Atlas F Site 579-10 Missile Silo, Roswell / Highway 380 West New Mexico

Atlas F Site 579-10 sat west of Roswell, close enough to the city to belong to the Walker missile ring but far enough out on the U.S. Highway 70/380 corridor to feel like a hidden Cold War machine in open desert. Its short missile career lasted only a few years, but the paper trail it left behind is unusually clear: Site 10 can be followed from emergency Atlas construction, to armed Strategic Air Command alert, to the 1965 Atlas phaseout, to federal land disposal, to environmental investigation, cleanup, and an EPA/New Mexico/Corps of Engineers Ready for Reuse determination.

Atlas F Site 579-10 was an SM-65F Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile launch complex assigned to Walker Air Force Base near Roswell, New Mexico. It belonged to the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron, under the 6th Bombardment Wing, later the 6th Strategic Aerospace Wing. The site code was 579-10. Its missile system was the SM-65F Atlas, the final operational Atlas ICBM variant and the model deployed in hardened vertical silo-lift launch complexes.

Because Site 579-10 was an Atlas F complex, it did not have a separate Minuteman-style remote parent Launch Control Center. An Atlas F launch complex contained its own launch control center on site, connected to the missile silo by an underground tunnel.

EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that construction of the missile launching facility was completed in November 1961. The site is no longer active as a military installation. It is a decommissioned former Atlas F launch complex, former federal property, private/no-public-access property, and a former FUDS/DERP environmental site whose surface property received a Ready for Reuse determination on 2009-09-16.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Site 579-10 occupied the western side of the Walker Atlas missile field. EPA placed it in west-central Chaves County, about 18 miles west of Roswell along U.S. Highway 70/380. The 1962 Walker Atlas F tour bulletin's vicinity plan also placed Site 10 among the more distant Walker launch facilities, listing it roughly 42.2 miles from Walker Air Force Base and 36.1 miles from the reference crossroads used in the bulletin. This was not a city installation. It was a deliberately separated missile complex in a dry, open New Mexico landscape of desert scrub, ranchland, low rises, and long highway distances.

That landscape mattered. The twelve Walker Atlas F launch complexes were dispersed around Roswell so that no single attack could destroy the entire squadron. Walker Air Force Base provided headquarters, aircraft and missile support, maintenance, security, transportation, supply, communications, and weapons-support infrastructure, but the missiles themselves were pushed outward into individual hardened complexes. Site 579-10 helped extend the Walker missile ring to the west, away from the base and away from the Pecos Valley sites southeast of Roswell.

The physical Atlas F complex was much more substantial than a simple underground tube. A 1962 Walker Atlas F tour bulletin described the standard Walker launching facility as consisting of a launching silo, a launch control center, and an underground connecting tunnel. The silo had an inside radius of 26 feet, 1 inch, meaning an inside diameter of roughly 52 feet, 2 inches, and extended about 178 feet deep. The launch control center had a 40-foot inside diameter. The silo walls were 2 feet, 6 inches thick near the upper section and flared to a total wall thickness of 9 feet lower down. The missile and associated equipment were carried in a steel crib suspended from shock mounts inside the silo, and the launch control center used suspended floors for equipment and crew spaces. These features reflected the Atlas F requirement for blast resistance, shock isolation, and survivable launch control.

Above ground, Site 579-10 would have included the elements typical of an Atlas F launch complex: access road, security fencing, surface entries, ventilation and utility features, antennas or communications-related equipment, parking and hardstand areas, power and support structures, and the large silo-door area above the launcher. Satellite images of the former complex footprint shows the surviving disturbed pad and fenced central feature in an arid setting, with rectangular surface scars and access traces that reflect the site's former military-engineering layout.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Site 579-10 existed because the early Cold War demanded a missile force that could reach intercontinental targets and survive long enough to be credible. Atlas was the Air Force's first operational intercontinental ballistic missile family. It was a first-generation system, and its engineering showed both the urgency and the limits of the period. Atlas used a pressure-stabilized stainless-steel airframe that had to remain pressurized to avoid structural collapse. The missile used RP-1 kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer, a combination that made the missile powerful but operationally demanding. Compared with later solid-fueled Minuteman missiles, Atlas required far more hands-on maintenance, more careful propellant handling, and a more elaborate countdown.

The Atlas F was the most advanced operational Atlas variant. Unlike Atlas D gantry and coffin-launcher arrangements and Atlas E semi-hardened coffin sites, Atlas F was stored vertically underground in a hardened silo-lift complex. The National Park Service summarizes Atlas F as an 82-foot missile held in a blast-proof silo-lift configuration and capable of launch in approximately ten minutes. Seventy-two Atlas F missiles were deployed at six bases, including twelve at Walker Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Site 579-10 was therefore not a local defense site for Roswell. It was part of a national nuclear deterrent. Its rural location, hardened silo, buried launch control center, communications systems, security perimeter, and separation from the other eleven Walker sites all served the same strategic goal: dispersal and survivability. The site existed to make the Walker Atlas force harder to destroy and to give Strategic Air Command another launch complex capable of supporting a retaliatory strike if ordered by national command authority.

The phrase "operational launch-ready alert posture" requires careful explanation for Atlas F. It did not mean that the missile was continuously raised above ground. It also did not mean that the missile was continuously loaded with liquid oxygen. In normal alert conditions, the Atlas F sat vertically underground on its elevator launcher. RP-1 fuel was kept aboard. The missile and facility were maintained in readiness, and the missile's pressurization, electrical, propellant, environmental, communications, and safety systems had to be monitored. Launch crews, maintenance teams, and security forces supported the site through the squadron structure. Liquid oxygen would be loaded as part of the launch sequence. The silo doors would open, the launcher would raise the missile, and the crew could top off liquid oxygen during a short hold before the final launch command. During a crisis, readiness meant that crews, communications, propellant systems, facility systems, security, and missile hardware were brought to the highest practical state of serviceability within the limits of the Atlas F design. It did not mean a continuously exposed or continuously LOX-loaded missile waiting above the silo.

Construction and Activation

The Walker Atlas F missile field was built at national-emergency speed. A 1962 Army Corps of Engineers tour bulletin stated that the decision to build Atlas launching facilities in the Roswell area was reached in early January 1960. The Albuquerque District Office was asked to conduct soil investigations to determine whether local geology would support the proposed installations. Spencer J. Buchanan Company and Gordon Herkenhoff & Associates performed those investigations, and the results were favorable.

Design began in early March 1960. The project was advertised for bids on 1960-05-16, bids were opened on 1960-06-15, and the construction contract was awarded on 1960-06-16. The $22,125,828 contract went to a joint venture of Macco Corporation, Raymond International, Inc., The Kaiser Company, and Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company. Notice to proceed followed on 1960-06-20, and work began on 1960-06-23. The Corps' Roswell Area Office, activated on 1960-05-15, supervised the missile construction effort as the Air Force's construction agent.

Site 579-10 was built under this program as Corps of Engineers Construction Site Number 7. EPA later reported that the Department of Defense acquired 390.51 acres of property in 1960 and that construction of the missile launching facility was completed in November 1961.

The Corps tour bulletin gives a rare glimpse of what this construction meant at the individual-site level. Open-cut excavation first created a mass excavation approximately 38 feet deep, large enough to construct the silo, launch control center, work space, and access ramp. The silo shaft then went down to approximately 178 feet below the original ground surface. Crews drilled and blasted the shaft, removed broken material by cranes, clam buckets, muck buckets, and trucks, and installed containment using wire mesh, gunite, steel ring beams, and lagging where water seepage required it.

The concrete work was enormous. The Corps estimated that roughly 48,000 cubic yards of material were removed by open-cut excavation and another 24,000 cubic yards by silo shafting, for about 72,000 cubic yards of excavation per site. Approximately 6,000 cubic yards of concrete were placed per site. The steel crib alone weighed about 600 tons; when the crib, fueling vessels, motor generators, propellant-loading skids, and other equipment were suspended and balanced, the suspended system weighed about 1,800,000 pounds. The construction process was also unusually demanding because the propellant-loading system had to meet strict cleanliness requirements. The Corps bulletin warned that foreign material, especially hydrocarbons, could cause violent explosion and interfere with facility function.

Missile System and Technical Role

Site 579-10 was built for the SM-65F Atlas. The Atlas F was a liquid-fueled, first-generation ICBM. It used RP-1 kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer, and it carried a General Electric/AVCO Mark 4 reentry vehicle with a W-38 thermonuclear warhead. Public museum and historical sources describe the Mark 4 RV as used on Atlas E/F and Titan I missiles and carrying a W-38 warhead with a yield of about 3.75 megatons;

The missile assigned to Site 579-10 was Atlas 85F. Its General Dynamics missile serial number was 61-2571, its Air Force missile tail number was 571, its acceptance date was 1962-06-18, and its delivery date was 1962-06-26. The missile was assigned to the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron at Walker Air Force Base and to Site 10.

The Atlas F complex was designed so that the missile remained vertical underground. During alert, the missile sat in the silo-lift launcher, protected by massive overhead doors. When ordered through a valid launch sequence, the missile would be loaded with liquid oxygen, raised to the surface, locked into launch position, and fired. The launch control center was inside the same complex, connected to the silo by the underground tunnel. Unlike later Minuteman launch facilities, Site 579-10 was not an unmanned silo controlled only from a remote launch control center. Atlas F sites had on-site launch control and facility equipment, while the squadron and parent base supplied the crews, maintenance, security, logistics, and command structure that kept the site on alert.

Operational History

The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was activated as a missile unit on 1961-03-14 and organized at Walker Air Force Base on 1961-09-01. The unit history places the squadron under Strategic Air Command and assigns it to the 6th Bombardment Wing, later the 6th Strategic Aerospace Wing. The squadron's weapon system was the SM-65F Atlas from 1962 to 1965. Its operations documentation records turnover to SAC and operational status on 1962-11-30, although another narrative line in the same compilation says the squadron became fully operational on 1962-06-30 and during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Site 579-10's daily operational life was defined by readiness rather than launch. Crews had to monitor and maintain a liquid-fueled missile, a deep underground launcher, a hardened launch control center, power systems, propellant systems, communications, security systems, environmental-control equipment, and strict safety procedures. The site was part of a larger missile field whose facilities were manned and supported continuously while the squadron was active. The work was repetitive, technical, and unforgiving. Atlas F's liquid oxygen, high-pressure systems, RP-1 fuel, missile pressurization needs, and propellant-loading equipment made readiness a constant engineering and safety problem.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October-November 1962, the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron's operational sites were held at a high level of alert. For Site 579-10, the individual site-level evidence is not precise enough to say exactly what occurred at the complex on each day of the crisis, but the squadron history states that operational 579th sites were ready to launch if necessary. That should be understood in the Atlas F sense: the site and missile were maintained for launch readiness, not left continuously raised or continuously loaded with liquid oxygen.

The Walker Atlas F field also had a troubled operational record. Three of the twelve Walker sites were lost to explosions: Site 579-1 on 1963-06-01, Site 579-5 on 1964-02-13, and Site 579-2 on 1964-03-09. Those were sister-site events, not Site 579-10 events, but they shaped the operating environment for every 579th Strategic Missile Squadron crew. They demonstrated the hazards of first-generation liquid-fueled missile operations, especially in deep hardened complexes whose propellant and pressurization systems demanded exact procedures and constant discipline.

Deactivation and Disposal

The Atlas F system had barely reached full maturity before it became obsolete. Solid-fueled Minuteman missiles could remain on alert with far less propellant-handling burden and a faster, simpler launch cycle. Polaris added a sea-based solid-fueled deterrent. On 1964-11-18, the Defense Department announced that remaining first-generation ICBMs, including Atlas and Titan I, would be phased out by the end of June 1965. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron began coming off alert shortly afterward. The squadron's first ICBM was taken off alert on 1965-01-05, its last ICBM came off alert on 1965-02-04, and the last ICBM was shipped on 1965-02-09. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated on 1965-03-25.

EPA's Ready for Reuse determination provides unusually specific disposal details for Site 10. It states that DOD announced in May 1964 that the Atlas F missile program would be phased out. In July 1965, Site 10 was declared excess to the General Services Administration. In January 1967, 300.91 acres were returned to the Bureau of Land Management by Public Land Order 4137. In April 1968, GSA conveyed the remaining 89.60 acres in fee simple to Robert G. Wolfson. EPA identified the current owner in 2009 as Mr. Keary A. Olson.

Current Status and Site Use

Site 579-10 is a decommissioned former Atlas F launch complex on private/no-public-access property west of Roswell, New Mexico. The surface property has been through a formal environmental review, cleanup where needed, and Ready for Reuse determination for current and anticipated future use. The site remains a former missile and industrial facility, and the coordinates identify the actual former launch-complex area, not a public visitor destination.

The former launch complex should be treated as private property and a potentially hazardous former military-industrial site. Former Atlas F complexes can include deep underground structures, confined spaces, water hazards, deteriorated concrete and metal, hidden openings, and environmental-remediation areas. No public access was identified in the reviewed sources. Any visit would require explicit landowner permission and appropriate safety controls.

Chronology

• 1960-01 The decision to build Atlas launching facilities in the Walker/Roswell area was reached, and the Albuquerque District was asked to perform soil investigations.
• 1960-03 Design work for the Walker Atlas launching facilities began after favorable soil investigations.
• 1960-05-16 The Walker Atlas F construction project was advertised for bids.
• 1960-06-15 Bids for the Walker Atlas F construction project were opened.
• 1960-06-16 A $22,125,828 construction contract was awarded to the joint venture of Macco Corporation, Raymond International, Inc., The Kaiser Company, and Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company.
• 1960-06-20 Notice to proceed was issued for the Walker Atlas F construction project.
• 1960-06-23 Work began on the Walker Atlas F launching facilities.
• 1960 EPA later reported that DOD acquired 390.51 acres of property for Site 10.
• 1961-09-01 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was organized at Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico.
• 1961-11 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that construction of the Site 10 missile launching facility was completed in November 1961.
• 1962-06-18 Missile 85F, serial number 61-2571 and Air Force tail number 571, associated with Site 579-10, was accepted.
• 1962-06-26 Missile 85F / tail number 571 was delivered.
• 1962-10 During the Cuban Missile Crisis, operational 579th Strategic Missile Squadron sites were held at a high level of alert; for Atlas F, this did not mean a continuously raised or continuously liquid-oxygen-loaded missile.
• 1962-11-30 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron history records turnover to Strategic Air Command and operational status on this date.
• 1963-06-01 Walker Atlas F Site 579-1 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-10 event.
• 1964-02-13 Walker Atlas F Site 579-5 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-10 event.
• 1964-03-09 Walker Atlas F Site 579-2 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-10 event.
• 1964-05 EPA later reported that DOD announced in May 1964 that the Atlas F missile program was to be phased out.
• 1964-11-18 The Defense Department announced accelerated phaseout of liquid-fueled missiles, including the remaining Atlas force, because of the increased reliability of solid-fueled systems.
• 1965-01-05 The first 579th Strategic Missile Squadron ICBM was taken off alert.
• 1965-02-04 The last 579th Strategic Missile Squadron ICBM was taken off alert.
• 1965-02-09 The last 579th Strategic Missile Squadron ICBM was shipped.
• 1965-03-25 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated.
• 1965-07 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that Site 10 was declared excess to the General Services Administration in July 1965.
• 1967-01 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that 300.91 acres were returned to the Bureau of Land Management by Public Land Order 4137 in January 1967.
• 1968-04 EPA's Ready for Reuse determination states that GSA conveyed the remaining 89.60 acres in fee simple to Robert G. Wolfson in April 1968.
• 1971-04-05 Missile 85F / tail number 571, formerly associated with Site 579-10, launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base's A-1 gantry on an ABRES LAR-1 low-angle reentry mission.
• 2006 HydroGeoLogic, Inc. prepared a Draft Final Preliminary Assessment Report for Former Walker Air Force Base Atlas F Missile Silo 10, Chaves County, New Mexico, Property No. K06NM0488.
• 2008-05 Shaw Environmental completed a Site Inspection of Silo Site 10 under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program.
• 2008-09 NMED and USACE issued a Finding of No Defense Action Indicated for Site 10.
• 2009-09-16 EPA Region 6, NMED, and USACE issued a Ready for Reuse determination and certificate for the former Atlas Missile Silo Site 10 surface property.
• 2015-09-30 The USACE FUDS inventory listed WAFB FAC SITE #10 / K06NM0488 in Chaves County, New Mexico, with Site 02 HTRW.
• 2021 Defense Environmental Restoration Program reporting listed WAFB FAC SITE #10 / NM69799F628300 among properties achieving final response complete before fiscal year 2021.

Read about the Atlas at Walker AFB

All Atlas Missile Silo Locations