Summary History of Walker AFB

The Roswell Army Air Field support of the WWII effort 1941-1945

• In 1941 the United States decided it needed 30,000 more pilots.
• Roswell was selected as an advanced pilot training (multi-engine) base and a bombardier training base.
• Local rancher David Chesser sold 4,624 acres to the U.S. Army Air Corps to become the Roswell Army Air Field.
• Construction started in Feb 1942.
• Between 1942 and 1945 about 14,000 students graduated from the pilot and bombardier school at the Roswell Army Air Field.
• The two engine AT-11 Kansan Beechcraft was the primary training aircraft used at the Roswell Army Air Field. By the end of the WWII there were a total of 7 advanced flying training squadrons.
• The AT-11 was also used by a total of 5 bombardier training squadrons by the end of the war. They trained with the Norden Bomb Sites.
• There were 8,616 personnel assigned to the Roswell Army Air Field during the peak activity period in WWII.

Walker Air Force Base support of the COLD WAR

• After dropping the two atomic bombs and the end of WWII, the 509th was assigned to the Roswell Army Airfield
• In April 1946 several of the 509th Composite Group B-29s were deployed to Kwajalein as part of Operation Crossroads which was a series of atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.
• Starting in May 1946 the 393rd, 715th and 830th Bombardment Squadrons in the 509th, assigned to the Roswell Army Air Field, were the only atomic bomb mission ready squadrons in Strategic Air Command.
• In September 1947 the U.S. Army Air Corp became the USAF.
• In January 13, 1948 the Roswell Army Air Field became Walker Air Force Base.
• BGen Kenneth N. Walker was a native of Los Cerrillos, NM, (located halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and about 10 miles south of interstate 25). He was killed on a bombing mission over Papua New Guinea on 5 Jan 1943. Significantly, he along with about 3 other officers developed the strategic bombing warfare plans on defeating Germany prior to the US entering WWII. After going missing in action he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt.
• On 30 June 1948, the 509th Air Refueling Squadron was activated. Using the KB-29M tankers, the 509th’s bombers could reach virtually any target on earth.
• During the early years of the Cold War, to include the 16-28 October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Walker Air Force Base was SAC’s premier atomic weapon base which included the 12 atomic bomb tipped Atlas F intercontinental ballistic missiles surrounding Roswell as well as large numbers of long range B-52 bombers and their KC-135 refueling support aircraft.
• The 579th Missile Squadron was inactivated in March 1965.
• Walker was the home of numerous Bomber aircraft:
  Bomber aircraft: B-29, B-50A, B-36 (1952-58), B-47 (1955-58), B-52 (1957- closure)
  Tanker aircraft: KB-29M, KC-97, KC-135.
• Congress selected Walker Air Force Base for closure on June 30, 1967 after 26 years of service to the nation, the Air Force and the community of Roswell.