Vandenberg's first Airman led way for new mission Published Dec. 6, 2010 By Jeffrey Geiger History Office chief VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- When Air Force Technical Sergeant Robert D. Roller reported for duty at Camp Cooke on Feb. 24, 1957, he stepped into history. Sergeant Roller was the first Airman to be stationed at the future missile base, now known as Vandenberg Air Force Base. In 1957, the Department of Defense listed Camp Cooke as an abandoned army post, closed four years earlier at the end of the Korean War. Except for minimal maintenance, accomplished by a small crew of civil engineers from the neighboring Army Disciplinary Barracks (today it's a federal penitentiary in Lompoc), the deserted camp had fallen into disrepair. When Roller got to the front gate at Camp Cooke in February 1957, he was surprised by what he had found. "The gate was locked and there were no guards on duty to greet visitors," said the retired sergeant. "I drove toward Lompoc to the Army Disciplinary Barracks and showed my duty orders to the guards at the reception center. They were surprised to see me. They handed me a set of keys to the Pine Canyon gate at Camp Cooke and off I went to explore my new home." Roller said that he was most impressed with the vastness of the installation. "But I felt a little uneasy being around hundreds of deserted buildings and not seeing a single human being," Mr. Roller said. Sergeant Roller's presence at Camp Cooke followed a series of important Air Force decisions that would shape Vandenberg's future. In 1955, the Air Force and its contractor team of aerospace companies began the development of the Atlas and Thor missile systems. Responsibility for locating a launch site, and for obtaining initial operational capability for the new weapon systems fell to the Western Development Division or WDD (later redesignated as the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division) in Los Angeles. The WDD established a site selection board that examined some 200 potential launch sites. In June 1956, the board recommended the selection of Camp Cooke, concluding that the availability of the camp, its isolation from populated areas, and the year-round favorable weather conditions were ideal factors for safely launching ballistic missiles and rockets. Air Force Headquarters agreed, and in November 1956, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson ordered the transfer of 64,000 acres of Cooke to the Air Force. The official transfer occurred on June 21, 1957. Sergeant Roller read about the plans to activate Camp Cooke while stationed at Luke AFB, Ariz., as a communications specialist. With his enlistment option coming due, Sergeant Roller decided to "re-up," and received the orders he had requested to go to Camp Cooke. A couple of days after his arrival, Sergeant Roller met Army Master Sgt. Nathan Candy of the Disciplinary Barracks. "Having grown up in Santa Maria, Sergeant Candy was a great help to me in getting acquainted with the area, and with many other issues that came up," said Sergeant Roller. Sergeant Candy arranged temporary quarters and meals at the Army dining facilities for Sergeant Roller, and later for new Air Force arrivals to Camp Cooke. Army assistance also included transportation and tools. For several months the Army helped, until the small Air Force contingent became self-supporting in their new facilities. Another person that Sergeant Roller met shortly after arriving at Camp Cooke was Maj. Frederick K. Smith. Major (later, Colonel) Smith had arrived at Camp Cooke on Dec. 1, 1956. Two months later, on Feb. 15, 1957, the WDD established the first unit at Camp Cooke, the 6591st Support Squadron which Smith headed. By the time the squadron was discontinued and its resources transferred to the newly activated 392nd Air Base Group on April 15, 1957, it had consisted of four officers and three Airmen. Among the numerous rehabilitation projects that required immediate attention at Camp Cooke were the telephone and teletype systems. As an experienced communications specialist, Sergeant Roller got to work troubleshooting lines and installing new ones. "Occasionally, I had to climb poles and string wire to get certain systems to work," said Sergeant Roller. "I was fortunate that the Army had available inside and outside cable records of the camp so I was able figure out the line connections." In April 1957, Sergeant Roller received temporary assistance from 17 civilian workers brought in from the Air Force's Air Material Area in San Bernardino. They repaired more than 600 communications lines. However, permanent personnel were slow to arrive at Camp Cooke. It wasn't until May, when the Air Force started issuing contracts for new construction and facility renovation work, that the tempo of activities and the flow of personnel into the base started to pick up. During the summer of 1957, Sergeant Roller was put in charge of setting up a telephone office and switchboard. "I was also responsible for hiring civilian telephone switchboard operators. At that time, all calls coming into and leaving the base had to go through our base operators," Sergeant Roller said. "We needed trained operators to handle the traffic." In June 1957, the base was redesignated as Cooke Air Force Base. The name stuck until it was changed to Vandenberg AFB on Oct. 4, 1958, in honor of the late Air Force Chief of Staff, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. Sergeant Roller said that his most exciting experiences at Camp Cooke occurred when the base started launching missiles in the late 1950's. "I don't know the failure rate, but it seemed that whenever a missile exploded after liftoff, farmers from all over the valley would gather up the pieces and return them to the base. Every time I went out to watch a missile launch, I had a sense of wanting to dive under my car for protection." After leaving Camp Cooke in November 1959, Sergeant Roller received assignments to Greenland, Japan, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii. He retired from the Air Force in February 1968.