I lived many years just down the road a few miles from White Sands :-)
Lots of nice tech guys in that area.
I spent 14 years in NM. Made calls in Las Cruces every week from 1972-1986.
Yep, some great techs there. Some good RF builders too. It was still done then.
I miss it.
There was a nice exhibit a while back about the early days of Los Alamos. It was very interesting. Place look like a boy scout camp. very primitive, now some of it is like something out of a James Bond Movie.