The site was used for several years to launch stratospheric balloons for Air Force projects. It is alleged that a "flying disk" crashed during a severe thunderstorm near RIAC at Corona, New Mexico. ROW is also known for the Roswell UFO incident, an event that allegedly occurred on July 4, 1947. This was during a round of base closings and consolidations as the Defense Department struggled to pay the expenses of the Vietnam War within the budgetary limits set by Congress. In 1966 the Air Force announced that Walker AFB would close. The base was renamed in his honor on January 13, 1948. For his actions, General Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously by President Franklin D. General Walker was last seen leaving the target area with one engine on fire and several fighters on his tail. Though intercepted by enemy fighters, his group scored direct hits on nine Japanese ships. He was killed during a bombing mission over Rabaul, Papua New Guinea on January 5, 1943. Walker AFB was named after General Kenneth Newton Walker, a native of Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Roswell International Air Center (then RIAC) was developed after the closure of Walker Air Force Base on June 30, 1967. When it closed, the 4,600 acre base was the largest of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. The airport was Roswell Army International Airfield during World War II and Walker Air Force Base during the Cold War. The Roswell Air Center is located five miles south of the central business district of the city and is the core of southeastern New Mexico’s industrial activity.
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