Walker Air Force Base

The general the base was named for went down with a bomber crew. Kenneth Walker, born at Los Cerrillos in 1898, helped write AWPD-1, the plan for the air war against Germany, then led the Fifth Air Force's bombers in the Pacific. On January 5, 1943, he rode the lead B-17 on a daylight raid on Rabaul; it was last seen leaving the target with an engine afire and fighters behind it, and its eleven men were listed missing. He received the Medal of Honor. The other record jump the panel leaves unnamed was Felix Baumgartner's, in October 2012.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Walker Air Force Base 1941-1967 Roswell Army Air Field was established in 1941 and renamed after New Mexico native Brig. Gen. Kenneth Walker in 1948. Once the Strategic Air Command's largest base, its bomber fleet and Atlas missiles were key deterrents during the early years of the Cold War. WAFB closed in 1967 and became the Roswell International Air Center, home to public and private entities. Two world record free-fall parachute jumps took place here, including Alan Eustace's 135,890-foot descent, which reached a speed of 822 miles per hour, in 2014.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• International UFO Museum and Research Center — 4.5 mi
  A 1930s movie theater on Roswell's Main Street turned into a museum by two men who had been part of the 1947 story, one of them the officer who announced the flying disc.
• Bottomless Lakes State Park — 10 mi
  Nine sinkhole lakes under red bluffs east of Roswell, named by vaqueros whose ropes never touched bottom, and set aside in 1933 as New Mexico's first state park.

More markers nearby

• Roswell — 1.7 mi
• Roswell — 4.7 mi
• Roswell Pioneer Plaza — 4.7 mi
• Roswell Prisoner of War Camp — 6.0 mi