The 564th Missile Squadron

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union ran high during the cold war. Both sides relied heavily on their nuclear weapons arsenals as deterrents to actual combat between the two superpowers. When the Soviets launched the first man-made earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957, it ushered in a new and deadlier phase to the cold war, the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) to carry nuclear warheads. The Montana missile field is a 23,500 square mile area encompasses nine Montana counties and was the largest missile field in the United States. At its height in the late twentieth century, it contained 200 Minuteman missiles under the command of the 341st Missile Wing based at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. This area was controlled by the 564th Missile Squadron. Nicknamed “Deuce,” the squadron was responsible for five Minuteman Missile alert facilities and fifty nuclear missile silos. The unit originated as the 564th Bombardment Squadron during World War II, flying B-24 “Liberators” on missions in central and southern Europe. The Air Force reactivated it as an ICBM squadron in 1965. The 564th was the first squadron in Montana to receive the new Minuteman II missiles in 1967 and had upgraded to Minuteman III ICBMs by 1975. The USAF inactivated the 341st Missile Squadron and removed the Minuteman III missiles from their silos in 2008.