Atlas F Site 579-12 Missile Silo, Roswell / Highway 285 North New Mexico

Atlas F Site 579-12 was the northernmost Walker Atlas F site, a buried launch complex placed along the Highway 285 North corridor where the Roswell missile ring thinned into open Chaves County country. If the earlier Walker sites tell the story of accidents, training, and short-lived readiness, Site 12 tells a different but equally useful story: a complete Atlas F complex, a missile known by manufacturing number and Air Force tail number, an unusually clear environmental-reuse record, and a surface parcel whose federal, private, and cleanup history can still be traced decades after the missile left.

Atlas F Site 579-12 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. 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.

The site was located in Chaves County, New Mexico, north of Roswell along U.S. Highway 285. The Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 Ready for Reuse determination describes the site as being in west-central Chaves County, approximately 18 miles north of Roswell along U.S. Highway 285.

Because Site 579-12 was an Atlas F complex, it did not have a separate Minuteman-style remote parent Launch Control Center. Atlas F launch complexes contained their own launch control center on site, connected to the missile silo by an underground tunnel.

The assigned missile as General Dynamics Manufacturing Number 74F, General Dynamics Missile Serial Number 61-2560, and Air Force Missile Tail Number 560. The missile was accepted on 1962-03-30 and delivered on 1962-04-24. After the Walker Atlas force was deactivated, this same missile later flew from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 1971-09-01 as part of an ABRES low-angle reentry-vehicle test mission.

The exact individual Air Force turnover date for Site 579-12 was not located. The EPA Ready for Reuse determination states that construction began in 1960 and was completed in November 1961, but the Walker Atlas F tour bulletin from March 1962 still describes installation and checkout work as the construction phase passed into the next phase of bringing missile equipment into the complex. The site is no longer active as a military installation.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 former missile site, and a FUDS/DERP environmental-restoration property that received an EPA/NMED/USACE Ready for Reuse determination in 2009.

Location, Landscape, and Site Description

Site 579-12 stood north of Roswell, near the U.S. Highway 285 North corridor. The EPA Ready for Reuse determination places it approximately 18 miles north of Roswell. The 1962 Walker Atlas F site-tour bulletin included a vicinity table that placed Site 12 about 32.9 miles from Walker Air Force Base and about 26.8 miles from the highway crossroads used as a reference point in the bulletin. The result was a deliberately remote launch complex that was close enough to Walker AFB for support, but far enough away to serve the Cold War logic of dispersal.

The physical landscape was open, dry, and rural. The site sat in the Chaves County desert rather than inside the main air base fence. The surrounding terrain consisted of sparse vegetation, arroyos and drainage features, long sight lines, and the road geometry typical of ranch and rural utility access. Site 12's northern position gave it a different feel from the Hagerman or Lake Arthur sites in the southern part of the field, but the military logic was the same: put each missile in its own hardened complex, separate the complexes by miles, and make it harder for a single attack to destroy the entire squadron.

The surface remains shown in satellite images match the expected Atlas F footprint. They show the former central complex, access-road traces, the disturbed former fenced compound area, rectangular pads or cleared areas, and a recognizable silo-related feature. The visible surface pattern was only the lid over a much larger buried machine.

The standard Walker Atlas F launch complex consisted of a launching silo, a launch control center, and an underground tunnel connecting the two. The 1962 Corps of Engineers information bulletin described the launching silo as having a 26-foot, 1-inch inside radius and a depth of 178 feet. That produced an inside diameter of about 52 feet, 2 inches. The launch control center had a 40-foot inside diameter. The silo walls were 2 feet, 6 inches thick in the upper section and flared lower down to a total wall thickness of 9 feet; the LCC also used heavy concrete walls, floor, and roof. Inside the silo, a steel crib carried the missile and associated systems on shock mounts. Inside the LCC, two suspended floors held equipment and crew spaces. The design made the complex a deeply buried, hardened, self-contained launch facility rather than a simple storage pit.

Above ground, Site 579-12 would have included the surface features typical of a Walker Atlas F site: access road, security fence, surface entries, ventilation and utility openings, antenna or communications features, parking and hardstand areas, power and support equipment, and the heavy silo-door area above the launcher. EPA reuse documentation refers to former source areas including an underground storage tank area, septic leachfield, soil sump outfall, and standing water in the silo, confirming the ordinary industrial support features expected at a former missile facility. The site was not simply a missile hole. It was a compact military-industrial installation designed to house people, power, propellants, communications, environmental systems, and a strategic missile in one hardened complex.

Strategic and Cold War Context

Site 579-12 existed because the early Cold War demanded intercontinental nuclear reach before solid-fueled missile technology had fully matured. Atlas was the United States Air Force's first operational intercontinental ballistic missile family. It represented a technical achievement and an operational compromise at the same time. The missile could reach across continents, but it required liquid oxygen, RP-1 fuel, careful pressurization, extensive maintenance, and a complicated launch sequence.

The National Park Service describes Atlas as the Air Force's first operational ICBM and notes that Atlas sites reached a peak of 132 operational sites from December 1962 through May 1964 before the system was phased out in favor of Minuteman and Titan. Atlas F was the most advanced operational Atlas variant. It was 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 in the field: twelve each at Schilling, Lincoln, Altus, Dyess, Walker, and Plattsburgh Air Force Bases.

The Atlas F design was a direct answer to vulnerability. Earlier Atlas variants were stored in aboveground gantries or horizontal coffin shelters. Atlas F placed the missile vertically underground on an elevator launcher. The missile remained sheltered in a hardened silo until launch preparation. If a launch order came, the complex would load liquid oxygen, open the overhead doors, raise the missile and its launcher to the surface, and fire the missile from the raised position. The system was still far more labor-intensive than Minuteman, but it was a major improvement over the first Atlas basing modes.

The phrase "operational launch-ready alert posture" needs careful explanation for Atlas F. It did not mean the missile was continuously raised above ground. It also did not mean the missile was continuously loaded with liquid oxygen. Under normal alert conditions, the Atlas F stood vertically underground on its elevator launcher. RP-1 fuel was kept aboard the missile. The missile and site systems were maintained in a ready state, with pressurization, electrical, propellant, environmental, communications, and safety systems monitored and maintained. Liquid oxygen would be loaded as part of the launch sequence. The overhead silo doors would open, the launcher would raise the missile, and, if there was a short hold after the missile was up and locked, the crew could top off liquid oxygen before the final launch command. During a crisis, high alert meant crews, communications, facility systems, propellant systems, security, and missile hardware were brought to the highest practical readiness within the limits of the Atlas F design. It did not mean a continuously exposed or continuously LOX-loaded missile waiting above the silo.

For Site 579-12, this national strategy translated into a specific place on Highway 285 North. The site was a node in a dispersed ring around Roswell. The main base provided the squadron, maintenance, security, logistics, communications, and command framework; the launch complex provided a hardened location for one missile. In deterrence terms, Site 579-12 was one of twelve Walker launch positions that complicated Soviet attack planning by forcing an adversary to account for dispersed, hardened, independently located ICBMs.

Construction and Activation

The Walker Atlas F missile field was built quickly under intense national pressure. 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 was asked to perform soil investigations to determine whether the local geology could support the proposed installations. Spencer J. Buchanan Company and Gordon Herkenhoff & Associates conducted 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 579-12 was built as Corps of Engineers Construction Site Number 9. The EPA Ready for Reuse determination states that the Department of Defense acquired a 240.80-acre property for the site in 1960: 15.75 acres in fee by condemnation and 225.05 acres in easement. The same determination states that construction began in 1960 and was completed in November 1961.

The standard construction problem was enormous. The Corps bulletin described mass excavation by open cut to about 38 feet below grade, followed by shaft excavation to 178 feet. Excavation involved drilling and blasting, crane and clam-shell removal, muck buckets, dump trucks, and containment of the silo wall with wire mesh and gunite where required. Each site involved roughly 48,000 cubic yards of open-cut excavation, about 24,000 cubic yards of shaft excavation, and about 6,000 cubic yards of portland-cement concrete. The steel crib alone weighed about 600 tons, and the suspended system of crib steel, fueling vessels, motor generators, propellant loading skids, and other equipment reached about 1.8 million pounds.

The propellant-loading system was especially demanding. The 1962 tour bulletin emphasized cleanliness requirements because the liquid-oxygen system operated across extreme temperatures and high pressures, and because foreign substances, particularly hydrocarbons, could create violent explosion hazards. That warning is particularly striking in hindsight because the Walker missile field later suffered three destructive Atlas F accidents at other sites during propellant-loading exercises or related operations. Site 579-12 was not one of the destroyed sites, but it was built, maintained, and operated inside the same demanding liquid-fueled Atlas F environment.

Site 579-12's assigned missile, Atlas 74F, was accepted on 1962-03-30 and delivered on 1962-04-24. Those dates place the missile's arrival in the period when the Walker field was moving from construction and checkout into operational status. The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was organized at Walker AFB on 1961-09-01. Unit-history sources record the squadron's operational status in 1962, with an explicit operational date of 1962-11-30 and other wording that describes the squadron as becoming fully operational during the Cuban Missile Crisis period. For Site 579-12, the safest interpretation is that the complex and its missile entered the Walker operational system during 1962, with 1962-11-30 retained as the explicit squadron operational/turnover date.

Missile System and Technical Role

Site 579-12 housed an SM-65F Atlas missile. The Atlas F was a liquid-fueled, silo-lift ICBM. It burned RP-1 kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. Unlike later solid-fueled Minuteman missiles, an Atlas F required propellant handling as part of its launch process. RP-1 could be kept aboard the missile during alert, while liquid oxygen was loaded during the launch sequence. The missile's thin stainless-steel pressure-stabilized airframe also required internal pressure to maintain structural integrity, a distinctive feature of Atlas technology.

The Atlas F at Site 579-12 was General Dynamics Manufacturing Number 74F, General Dynamics Missile Serial Number 61-2560, and Air Force Tail Number 560. The Air Force tail number was not the same thing as the site code. The site code was 579-12; the missile assigned to it was 74F / 61-2560 / 560. Recording both matters because the missile later had a life after the Roswell silo. 74F later flew successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base Gantry A-1 on 1971-09-01 with an ABRES - LAR-2 low-angle reentry payload.

The Walker Aviation Museum's 579th Missile Squadron history describes the Atlas F operational sequence in plain terms. The missile was housed in a silo-launcher style complex and kept vertical. To launch, two 75-ton overhead doors opened and the missile was lifted out of the silo. RP-1 fuel remained on board during alert. Liquid oxygen was loaded before the missile was lifted to launch position. Internal pressure was maintained by gaseous nitrogen, and if there was a brief hold after the missile was raised and locked, the crew could top off the liquid oxygen before the final missile-away command.

Public sources identify the Atlas E/F reentry system as the General Electric Mark IV reentry vehicle carrying a W-38 nuclear warhead. The Walker Aviation Museum gives the yield as approximately 4 megatons and range as about 6,000 miles. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum describes an unflown Mark 4 reentry vehicle used on Atlas E/F and Titan I ICBMs and states that it carried a W-38 warhead with a yield of about 3.75 megatons.

The launch crew relationship also differed from later Minuteman practice. A Minuteman launch facility was normally unmanned and remotely controlled from a separate Launch Control Center. Atlas F launch complexes had their own on-site launch control center and required on-site crew presence, maintenance, security, environmental-control support, and propellant-system readiness. The site was a self-contained launch complex, not merely an unmanned silo in a missile flight.

Operational History

Site 579-12's operational history was short, intense, and tied to the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron's brief existence as an Atlas F unit. The 579th SMS was organized at Walker Air Force Base on 1961-09-01. Walker AFB, long associated with heavy bombardment and Strategic Air Command operations, became one of the six operational Atlas F bases. The twelve Walker missile complexes formed a ring around Roswell, with Site 12 marking the northern Highway 285 end of the field.

The squadron's operational date is not presented uniformly in public summaries. The USAF unit-history compilation lists "Operational, 30 Nov 1962" and also includes wording that says the squadron became fully operational during the Cuban Crisis of October-November 1962. A later line in the same compilation mentions 1962-06-30 as a fully operational date.

The Cuban Missile Crisis gives the Walker Atlas F sites their most dramatic operational context. During October and November 1962, Strategic Air Command directed the restoration of degraded missiles to alert status and invoked emergency procedures for combat capability. The 579th SMS history and Walker Aviation Museum both state that all operational 579th sites were at a high level of alert and ready to launch if required. For Site 579-12, that meant the crew, communications, missile, propellant, safety, security, and support systems were brought to the highest practical readiness consistent with the Atlas F design. It did not mean the missile sat continuously above ground, and it did not mean liquid oxygen remained continuously loaded.

Day-to-day operations at Site 579-12 would have revolved around alert duty, system monitoring, maintenance, security, inspections, and readiness exercises. Atlas F required careful attention to pressurization, liquid oxygen equipment, RP-1 fuel systems, electrical systems, environmental control, communications, power generation, blast doors, elevator launcher equipment, and the launch control center. The site could not simply be sealed and forgotten. The missile and facility required human labor to remain ready.

Security also shaped the site's operation. A dispersed ICBM complex contained nuclear delivery-system infrastructure, classified communications and launch equipment, propellant systems, and hazardous industrial systems. Access was controlled, and the remote Chaves County location did not make the site casual or open. Security police, maintenance teams, launch crews, transportation personnel, and command inspectors all formed part of the operating ecosystem around the site.

The 579th SMS had a troubled operational record at the squadron level, though Site 579-12 itself was not one of the destroyed complexes. On 1963-06-01, Site 579-1 was destroyed by an explosion during a propellant-loading exercise. On 1964-02-13, Site 579-5 was destroyed by an explosion. On 1964-03-09, Site 579-2 was destroyed by a similar propellant-loading explosion. These sister-site accidents are important to Site 579-12 because they occurred within the same squadron, missile field, weapon system, and liquid-propellant operating environment. They underscore the risks inherent in first-generation ICBM operations, especially around propellant loading and facility checkout, but they should not be misread as accidents at Site 12.

Site 579-12 appears to have survived the Walker Atlas F operational period without a documented destructive accident. Its assigned missile was removed from the field rather than lost in a silo explosion. That makes the site useful as a contrast to the destroyed Walker complexes. It represents the normal end of an Atlas F site: brief alert service, missile removal, decommissioning, property disposal, and a long environmental afterlife.

Deactivation and Disposal

The Atlas F phaseout came quickly. By 1964, solid-fueled Minuteman and Polaris systems had changed the strategic and operational value of liquid-fueled first-generation ICBMs. The SAC missile chronology records Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's 1964-11-18 announcement that all remaining first-generation ICBMs, including the Atlas force, would be phased out by the end of June 1965. The 579th SMS unit-history compilation states that the first 579th missile was taken off alert on 1965-01-05, the last missile was taken off alert on 1965-02-04, the last missile was shipped on 1965-02-09, and the squadron was inactivated on 1965-03-25.

The later property record is clearer than for many missile sites. The EPA Ready for Reuse determination states that Site 12 was declared excess to the General Services Administration in September 1965. In October 1967, GSA conveyed the 15.75 fee-simple acres and 1.87 acres in easement to W.L. Pennington and Cliff C. Henderson, partners of Henderson Oil Properties, Inc. The EPA letter also states that in September 1966 the remaining easements expired after non-use for more than one year, as stipulated in the acquisition documents. At the start of the later Site Inspection, the owners were identified as David P. and Carlyn Hinkley.

The environmental afterlife continued through the Formerly Used Defense Sites program. The 2015 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers FUDS inventory lists WAFB FAC SITE #12 / K06NM0490 in Chaves County, Roswell, with Site 01 HTRW, Site 02 CON/HTRW, and Site 03 CON/HTRW. The Department of Defense DERP Table 9 lists WAFB FAC SITE #12 / NM69799F628500 as a FUDS property that achieved final response complete before fiscal year 2022, with three installation-restoration sites and costs incurred through FY 2022.

The 2009 Ready for Reuse determination gives the most detailed environmental narrative. A Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection were conducted under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program by USACE. The March 2008 Site Inspection examined three potential source areas: the former underground storage tank area, the septic leachfield, and the soil sump outfall. With the exception of the silo sump outfall area, hazardous constituents were not found above evaluation criteria in soils from the former UST location or septic leachfield. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were found in soil samples near the outfall pipe, and USACE removed the impacted soil and disposed of it at a licensed disposal facility.

The determination also addressed water. Groundwater was not encountered within the 250-foot-below-ground-surface study boundary, and a camera survey of the on-site production wells found no groundwater beneath the silo site between 12 and 400 feet below ground surface. Standing water in the silo was sampled. Antimony was detected above evaluation criteria in one 2008 sample, but supplemental sampling and site geochemistry led the agencies to conclude that antimony in silo water was not expected to impact groundwater beneath the site. EPA Region 6, NMED, and USACE concluded that the surface property was ready for reuse and that environmental conditions were protective for current and anticipated future use, while reserving authority to revisit the determination if conditions or information changed.

Current Status and Site Use

Site 579-12 is no longer an active military installation. It is a decommissioned former Atlas F launch complex north of Roswell.

The safest current-use description is private/no-public-access former federal property with visible former missile-site remains. The EPA determination described the surface property as ready for reuse under the evaluated environmental conditions, but that does not mean public access exists. The available historical and environmental records do not identify a public museum, park, official tour program, or public-access right at Site 579-12.

Visible imagery shows the former missile-site footprint, but the presence of visible remains does not make the site safe. Former Atlas F complexes can include deep shafts, confined spaces, deteriorated concrete, flooded underground spaces, unstable openings, asbestos or other hazardous materials, remnants of industrial systems, and environmental-remediation features. Any access would require explicit landowner permission and appropriate safety controls. Coordinates are provided to identify the historical site, not to encourage trespass.

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 The Department of Defense acquired the Site 12 property, consisting of 15.75 acres in fee by condemnation and 225.05 acres in easement, according to the EPA Ready for Reuse determination.
• 1961-09-01 The 579th Strategic Missile Squadron was organized at Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico.
• 1961-11 The EPA Ready for Reuse determination states that Site 12 construction was completed in November 1961.
• 1962-03-30 Missile 74F, General Dynamics serial number 61-2560 and Air Force tail number 560, was accepted.
• 1962-04-24 Missile 74F / tail number 560 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 579-12 event.
• 1964-02-13 Walker Atlas F Site 579-5 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-12 event.
• 1964-03-09 Walker Atlas F Site 579-2 was lost in an explosion; this was a sister-site event, not a Site 579-12 event.
• 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.
• 1965-09 The EPA Ready for Reuse determination states that Site 12 was declared excess to the General Services Administration.
• 1966-09 The EPA Ready for Reuse determination states that the remaining easements expired after non-use for more than one year.
• 1967-10 GSA conveyed the 15.75 fee-simple acres and 1.87 acres in easement to W.L. Pennington and Cliff C. Henderson, partners of Henderson Oil Properties, Inc.
• 1971-09-01 Missile 74F, formerly assigned to Site 579-12, launched successfully from Vandenberg AFB Gantry A-1 with an ABRES - LAR-2 low-angle reentry payload.
• 2008-03 A Site Inspection examined the former underground storage tank area, septic leachfield, and soil sump outfall at Site 12.
• 2008-06 Supplemental silo-water sampling was conducted after antimony exceeded an evaluation criterion in an earlier standing-water sample.
• 2009-02 The New Mexico Environment Department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Finding of No Defense Action Indicated for Site 12.
• 2009-09-16 EPA Region 6, NMED, and USACE issued a Ready for Reuse determination for Former Atlas Missile Silo Site 12.
• 2015-09-30 The USACE FUDS inventory listed WAFB FAC SITE #12 / K06NM0490 in Chaves County, New Mexico, with Site 01 HTRW, Site 02 CON/HTRW, and Site 03 CON/HTRW.
• 2022 DERP Table 9 listed WAFB FAC SITE #12 / NM69799F628500 as a FUDS property that had achieved final response complete before fiscal year 2022.

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