under the Formerly Used Defense Sites program. It is not a public historic site.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Atlas D Site 564-A was part of the F. E. Warren Atlas missile field northwest of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The setting was typical of the high-plains missile geography chosen for early ICBM deployment: open land, long sightlines, low population density, and enough distance from the main base and city to separate the missile hazard area from the urban core while still allowing daily support from F. E. Warren. Official Corps of Engineers material describes the former Atlas D Missile Site 1 property as being about 20 miles northwest of Cheyenne.

The physical layout of 564-A was shaped by the limitations of the Atlas D system. Unlike later Minuteman launch facilities, which were deeply dispersed and remotely controlled from hardened launch control centers, the Atlas D depended on ground-based radio guidance and required its launchers to be grouped near guidance and control equipment. For that reason, the Warren I / Site A arrangement concentrated launchers rather than spreading them across individual farm sections.564-A was co-located with 564-B and the two sites together were referred to as Warren I or Site A.

The Atlas D launcher type used here was commonly described as a "coffin" launcher. In this configuration, the missile was stored horizontally in an above-ground or semi-hardened shelter. To launch, the shelter door had to be opened, the missile raised upright, and the missile fueled before firing. This was a transitional basing concept. It was more structured and protected than an open pad, but it was not a modern hardened silo. The site therefore represents a short-lived but important stage between test-range-style ICBM deployment and the buried, dispersed, hardened systems that followed.

The site included three launcher structures, a control or launch operations component, propellant-loading and support equipment, power and utilities, roads, security fencing, and nearby guidance/radio-related facilities associated with the Warren I complex.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Atlas D Site 564-A existed because the United States needed an operational land-based intercontinental ballistic missile force before more mature ICBM technology was ready. During the 1950s, U.S. strategic deterrence still depended heavily on bombers, but the growing Soviet long-range missile threat made it urgent for Strategic Air Command to field missiles able to reach targets across intercontinental distances. The Atlas program provided the first operational answer to that problem.

F. E. Warren was central to that transition. The Department of Defense announced in November 1957 that F. E. Warren would become the nation's first ICBM base. The base had already existed for decades as a major military post and training center, but the Atlas program transformed it into the first operational home of a land-based strategic missile force. In later official base interpretation, F. E. Warren describes itself as having become the nation's first operational ICBM base with the introduction of Atlas in 1958.

The Atlas D system was revolutionary but also technologically transitional. It used liquid propellants and had to be prepared before launch. It was not kept in a sealed underground silo ready to fire in seconds. The National Park Service summarizes the Atlas D as the first deployed ICBM and notes that one missile crew controlled three missiles, a control center, and a radio-guidance system. The missile had a launch-response time of about fifteen minutes, and Atlas D sites were deployed in either vertical gantry launchers or above-ground coffin shelters. The F. E. Warren deployment used the clustered coffin-launcher approach.

Construction and Activation

Construction of the F. E. Warren Atlas D facilities was carried out under intense schedule pressure. The early Warren Atlas D project was complicated by design changes, missing or incomplete equipment packages, evolving missile requirements, and the general fact that neither the Air Force nor the Corps of Engineers had much experience building operational ICBM launch complexes. The above-ground Atlas D launch and control facilities at Site A were originally expected to complete design by mid-May 1958 and construction by November 1959, but design revisions delayed the bid process.

Construction began northwest of Cheyenne for the newly activated 706th Strategic Missile Wing. The Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers oversaw work at Site A, which ultimately included two above-ground complexes with three launchers each. The George A. Fuller Company served as prime contractor for the Warren I work. The project was difficult: sources describe winter construction during 1958-1959, repeated design modifications, and labor stoppages. One Atlas construction history credits the contractor with completing the project in 190 days, but also notes that 35 modifications were made to the guidance facility and 117 to the launchers before the contract was completed.

The first Atlas D missile deployed away from Vandenberg Air Force Base arrived at Warren I on September 15, 1959, going to the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron. This was a major milestone because it represented the movement of Atlas from test-and-training infrastructure toward the operational missile force. A month later, F. E. Warren also received the first air-transported Atlas missile. On August 9, 1960, with General Thomas S. Power, Commander in Chief of Strategic Air Command, present, the first Atlas D complex was turned over to the 564th SMS and declared operational.

Missile System and Technical Role

The SM-65D Atlas was the first deployed U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile. It was a liquid-fueled missile using RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen. The F. E. Warren base fact sheet describes the Atlas as Strategic Air Command's first ICBM, later redesignated from B-65 to SM-65, and notes that it became operational in 1959. The same fact sheet gives public Atlas D specifications including a diameter of 10 feet, a length of 75 feet 10 inches, a maximum launch weight of 260,000 pounds, booster and sustainer engines, 360,000 pounds of thrust at launch, and an ICBM range of more than 6,300 miles.

At 564-A, the operational role of the site was to house and support three Atlas D missiles in a grouped launch complex. The launchers were not independent buried silos in the later Minuteman sense. They were part of a common Atlas D control and guidance arrangement. The National Park Service explains that a single Atlas D crew controlled three missiles, a control center, and a radio-guidance system; the system's radio guidance was a defining reason the launchers were clustered. Association of Air Force Missileers material similarly describes operational Atlas D coffin sites as having three missiles and one control center per complex.

Operational readiness required a large crew and support apparatus. Atlas D launch crews and maintenance personnel dealt with liquid oxygen, RP-1 fuel, nitrogen, helium, power systems, communications, missile electronics, guidance, facility systems, and launch equipment. Association of Air Force Missileers material describes Atlas D crews on 24-hour alert, with relief crews traveling from the main base each morning. It also notes that Atlas D combat crews included officers and enlisted specialists, and that the countdown for a first missile could be roughly fifteen minutes, with additional missiles following later in the sequence. These details underline the practical difference between early Atlas operations and later solid-fueled Minuteman operations: the Atlas D was a combat-ready ICBM, but it demanded more visible preparation, more site-level activity, and more complex propellant handling than the hardened solid-fuel missiles that replaced the first-generation systems.

Operational History

Atlas D Site 564-A's active operational history is inseparable from the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron. The squadron was activated at F. E. Warren on July 1, 1958, and became the first missile unit constructed solely for operational ICBM purposes. Sources identify it first with the 706th Strategic Missile Wing and later with the 389th Strategic Missile Wing. Its F. E. Warren Atlas D period ended when the 564th SMS was inactivated on September 1, 1964.

During its short service life, 564-A formed part of the first operational ICBM alert force. This was not a long career by later missile-field standards, but its importance is not measured by duration alone. The Atlas D sites at F. E. Warren were operational during the most intense early period of the missile age, including the Cuban Missile Crisis. A unit-history source for the 564th states that the operational 564th had an important part in the Cuban Missile Crisis, while also noting that Atlas D missiles at F. E. Warren were de-postured.

Daily operations at 564-A would have involved alert duty, security, maintenance, propellant readiness, communications checks, equipment testing, and crew turnover between the main base and the remote site. The exact day-to-day record of 564-A itself has not yet been located in a site-specific official operations log.

Deactivation and Disposal

Atlas D Site 564-A was deactivated as part of the rapid phaseout of first-generation Atlas systems. The Atlas D was historically important, but by the early 1960s the Air Force was already moving toward more survivable systems: Atlas E, Atlas F, Titan, and especially Minuteman. The F. E. Warren Atlas D facilities were clustered, liquid-fueled, and dependent on a launch sequence that left the missile vulnerable compared with later buried and solid-fueled weapons. Their retirement was therefore part of a broader shift from emergency first-generation ICBM deployment to a more mature deterrent force.

The 564th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated on September 1, 1964. A unit-history source states that the squadron was inactivated that day as the Atlas D missile became outmoded. Official Corps of Engineers material states that the former Atlas D property was excessed to the General Services Administration in 1965. The most careful interpretation is that the operational missile mission ended in 1964, while site/property decommissioning, excessing, disposal, and later ownership changes continued into 1965.

The disposal history of the former Atlas D property is better documented than many early missile sites because it later entered the Formerly Used Defense Sites environmental program. USACE describes the former Atlas D Missile Site 1 property as 2,734 acres acquired by purchase and condemnation between 1959 and 1962. The property was excessed to GSA in 1965. USACE further notes that fee acreage and easements were sold to private parties, while GSA retained easements over a large portion of the remaining acreage. This disposal pattern is typical of many early ICBM sites: the missile system was removed, salvage and transfer occurred, and the land passed into private or mixed-use status while some federal interest or environmental responsibility remained.

Current Status and Site Use

The former property is associated with the Whitaker Ranch / former F. E. Warren Atlas D Missile Site 1 FUDS record in Laramie County. Access should be considered private / restricted unless a current landowner or public authority specifically provides permission.

The site's modern significance includes environmental as well as military-history dimensions. USACE states that trichloroethene groundwater contamination led to a Hazardous, Toxic and Radioactive Waste project under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites. The remedial investigation was finalized in December 2008, and a feasibility study was completed in February 2010. EPA lists the site as "WARREN F.E. AFB ATLAS 'D' MISSILE SITE #1," EPA ID WY0009138800, in Laramie County, Wyoming, with a non-NPL status and federal-facility-led cleanup.

Chronology

• 1957-11-21 The Department of Defense announced that F. E. Warren Air Force Base would become the nation's first ICBM base.
• 1958-07-01 The 564th Strategic Missile Squadron was activated at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, for the Atlas D mission.
• 1958 Construction began northwest of Cheyenne for the Atlas D facilities of the newly activated 706th Strategic Missile Wing.
• 1959-09-15 The first Atlas D missile deployed away from Vandenberg Air Force Base went to the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron at Warren I.
• 1960-08-09 The first Atlas D complex was turned over to the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron and declared operational.
• 1961-07-01 The 706th Strategic Missile Wing stood down, and command responsibilities at F. E. Warren shifted to the 389th Strategic Missile Wing.
• 1962-10 During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron's Atlas D sites were part of the heightened SAC alert posture.
• 1964-05 As Atlas D missiles were being phased out, the 389th Strategic Missile Wing received SAC's last operational readiness inspection for the Atlas D system.
• 1964-09-01 The 564th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated as the Atlas D weapon system was phased out at F. E. Warren.
• 1965 The former Atlas D Missile Site 1 property was excessed to the General Services Administration.
• 2008-12 The remedial investigation report for TCE-contaminated groundwater at the former Atlas D Missile Site 1 was finalized.
• 2010-02 The feasibility study for remedial action alternatives at the former Atlas D Missile Site 1 was completed.

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