Atlas E Site 567-3 Missile Silo, Worley / Rockford area Idaho

Atlas E Site 567-3 was a single-missile SM-65E Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile launch complex operated by the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron in the Fairchild Air Force Base missile field. It was one of the nine Atlas E complexes dispersed around Fairchild Air Force Base during the first generation of operational American ICBM deployment. Its parent base was Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Washington. Its parent wing was the 92d Bombardment Wing during the early deployment period and the 92d Strategic Aerospace Wing after the wing was redesignated on 1962-02-15. The site did not have a separate parent Launch Control Center in the later Minuteman sense.

The site was the third operational site of the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron. Public sources sometimes identify it by the nearest Washington community, Rockford, and some secondary Atlas lists call it "Rockford, Idaho." The actual former missile property is in Kootenai County, Idaho, northwest of Worley and just east of the Washington-Idaho state line. EPA identifies the cleanup/property record as the Former Fairchild Atlas E Missile S-3 Site, EPA ID IDN001002987, at 17562 W. Missile Base Road, seven miles northwest of Worley, Idaho, in Township 47 North, Range 5 West, Section 7, parcel 47N05W-07-3700.

The site is inactive and decommissioned. The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron was activated at Fairchild on 1960-04-01. Construction of the Fairchild Atlas E field began in 1959 and continued into 1961. The first Fairchild Atlas E missile was placed on alert on 1961-10-01, and the bulk of the Fairchild force was on alert by November 1961. Fairchild's broader Atlas E phaseout was complete by the end of March 1965, and the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron was formally inactivated on 1965-06-25. The former site is private property, is not an active missile installation, and has no public access identified.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Site 567-3 occupied a rural Inland Northwest setting in the rolling agricultural and timbered landscape west of Worley, Idaho, near the Washington-Idaho boundary. Its public address, 17562 W. Missile Base Road, preserves the memory of the missile field in the local road name. The site lay east and southeast of Rockford, Washington, and northwest of Worley, Idaho. This produced a source conflict in shorthand site lists: operational and enthusiast sources often label the site by Rockford, while EPA's official CERCLA record locates it in Worley, Kootenai County, Idaho. The coordinate and parcel information confirm that the launch complex itself was in Idaho.

The location served the same strategic siting logic as the other Fairchild Atlas E sites. It was close enough to Fairchild Air Force Base for command, maintenance, crew transportation, weapons handling, supply, communications, and security support. At the same time, it was far enough from the base and from the other launch complexes to reduce the chance that a single attack could destroy the whole missile force. The Fairchild Atlas E sites formed an oval dispersed missile field around the Spokane region rather than a compact base installation. Site 567-3 was therefore not part of Fairchild AFB's main cantonment. It was an off-base hardened launch complex embedded in rural land use.

The Fairchild Atlas E sites followed a common semi-hardened layout.Each site was a roughly 20-acre facility with a five-acre inner launch-and-control area. The inner area was originally fenced, and Air Force security police patrolled the sites and maintained security. The site included a reinforced-concrete missile-launch structure, a launch-operations building, an underground tunnel between the launch-control/operations building and the missile structure, liquid-oxygen and fuel-related support areas, a metal storage building, access roads, security fencing, utilities, and communications equipment. The Atlas E Missile Site 9 National Register documentation, prepared for the best-preserved Fairchild Atlas E site at Reardan, describes the common configuration as a 105-by-100-foot missile launch-and-service building with a central bay for horizontal missile storage, a 54-by-90-foot launch-operations building about 150 feet away, and an underground passage linking the two.

Site 567-3 was not a vertical Minuteman-style Launch Facility. It was an Atlas E "coffin" launcher. The missile was stored horizontally in a below-grade reinforced concrete bay under a heavy retractable roof or door. To launch, the roof was moved aside, the missile was raised to vertical position, fueled with liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene, checked, and fired from the open launcher. The configuration offered protection against blast overpressure when the missile was stored, but during launch preparations the missile had to be exposed, raised, fueled, and launched. This made the site a transitional design between early exposed launch pads and later fully hardened silo systems.

The current surface appearance of the former launch complex has changed since the Air Force period, but public aerial photographs and Atlas site documentation show that the missile-site footprint was not erased. Visible site elements include the overall fenced or parcel geometry, access roads, large surface buildings, and the distinctive arrangement of the former launch complex. Public real-estate and business-location records associate the address with private property and present-day non-military use.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Atlas E Site 567-3 existed because the United States moved rapidly in the late 1950s and early 1960s to establish an operational intercontinental ballistic missile force. The Soviet Union's demonstrated long-range missile and space-launch capabilities placed enormous pressure on the United States to field its own strategic missile deterrent. Atlas was the first operational American ICBM. The Atlas E was an improved deployment version that used inertial guidance and allowed each missile to be placed at an individual launch complex rather than tied to a central radio-guidance facility.

The strategic purpose of the Worley/Rockford site was national nuclear deterrence, not local air defense. The missile and its crew were part of Strategic Air Command's retaliatory force. If ordered through authenticated emergency channels, the crew at the launch complex would prepare and launch the missile. The site's rural isolation, semi-hardened underground construction, and separation from other launch complexes were all meant to complicate a Soviet first strike and help ensure that some portion of the U.S. force could survive long enough to retaliate.

Washington and north Idaho occupied a meaningful place in early ICBM basing. The inland location placed the missile fields away from the more vulnerable Pacific coast while still using existing Strategic Air Command infrastructure and large areas of open land near Fairchild Air Force Base. The Fairchild field also showed how Cold War strategy reached into farm, timber, and rural road landscapes. Communities that had little in common with a major air base became part of the national nuclear alert system because the missiles had to be dispersed.

The Atlas E's strategic value was accompanied by serious technical limitations. It was a liquid-fueled missile using cryogenic liquid oxygen, and it could not remain indefinitely fueled and sealed in a vertical silo. The missile had to be pressurized to preserve the structure of its thin stainless-steel airframe. Before launch, crews had to open the launcher, raise the missile, load oxidizer, and complete the countdown. The launch response time was usually described as about fifteen minutes. By 1964 and 1965, solid-fueled Minuteman missiles had made this procedure obsolete. Minuteman could remain sealed, fueled, and ready in hardened silos, reducing launch time, lowering operational hazards, and improving survivability.

Construction and Activation

Fairchild's Atlas E missile field was built during the intense early ICBM construction effort that followed the decision to deploy Atlas as an operational strategic weapon. A Fairchild Air Force Base history article states that work on the nine missile complex sites began on 1959-05-12. The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron was activated at Fairchild on 1960-04-01. The first Atlas E missile arrived at Fairchild on 1960-12-03. Work on the last of the nine Fairchild launch sites was completed on 1961-02-10, and Strategic Air Command accepted the first Fairchild Atlas E complex on 1961-07-29. Operational readiness training began in August 1961.

Construction of an Atlas E site was a major civil-engineering task. Builders had to excavate and construct the reinforced concrete upper missile bay, install the retractable roof and missile erector systems, build the underground launch-operations building, connect the launch and operations structures by tunnel, provide utilities and power generation, install communications equipment, build fuel and oxidizer support areas, and secure the property with roads, fencing, lighting, and controlled access. The final site had to function as an independent weapon station that could support a five-person alert crew, maintenance visits, security response, weapons-related support, and communication with Fairchild and Strategic Air Command.

The Fairchild Atlas E deployment was historically important because it was the first E-series Atlas unit activated by Strategic Air Command. The Fairchild article emphasizes that the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron was not merely another missile squadron; it marked the first SAC activation of an Atlas E unit. Operational readiness training began at the squadron's own sites rather than solely at Vandenberg, and by 1961 the Fairchild missile field was moving from construction and checkout into actual alert operations.

Missile System and Technical Role

Site 567-3 housed one SM-65E Atlas missile. The Atlas E was a one-and-one-half-stage, liquid-fueled ICBM produced by Convair/General Dynamics. It used liquid oxygen as oxidizer and RP-1 kerosene as fuel. The missile's thin pressure-stabilized airframe was a central feature of the Atlas design: pressure helped maintain structural shape, which saved weight but made ground operations more demanding. The National Park Service describes the Atlas family as the first operational American ICBM generation and notes that Atlas missiles had to be pressurized while on alert because the thin stainless-steel shell depended on internal pressure for rigidity.

The Atlas E improved on earlier Atlas versions by using inertial guidance. The Association of Air Force Missileers describes Atlas E as replacing radio-inertial guidance with an all-inertial system and being deployed singly with one control center per missile. This meant each Atlas E site, including Site 567-3, was a self-contained launch complex. The crew did not sit in a distant Minuteman-style Launch Control Center controlling many unmanned silos. Instead, each Atlas E site contained its own launch-control and crew-support spaces.

Public-source technical descriptions identify the Atlas E as an 82-foot-class missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead over intercontinental range. The National Museum of the United States Air Force states that the Atlas ICBM could deliver a nuclear warhead more than 6,300 miles from its launch site. A Fairchild Air Force Base history article states that the Atlas E was an 82-foot-tall liquid-fueled missile with a self-contained automatic inertial guidance system accurate to within about one and one-half miles. Public Atlas technical references identify the Atlas E/F payload as a W-38 thermonuclear warhead in an Avco Mark 4 ablative reentry vehicle.

The operational sequence made Site 567-3 labor-intensive. The crew would receive authenticated orders through Strategic Air Command channels, open the coffin roof, raise the missile, load liquid oxygen and RP-1, complete required checks, and move through the countdown. The Association of Air Force Missileers describes Atlas E crews as including two officers and three enlisted members and notes that crews were on alert for 24 hours, with a new crew departing the main base each morning to replace the crew on duty. The same source explains that after emergency-war-order procedures the crew could open the roof, erect and fuel the missile, and launch the inertially guided weapon in about fifteen minutes.

Operational History

The operating unit for Site 567-3 was the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron. The squadron was assigned to Fairchild Air Force Base and was initially part of the 92d Bombardment Wing. After 1962-02-15, the wing was redesignated the 92d Strategic Aerospace Wing, reflecting Fairchild's combined bomber, tanker, and missile role. The squadron's missile mission was brief but intense: it organized in 1960, moved through construction and checkout in 1960 and 1961, entered operational alert in late 1961, served through the Cuban Missile Crisis and the early 1960s, and was inactivated in 1965 after the Atlas E phaseout.

Site 567-3 was one of nine single-launcher complexes operated by the 567th SMS. The nine Fairchild Atlas E sites were located near Deer Park, Newman Lake, the Rockford/Worley area, Sprague, Lamona, Davenport, Wilbur, Egypt/Deer Meadows, and Reardan. Each site had one missile and an on-site crew. The Fairchild missile field was not a system of unmanned silos watched from a remote capsule. It was a network of staffed launch complexes. The crew lived and worked at the site during an alert tour, while maintenance, security, targeting, standardization, and support personnel moved between Fairchild and the dispersed sites as needed.

The National Register documentation for Site 9, drawing on oral histories from former 567th SMS personnel, gives the best public description of daily Fairchild Atlas E operations. Each site was staffed by five squadron members: two officers and three enlisted airmen. Crew positions included the Missile Combat Crew Commander, the deputy, and enlisted technicians responsible for missile, power, and electronics functions. At least one officer had to be in the launch-control room at all times. Communications with squadron headquarters at Fairchild used telephone, radio, and microwave links. Coded emergency-war-order traffic could be received at the sites, decoded, authenticated, and used to start the launch sequence if a valid launch order were received.

Site 567-3's ordinary work would have been repetitive and technical rather than dramatic. Crews monitored the missile and facility, maintained communications readiness, checked power and environmental systems, performed security and access-control procedures, practiced countdown and emergency-war-order actions, and coordinated with Fairchild. Maintenance specialists inspected the missile, launch equipment, power systems, electronics, real-property installed equipment, propellant systems, and communications. Security police protected the site and responded to alarms or incidents. The site's value lay in this constant readiness: it had to be ready every hour of every day, even though the missile was never launched in anger.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the most important documented operational episode for the Fairchild Atlas E missile field. The Site 9 National Register documentation, based on former 567th SMS oral-history interviews, states that during the crisis the Fairchild sites were placed at a heightened alert posture, targeting crews changed target boards, and standardization crews were posted at missile sites during the crisis to assist if anything went wrong. One former standardization supervisor specifically recalled being present when targeting boards were changed at Site 2. This is a Fairchild field and squadron-level event, not a source-proven unique event at Site 567-3. It is still relevant to Site 567-3 because all nine sites were part of the same squadron alert force, but it should not be written as if a site-specific document proves exactly what happened inside Site 3 on a particular day.

The 567th SMS also accumulated a strong record during its short life. Fairchild's historian notes that in April 1963 the squadron passed its first Operational Readiness Inspection and was described as the first SAC missile squadron to pass an ORI. The article also lists safety and performance awards, including General Dynamics safety recognition during installation and checkout, the first Headquarters "Outstanding Achievement in Missile Safety for 1961," the Charles D. Trail Material Trophy, the Colonel Lee R. Williams Award, the Air Force Association's Outstanding Missile Unit Award, a "Best Maintenance Unit in SAC" trophy, and the Outstanding Unit Award.

Deactivation and Disposal

The deactivation of Site 567-3 was part of the rapid retirement of first-generation liquid-fueled ICBMs. By the mid-1960s, Atlas E and Titan I were being overtaken by solid-fueled Minuteman missiles and improved Titan II systems. Fairchild's history article states that advances in missile technology, especially solid fuel, reduced launch times and improved safety, leading the Secretary of Defense to direct accelerated phaseout of Atlas and Titan I ICBMs. It states that Fairchild's first Atlas E missile came off alert in January 1965 and that by 1965-03-31 the last missile had come off alert and was shipped to storage. The 567th SMS Site 3 page lists this individual site as decommissioned on 1965-03-25. The squadron was inactivated on 1965-06-25.

The deactivation process involved more than simply turning off a missile. The missile had to be removed from alert, propellant operations ended, the missile shipped away or placed in storage, and military launch equipment and salvageable materials removed. With the site closures, all equipment and salvageable material was removed and the sites were auctioned to the highest bidder. All but one of the Washington-region ICBM complexes passed into private ownership, with Site 9 at Reardan being the exception retained for federal use. For Site 567-3, this supports a general disposal pattern of missile removal, salvage/equipment removal, and private property reuse.

Unlike later Minuteman and Peacekeeper sites reduced under strategic arms-control agreements, Site 567-3 was retired before the major late-Cold War and post-Cold War silo-elimination treaty programs that required visible demolition or inspection of missile silos. Atlas E sites were short-lived, liquid-fueled, first-generation ICBM launchers. Their closure reflected technological obsolescence and force modernization more than a treaty-driven elimination process. The former launch structures were not necessarily imploded or erased. Public aerial photographs and site records show that the Site 3 footprint survived into the post-military period.

EPA's CERCLA profile identifies the property as the Former Fairchild Atlas E Missile S-3 Site, EPA ID IDN001002987. EPA lists the site as not on the National Priorities List and classifies it as NFRAP, meaning the site did not qualify for the NPL based on existing information and no further federal remedial action was planned under that Superfund listing status. EPA identifies the site as not a federal facility in its CERCLA record. This does not mean that no environmental concerns ever existed at the former missile property; it means EPA's public Superfund status for that record is non-NPL/NFRAP. Former Atlas E complexes can have issues associated with fuels, solvents, PCBs, tanks, electrical equipment, and later private use, and site-specific environmental interpretation should rely on current regulatory files.

Current Status and Site Use

Public real-estate sources describe the address as an off-market single-family residential property on a large acreage parcel, and an outdoor-recreation business contact page lists the same address as its contact location.

The site should be treated as no-public-access private property. Former missile sites can contain confined underground spaces, unstable or deteriorated structures, old utility systems, tanks, drainage features, electrical hazards, fall hazards, and environmental restrictions. Even when roofs, access roads, buildings, or launch-bay outlines remain visible in aerial photographs, visibility does not equal legal or safe access. The coordinates used in this history identify the former launcher area, not a public viewing point, visitor entrance, museum, or open park.

Chronology

• 1959-05-12 Work began on the nine Fairchild Atlas E missile complex sites.
• 1960 Construction-start year for Site 567-3.
• 1960-04-01 The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron was organized at Fairchild Air Force Base.
• 1960-12-03 The first Atlas E missile arrived at Fairchild Air Force Base.
• 1961-02-10 Work on the last of the nine Fairchild Atlas E launch sites was completed.
• 1961 Site 567-3 was turned over to the Air Force.
• 1961-07-29 Strategic Air Command accepted the first Fairchild Atlas E complex.
• 1961-08 Operational readiness training began in the Fairchild Atlas E missile field.
• 1961-09-28 Headquarters Strategic Air Command declared the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron operational.
• 1961-10-01 The first Fairchild Atlas E missile went on alert.
• 1961-11 Most of the Fairchild Atlas E missile force was on alert.
• 1962-02-15 The 92d Bombardment Wing was redesignated the 92d Strategic Aerospace Wing.
• 1962-10 The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron's Atlas E field was placed in a heightened alert posture during the Cuban Missile Crisist.
• 1963-04 The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron passed its first Operational Readiness Inspection and was recognized as the first Strategic Air Command missile squadron to pass an ORI.
• 1965-01 Fairchild's first Atlas E missiles began coming off alert during the Atlas phaseout.
• 1965-03-25 The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron historical Site 3 page lists Site 567-3 as decommissioned on this date.
• 1965-03-31 Fairchild's last Atlas E missile had been taken off alert and shipped to storage.
• 1965-04-06 The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron became non-operational.
• 1965-06-25 The 567th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated.
• 2026 EPA's public CERCLA profile listed the Former Fairchild Atlas E Missile S-3 Site as not on the NPL and NFRAP.

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