For decades, Area 51 has been associated with UFO's, government secrets, and extraterrestrial life. The air force base in Nevada has always been something of a mecca for conspiracy theorists, but now a viral social media movement wants to actually storm the facility, and discover the truth.
The trouble started when a tongue-in-cheek joke event was posted on Facebook, called: "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us." The stunt was a humorous invitation for Americans to overwhelm the guards, and investigate the facility through sheer force of numbers, to find out if there really were any aliens there.
The event's description stated: "We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry. If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let's see them aliens. [sic]"
However, the idea quickly blew up, and spawned countless memes and image macros on social media. The raid is currently scheduled to take place on Friday, 20 September 2019. But now, the planned event has proven so popular that the United States military has been forced to issue an official response in an attempt to deter potential besiegers.
Speaking to Insider, Air Force spokesman Major Ethan Stroker stated: "The United States Air Force is aware of the Facebook post. The Nevada Test and Training Range is an area where the Air Force tests and trains combat aircraft. As a matter of practice, we do not discuss specific security measures, but any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous."
Meanwhile, US Air Force spokesperson Laura McAndrews told The Independent: "[Area 51] is an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets."
Guys, I can tell you all now that you won't find any aliens in Area 51 ... they're actually over in Area 52.
