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.

Enough construction was completed for the base and airfield to be activated and assigned to the United States Army Air Corps Training Command on 20 September 1941.

Then, on 12 September 1944, HQ AAF directed Training Command to establish B-29 schools for the transition of crews consisting of pilots, copilots, and flight engineers.

The practice bombing and gunnery ranges were due south of the air field and on Matagorda Island along the Texas Gulf coast.

The Spring River, which passes through downtown Roswell, was lined with concrete and stones using POW labor.

With demobilization in full swing in late 1945, much juggling of units was being performed by the Army Air Forces.

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.

In May 1946, the Army Air Forces gave the newly formed SAC the responsibility of delivering the atomic bomb.

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.

When the huge Convair B-36 Peacemaker joined the Air Force inventory, the "Very Heavy" designation was dropped.

The 33rd Fighter Group was assigned to Roswell on 25 August 1947, being transferred from Bad Kissingen AB, West Germany after a year of occupation duty.

The 6th, along with the 509th Bombardment Wing at Walker formed the SAC 47th Air Division until June 1958 with the reassignment of the 509th to Pease AFB.

The B-36D was the first major production model of the bomber, being equipped with two pairs of General Electric J47-GE-19 turbojets in pods underneath the outer wings to assist the six R-4360-41 piston engines.

The 6th conducted strategic bombardment training with the aircraft, being deployed at Andersen AFB, Guam from October 1955 to January 1956.

To provide air defense of the base, United States Army Nike Hercules Surface-to-air missile sites were constructed during 1959 near Roswell (W-10) 33°26′10″N 104°20′06″W / 33.43611°N 104.33500°W / 33.43611; -104.33500 and Hagerman (W-50) 33°07′35″N 104°32′38″W / 33.12639°N 104.54389°W / 33.12639; -104.54389, New Mexico.

The 6th Air Refueling Squadron, flying early-model KC-135A aircraft, was assigned to Walker AFB from 3 January 1958.

It flew KC-135A aircraft until the base was closed and the unit was moved to Plattsburgh AFB, NY on 25 January 1967.

In April 1962, a completed liquid oxygen plant built at Walker AFB was turned over to the Air Force.

Walker AFB was selected to be part of the planned deployment by Air Defense Command of forty-four mobile radar stations across the United States to support the permanent Radar network established during the Cold War for air defense of the United States.

The 120th AC&W Squadron consisted of members of the federalized Arkansas Air National Guard, called to active duty during the Korean War.

As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes.

A more permanent facility at Walker was operational, with the 686th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron activated on 1 October 1953, replacing the federalized ANG unit which was inactivated.

Today the cantonment area is still extant, now used by the physical plant crew of the Eastern New Mexico University – Roswell (ENMU-R).

The radar site at Walker is decrepit and abandoned, with refuse around buildings and the concrete road badly cracked and deteriorated.

This was during a round of stateside base closings and consolidations as the Defense Department struggled to pay the expenses of the Vietnam War within the budgetary limits set by Congress.

* Missile explosion destroyed site This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency