page_title: Walker Air Force Base
section_title: Strategic Air Command
hierarchical_section_title: Walker Air Force Base / History / Strategic Air Command
caption_attribution_description: Emblem of the 509th Bomb Wing, a wing of the United States Air Force
context_page_description: Walker Air Force Base is a closed United States Air Force base located three miles south of the central business district of Roswell, New Mexico. It was opened in 1941 as an Army Air Corps flying school and was active during World War II and the postwar era as Roswell Army Air Field. During the early years of the Cold War, it became the largest base of the Strategic Air Command. It is also known for the Roswell UFO incident, an event that occurred on 4 July 1947. It is alleged that a "flying disc" crashed during a severe thunderstorm near the base at Corona, New Mexico.
  Walker AFB was named after General Kenneth Newton Walker, a native of Los Cerrillos, New Mexico who was killed during a bombing mission over Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea on 5 January 1943. His group scored direct hits on nine Japanese ships before being intercepted by enemy fighters. Walker was last seen leaving the target area with one engine on fire and several fighters on his tail, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943. The base was renamed in his honor on 13 January 1948.
context_section_description: The 509th Composite Group returned from its wartime base on Tinian and relocated to Roswell on 6 November 1945, initially being assigned to Second Air Force under Continental Air Forces.  With demobilization in full swing in late 1945, much juggling of units was being performed by the Army Air Forces.   It was reassigned to the 58th Bombardment Wing at Fort Worth Army Airfield on 17 January 1946.  The 509th was assigned to Strategic Air Command on 21 March 1946, being one of the first eleven organizations assigned to SAC.
  In April 1946 many of the group's Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft deployed to Kwajalein as part of Operation Crossroads, a series of atomic bomb tests. The remainder became the core of two new squadrons activated as part of the group, the 715th Bomb Squadron and the 830th Bomb Squadron. In May 1946, the Army Air Forces gave the newly formed SAC the responsibility of delivering the atomic bomb. Only the 509th was trained and ready for the atomic bomb mission.
  Squadrons assigned to the 509th were:
  393d Bombardment Squadron
  715th Bombardment Squadron
  830th Bombardment Squadron
  On 10 July 1946, the group was renamed the 509th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy). With the creation of the United States Air Force as a separate service, the group became the combat component of the 509th Bombardment Wing on 17 November 1947, although it was not operational until 14 September 1948, when Colonel John D. Ryan was named commander.
  The wing pioneered a new concept on 30 June 1948, when the 509th Air Refueling Squadron was activated as part of the 509th BW, along with the 43rd ARS at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, the first such units ever created. With the addition of KB-29M tankers, the 509th's bombers could reach virtually any point on Earth. In June 1950, it began receiving the upgraded version of the B-29, the Boeing B-50A Superfortress.  When the huge Convair B-36 Peacemaker joined the Air Force inventory, the "Very Heavy" designation was dropped. The 509th – like all other B-29 and B-50 wings – was redesignated "Medium."
  In January 1954, the Boeing KC-97 aerial tanker replaced the aging KB-29Ms, and the wing entered the jet age in June 1955 when it received the first all-jet bomber: the Boeing B-47 Stratojet. On 16 June 1958 the 509th Bombardment Wing was transferred to Pease AFB, New Hampshire.
  The 468th Bombardment Group arrived at Roswell on 12 January 1946 from West Field, Tinian. At Roswell the group exchanged aircraft and equipment with the 509th, with the lowest-hour and most reliable B-29 aircraft being transferred then being sent to Carswell Air Force Base, Texas for modification to Silverplate (Atomic Bomb-Capable) specifications. The balance of the aircraft were sent to storage at Davis-Monthan AFB Arizona or Pyote Army Airfield Texas. The group was inactivated on 31 March 1946.
caption: Emblem of the 509th Bombardment Wing
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