Nevada desert lies a
military base that is surrounded by
so much official secrecy that the US
government has even refused to
acknowledge it exists. The base was built by
the CIA and all pilots, ground crews and the
staff have to retire from their original
military departments and join the agency
before taking residency on site. As a CIA
installation it operates independently of
other government departments. To this day,
signs at the entrance warn all visitors that
they have no constitutional rights on site,
and armed units guard the perimeter. It is the
UFO world’s worst kept secret, and the area
is now a pilgrimage point for alien watchers.
This is Area 51.
Built in the 1950s around the Groom Lake
Air Force base, and next to the Nevada
atomic test range, Area 51 was a perfect site
to carry out classified aircraft tests. It had a
large flat surface perfect for laying runways,
few local residents, and a highly unattractive
reputation to new settlers due to the nearby
nuclear pollution. Initially it was built
purely for testing the U2 spy plane, but the
programme was such a success that all the
United States secret aircraft were experimentally
flown there. The base grew in size,
creating its own small community and the
landing strip was increased to three miles
long. The Blackbird and Stealth planes were
developed on site, and countless unknown
technologies are housed in the base’s hanger.
Many people believe these technologies are,
quite literally, from a different planet, and
the base is actually a test zone and hiding
site for alien aircraft. At night, strange lights
are seen in the sky above the base, and many
watchers believe the site hides enormous
underground installations.
More in-depth knowledge of operations
there have come through one man, Bob Lazar.
Lazar is a scientist who was employed by a
company called EG & G in 1989 who said
they were working on a propulsion project at
their testing centre near Area 51, on a base
called S4. In later conversations Lazar
revealed that he and other scientists were
employed to pull an alien aircraft apart and
see if they could manufacture it using manmade
components. As part of their work, the
scientists were informed about the role of
aliens in the history of the Earth, and on one
occasion Lazar even claims to have briefly
seen at first-hand, a real, live alien at S4.
Over time, Lazar says he decided to rebel
against his employers. In the evening of
22nd March 1989 he and a friend went out to
the Groom Lake road and watched a flying
disc test flight. The following week Lazar, his
friend and three others visited the same area.
They saw a disc flight, which Huff described
as ‘the thrill of a lifetime’. The disc they
witnessed glowed extremely brightly, and
flew so close that they felt they had to move
backwards. The following week, on the way
back home from another UFO-spotting trip,
the group were seen and stopped by base
security patrolling the outlying area. The
next day Lazar was sacked from EG & G’s
employment. He has subsequently revealed
that nine discs are said to be held at S4.
Some of the unsettling things that go on at
the base are more real than others. The road
to its entrance is known as ‘The Widow’s
Highway’ because of the high numbers of
workers at the base who die through contact
with fatally poisonous materials. Many
experts suggest the area is a secret dumping
ground for toxic substances, rather than a
UFO base. In either case, the workers are
sworn to secrecy, and cannot reveal details
about what they have been handling to their
doctors. This has led to their wives
launching court proceedings against the US
government, who have traditionally refuted
the allegations on the grounds that Area 51
does not officially exist. However, a
statement made in January 2001 by President
George Bush did refer to the ‘operating
location near Groom Lake’, which is the first
official recognition of Area 51. But Bush also
said that the site was exempt from environmental
disclosure requirements, so the
widows are still fighting their case. But at
least we now know the place is not just a
figment of our imaginations.
