Atlas D Site 565-B Missile Silo, Carpenter Wyoming

Atlas D Site 565-B was a three-launcher SM-65D Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile launch complex operated by the 565th Strategic Missile Squadron at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.

The missile system was the SM-65D Atlas, commonly called Atlas D. The operating unit was the 565th Strategic Missile Squadron. The squadron was assigned first to the 706th Strategic Missile Wing and then, after July 1, 1961, to the 389th Strategic Missile Wing. The Atlas D sites of the 565th SMS belonged to the Warren II Atlas D deployment, the second major Atlas D construction group around F. E. Warren.

Site 565-B was located in Laramie County, Wyoming, near Carpenter and southeast of Cheyenne.

The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron became operational on March 7, 1961 and the squadron's last ICBM was shipped out on August 1, 1964. The squadron was inactivated on December 1, 1964.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Atlas D Site 565-B stood in open high-plains country near Carpenter, southeast of Cheyenne. The site's setting was typical of early ICBM deployment around F. E. Warren: remote enough to provide space for hazardous missile operations, propellant handling, explosive-safety arcs, security control, and land acquisition, but close enough to the parent base to be supported by squadron personnel, maintenance teams, security forces, supply, and command channels. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers states that the former Site 3 property consisted of 746 acres acquired by purchase and condemnation between 1959 and 1961.

The complex was one of three Warren II Atlas D sites built for the 565th Strategic Missile Squadron. Each 565th SMS Atlas D site contained three missile launcher facilities and one control center. The Association of Air Force Missileers describes Atlas D operational coffin complexes as soft, above-ground horizontal coffin sites with three missiles and one control center per complex.

The Atlas D launcher type used at the Warren II sites was commonly called a coffin launcher. The missile was stored horizontally in an above-ground launch-and-service shelter. To launch, the shelter cover had to open, the missile had to be raised to vertical by the erector, and the missile then had to be loaded with RP-1 and liquid oxygen before firing. Site 565-B therefore would have included three launch-and-service buildings, a combined control/guidance/launch facility, power and environmental systems, communications and guidance equipment, propellant and servicing areas, access roads, hardstands, security fencing, drainage features, and support structures. It was a compact missile base with three operational launchers, not a single buried vertical silo.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Atlas D Site 565-B existed because the United States needed an operational land-based ICBM force before later, more survivable missile systems were available in quantity. F. E. Warren became the first operational ICBM base, and the Atlas D complexes around Cheyenne were part of the first practical translation of experimental missile technology into a continuous nuclear-alert system.

The National Park Service describes Atlas as the United States Air Force's first operational ICBM. It also notes that Atlas D was the first ICBM ever deployed, that a single missile crew controlled three missiles, a control center, and a radio-guidance system, and that Atlas D had an approximate launch-response time of fifteen minutes. Those characteristics define the operational world of Site 565-B. The site was part of a deterrent system that sought to place nuclear missiles on alert, but its technology was still tied to liquid oxygen, ground-based radio guidance, clustered launchers, and substantial on-site manpower.

The site's grouped layout reflected the limitations of the missile and guidance system. Atlas D did not yet represent the later ideal of a widely dispersed, hardened, solid-fueled missile force. Instead, it was a transitional first-generation ICBM system. It gave the United States a real intercontinental missile alert capability, but it required exposed horizontal shelters, missile erection before launch, liquid-oxygen loading, extensive maintenance, and a crewed control center.

Construction and Activation

Site 565-B was built as part of the Warren II Atlas D construction program. To Defend and Deter explains that after Warren I work for the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron, the Corps of Engineers contracted for Warren II, a three-site Atlas D complex with three launchers per site. The Blount Company won the bid to build the Warren II annexes, which were scattered around the Cheyenne area and operated by the 565th Strategic Missile Squadron.

Construction of the Warren II complexes occurred under intense Cold War schedule pressure. To Defend and Deter describes Warren II as delayed by slow material deliveries, modifications, and work stoppages. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers states that the Site 3 land was acquired between 1959 and 1961 by purchase and condemnation, which matches the broader construction sequence.

The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron had been activated at F. E. Warren on December 1, 1958. The USAF Unit Histories summary states that the squadron was turned over to Strategic Air Command on March 4, 1961 and became operational on March 7, 1961.

Missile System and Technical Role

Atlas D Site 565-B supported the SM-65D Atlas, also identified in some public sources as CGM-16D. Atlas D was a first-generation, liquid-fueled, intercontinental-range ballistic missile. F. E. Warren's Atlas fact sheet states that the Atlas ICBM could deliver a nuclear warhead more than 6,300 miles from its launch site. The National Park Service gives Atlas D a range of about 5,500 miles and describes it as carrying a 1.44-megaton warhead. AtlasMissileSilo.com identifies the 565th SMS Atlas D as carrying a W-49 nuclear warhead in a General Electric Mark III reentry vehicle. Because public sources differ slightly on range, this history describes Atlas D as an intercontinental-range missile and includes the warhead and reentry-vehicle details only as public-source information.

The missile's technical character shaped every part of the site. Atlas used very thin stainless-steel balloon tanks that had to remain pressurized to keep the missile structurally stable. The National Park Service compares an unpressurized Atlas to a deflated balloon. The missile was stored horizontally in its coffin shelter and had to be erected, loaded, checked, and launched under a demanding countdown procedure.

The Atlas D at Site 565-B used ground-based radio-inertial guidance. The Association of Air Force Missileers describes Atlas D as guided by a ground-based radio-inertial system, with coffin-based missiles raised to vertical by an erector before launch and then filled with liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellant. The same source describes Atlas D combat crews as including officers and enlisted missile maintenance, guidance, power-production, and other technical personnel, with a twenty-four-hour alert cycle. This was a labor-intensive missile system. Keeping the site ready required crews, maintenance specialists, propellant technicians, munitions/reentry personnel, power-production technicians, communications support, security personnel, and routine inspections.

Atlas D was therefore both a breakthrough and a maintenance burden. Site 565-B helped put a real ICBM deterrent on alert, but the site also demonstrated why the Air Force moved quickly toward Atlas E, Atlas F, Titan, and Minuteman systems with greater hardening, better dispersal, improved guidance, or faster reaction times.

Operational History

Site 565-B's operational history was inseparable from the 565th Strategic Missile Squadron's short but important service life. AtlasMissileSilo.com states that the 565th SMS was based at F. E. Warren from 1961 through 1965, that there were three sites built around Cheyenne, and that the sites were manned twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year while the squadron was active. Site 565-B was the Carpenter complex in that three-site system.

During alert operations, the crew and supporting personnel had to keep three missiles and the associated control/guidance equipment ready for launch. The site's work included missile pressurization, power and environmental control, communications readiness, guidance readiness, inspection of launchers and facility equipment, propellant readiness, and security control. Unlike later solid-fueled Minuteman launch facilities, an Atlas D site was not simply a sealed unmanned silo waiting for a remote launch command. It was a manned, maintenance-heavy complex that required constant technical attention.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the site's most significant documented operational episode at the squadron level. All 565th sites were placed at a high level of alert during the crisis and were ready to launch the Atlas missile if necessary. The broader SAC history of the crisis describes efforts to return Atlas missiles to alert status, to obtain liquid oxygen, and to maintain readiness under crisis conditions.

The site also participated in the ordinary but important routine of Strategic Air Command missile duty. The Association of Air Force Missileers describes Atlas D dual propellant loading exercises, operational readiness inspections, daily crew inspections, and maintenance actions involving multiple specialties. Those activities are directly relevant to 565-B because the site used the same three-coffin Atlas D configuration described by that source. The daily work at Carpenter involved maintaining fragile liquid-fueled ICBMs, their reentry systems, their guidance system, and the facility equipment required to make a launch possible.

A later site-specific event occurred after the missile era. In October 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers invited the public to a town hall meeting concerning the former F. E. Warren Atlas D Missile Site 3 near Carpenter. The announcement described the site as a Formerly Used Defense Site and stated that the Corps sought to inform the community about environmental restoration activities. This public meeting is historically useful because it shows that Site 565-B remained an active public and environmental concern more than fifty years after the Atlas D mission ended.

Deactivation and Disposal

Site 565-B's active missile life ended in the rapid retirement of the Atlas D force. The USAF Unit Histories summary states that the 565th SMS had its first ICBM off alert on July 1, 1964, and that the last ICBM was shipped on August 1, 1964. The squadron was inactivated on December 1, 1964.

The available sources do not provide a site-specific equipment-removal inventory for 565-B. They do not state exactly when each launch building was stripped, when reentry-vehicle support equipment was removed, whether all guidance, power, fueling, and communications equipment was removed at the same time, or whether the launch structures were sealed, filled, demolished, or left in place during initial disposal. What can be said is that the missile mission ended by 1964, the property passed into the federal excess-property process in 1965.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives the most specific post-decommissioning property information. It states that the Site 3 property was excessed to the General Services Administration in 1965. It further states that 330 fee acres and easements over 11 acres were sold to Southern Scrap Iron and Metal Company of St. Louis, Missouri, that the property was later identified in 2015 as privately owned by Craig Johnson of Cheyenne, and that remaining easements over 404 acres were conveyed to Floyd Miller and others. Those details show that the federal government did not simply abandon the complex. It disposed of the fee land and easements through GSA, leaving former military infrastructure and environmental responsibilities on and around private land.

The most detailed post-closure history is environmental. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and EPA identify the former Carpenter site as a Formerly Used Defense Site and CERCLA cleanup location. The Corps states that during Atlas D readiness exercises, RP-1 fuel was pumped back into underground storage tanks and missile fuel tanks and lines were flushed with trichloroethene, or TCE. Waste TCE and residual RP-1 were released into drainage sumps and discharged to burnout pits, allowing TCE to migrate into groundwater. The 2016 Corps town-hall notice described the groundwater plume as approximately 7,800 feet long, 2,000 feet wide, and 180 feet thick. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's 2017 testimony described Missile Site 3 as having a TCE plume approximately 6,400 feet long and 2,400 feet wide, with concentrations ranging from 920 ppb to 21,000 ppb, and stated that the 2016 signed Decision Document selected in-situ bioremediation as the groundwater remedy. The difference between plume dimensions reflects evolving investigation and measurement, not a different missile site.

Current Status and Site Use

Atlas D Site 565-B is inactive and decommissioned. It is no longer part of F. E. Warren's active missile force, and it is not a public museum or official historic site. It should be treated as private property with no public access unless current landowner permission is obtained.

The current-status record is dominated by environmental cleanup. EPA identifies the site as WARREN F.E. AFB ATLAS "D" MISSILE SITE #3, EPA ID WY0009138938, in Laramie County, Wyoming. EPA lists it as not on the National Priorities List, with federal-facility lead cleanup activity, and gives the coordinate 41.090537, -104.511905. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers materials identify the property as a Formerly Used Defense Site and describe ongoing investigation and restoration related to TCE groundwater contamination.

Chronology

• 1957-11-21 The Department of Defense announced that F. E. Warren Air Force Base would become the nation's first ICBM base.
• 1958-12-01 The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron was activated at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.
• 1959-1961 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers states that the Site 3 property was acquired by purchase and condemnation during this period.
• 1960 Construction of the site as begins in 1960; the exact month and day are not currently verified.
• 1961 The Site was turned over to the Air Force in 1961; the exact month and day are not currently verified.
• 1961-03-04 The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron was turned over to Strategic Air Command.
• 1961-03-07 The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron became 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 565th Strategic Missile Squadron's sites were placed at a high 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.
• 1964-07-01 The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron's first ICBM was taken off alert.
• 1964-08-01 The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron's last ICBM was shipped.
• 1964-09-01 The Military Standard lists September 1, 1964 as the deactivation date for 565-B.
• 1964-12-01 The 565th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated.
• 1965 The former Atlas D Missile Site 3 property was excessed to the General Services Administration.
• 2015-04-16 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published its FUDS fact sheet for the Carpenter / Former Atlas D Missile Site 3 property.
• 2016 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a public town hall meeting regarding environmental restoration at former Atlas D Missile Site 3.
• 2016 The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality later reported that a signed Decision Document selected in-situ bioremediation as the groundwater remedy for Missile Site 3.
• 2017-03-29 Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality testimony before the U.S. Senate discussed Missile Site 3's TCE plume and long-term cleanup challenges.

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