13th Strategic Missile Division
564th Strategic Missile Squadron Convair SM-65D Atlas[1]
Active	1940–1966
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Strategic Missile Command and Control
Engagements	World War II EAME Theater
Insignia
13th Strategic Missile Division emblem(approved 4 January 1961)[2]

The13th Strategic Missile Division is an inactiveUnited States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was withFifteenth Air Force, based atFrancis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. It was inactivated on 2 July 1966.

Initially formed in 1940 as an air defense formation in the Caribbean, it later commandedBoeing B-17 Flying Fortress groups ofEighth Air Force in the United Kingdom. Its units carried out strategic bombardment missions over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. During theCold War, the division controlling early ICBM wings of Strategic Air Command in the Midwest.

The unit was initially organized atLangley Field, Virginia, as the13th Composite Wing in October 1940.^[3] It was assigned to the newCaribbean Air Force as a command organization for units in the Caribbean.^[4]

Assigned toBorinquen Field, Puerto Rico, its mission was to provide an air strike force for the defense ofPuerto Rico and theU.S. Virgin Islands. During the period 1940 to 1942, the wing controlled 21Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers and 92 assorted fighters in about a dozen groups and squadrons. On 17 April 1942, the wing was inactivated, and its mission was taken over by theVI Interceptor Command, Antilles Air Task Force.^[4]

The organization was reactivated as the13th Bombardment Wing in October 1942 atMacDill Field, Florida underThird Air Force. It was one of three bombardment wing headquarters (12th, 13th,14th) which were formed at MacDill for deployment toEighth Air Force in England.^[3] The 13th deployed in June 1943. There, it controlled the95th,100th and390th Bombardment Groups under the3d Bombardment Division, flyingBoeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.^[3] Controlling the combat operations of the groups, it carried out strategic bombing of enemy aircraft, petroleum, and ball bearing industries as well as German airfields. Later, organizational units took part in the famous raid against the ball bearing industry at Schweinfurt in October 1943 and followed with missions against shipyards and shipbuilding installations atWilhelmshaven andBremen.^[3][5] With the end of the war in Europe, it returned to the United States and was inactivated on 17 October 1945.^[3]

The wing was redesignated as the13th Air Division and then activated underStrategic Air Command (SAC) in July 1959. The 13th was one of SAC's first strategic missile command organizations, initially being assigned the703d and706th Strategic Missile Wings at Lowry AFB, Colorado with the newSM-68 Titan I ICBM.^[6] However, these wings never became operational;^[7] instead the division became anSM-65 Atlas organization, controlling the389th and451st Strategic Missile Wings.^[8] In 1963, it assumed command of the90th Strategic Missile Wing with the newLGM-30A Minuteman I.^[3]

In 1965, the first-generation Atlasintercontinental ballistic missile was taken off alert and its subordinate wings were inactivated.^[8] It was briefly assigned some KC-135A Tankers and EC-135 electronic intelligence aircraft after the98th Bombardment Wing was inactivated atLincoln Air Force Base, Nebraska afterwards, however the13th Strategic Missile Division was itself inactivated in July 1966, its mission being taken over by the821st Strategic Aerospace Division in a SAC reorganization.^[2][9]

• Established as the13th Composite Wing on 2 October 1940

Activated on 10 October 1940

Inactivated on 17 April 1942

• Redesignated:13th Bombardment Wing on 23 August 1942

Activated on 1 October 1942

Redesignated13th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) on 1 February 1943

Redesignated13th Combat Bombardment Wing (Heavy) on 30 August 1943

Redesignated13th Combat Bombardment Wing, Heavy on 24 August 1944

Redesignated13th Bombardment Wing, Heavy on 18 June 1945

Redesignated13th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy on 17 August 1945

Inactivated on 17 October 1945

• Redesignated13th Air Division on 20 May 1959

Activated on 1 July 1959

Redesignated13th Strategic Missile Division on 1 January 1963

Discontinued and inactivated, on 2 July 1966^[2]

Light blue, issuant from base a sphere light green with land areas vert, grid lined azure, the sinister quarter of the last with grid lines of the field, above the sphere in chief an olive branch arched fesswise or, overall an aircraft and a missile bendwise each trailing speedlines of the like and all within a diminished border of the last.^[2]

 This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Freeman, Roger A. (1970).The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (A History of the US 8th Army Air Force). London, England, UK: Macdonald and Company.ISBN 978-0-87938-638-2.
• Hagedorn, Dan (1995).Alae Supra Canalem: Wings Over the Canal. New York, NY: Turner Publishing Co.ISBN 978-1563111532.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961].Air Force Combat Units of World War II(PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.ISBN 0-912799-02-1.LCCN 61060979. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 20 December 2016.
• Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984).Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947–1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.ISBN 0-912799-12-9.
• Walker, Chuck & Powell, Joel (2005).Atlas The Ultimate Weapon. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Apogee Books.ISBN 1-894959-18-3.

• Air divisions of the United States Air Force
• 1940 establishments in Virginia
• 1966 disestablishments in Wyoming

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