What is Area 51?
Area 51, in southern Nevada, is a U.S. military base the very existence of which was unconfirmed until 2013, when the CIA was obliged to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from 2005. Based on historical evidence, it would appear that Area 51 supports the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons. Public satellite images, such as those available on Google Maps, don’t provide insight. Even those with security clearance to visit Area 51 are transported there from Las Vegas via an airline called “Janet,” whose planes are unmarked and which shrouds its windows upon descent.
The intense secrecy surrounding Area 51 has sparked rumors that the government uses it to house crashed UFOs and conduct lab tests on aliens. Don’t believe in such things? Well, then you disagree with these celebrities, all of whom are certain that UFOs are out there.
Other theories about what Area 51 is used for include: research on time travel, research on teleportation, meetings with extraterrestrials, development of a means for weather control, and activities related to a shadowy one-world government.
Where these theories come from is as much a mystery as Area 51, itself, but one thing is certain: people love a good conspiracy theory. At one point, conspiracy theorists believed the moon landing in 1969 had been faked. Hint: it wasn’t.
Area 51, Roswell incident and UFO conspiracy theories
Area 51 has long been the subject of UFO conspiracy theories probably because the facility is used for classified aircraft research. Conspiracy theorists have alleged that the facility is being used by the US government for storage and reverse engineering study of crashed alien spacecraft, specifically the alleged Roswell “flying disc.” UFO theorists also allege that alien occupants of the alleged spacecrafts, both living and dead, are also being held at the facility.
Other theorists say joint projects with extraterrestrials, R&D in new energy and weapons systems, weather control technology, time travel, teleportation technology and research activities related to an alleged world government organization called “Majestic 12 organization,” are being conducted at Area 51.
There are also claims that the base has a transcontinental underground railroad system, and a disappearing airstrip (the “Cheshire Airstrip”) based on some form of alien technology.
Claims by alleged former employees at Area 51, include a story by a 71-year-old mechanical engineer who featured in a 1996 documentary Dreamland by Bruce Burgess, and claimed that he worked on a “flying disc simulator” based on a crashed ET craft. Such claims have fueled stories that Area 51 is being used as storage site for the Roswell UFO and ET beings.
Probably the most controversial testimony in the Roswell UFO incident came from Lt. Walter Haut.
Story of 1st Lt. Walter Haut
1st Lt. Walter Haut (June 2, 1922?December 15,2005) was the public information officer (PIO) at the 509th Bomb Group based in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. He was the official who, on July 8, 1947, drafted the press release on the order of Colonel William Blanchard that announced the USAF had recovered a crashed “flying disc” from a nearby ranch.
After the press release generated international media attention, the authorities retracted the claim, saying that only a weather balloon had been recovered.
In December 2002, Haut signed a sealed affidavit in which he gave details about a government cover-up in the Roswell UFO incident. Earlier in 2000, he had given an interview in which he claimed he saw an alien craft and an alien body in a Roswell Army Field base hangar and that he was present at a meeting where senior officials discussed what to say to the public.
Haut claimed that Brigadier General Roger M. Ramey of the Eight Army Air Force in Forth Worth, Texas was present at the meeting. It was Ramey who later released the retraction that the “flying disc” was really a “misidentified weather balloon.”
The interview and the affidavit were not released until after Haut died in in 2005.
The full text of the affidavit was published in June 2007 in a book titled “Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the 60 Year Cover-up.” The book claimed that Haut had sworn to his superior, Colonel Blanchard, not to reveal the facts of what happened at Roswell. According to book, Haut’s promise to Blanchard explains why he said in earlier interviews that he did not know anything about the incident and that he had only prepared and released the first statement on the order of his superiors.
In the new affidavit, Haut claimed that after he put out the press release about a “flying disc,” he was taken to a base hangar where he saw an egg shaped craft about 15 feet long and several ET bodies with large heads about four feet tall. Haute said he was convinced that the bodies were ET.
Haut also claimed that there were two major crash sites and that the bodies were found on a site unknown to the public. Haut claimed he attended a meeting where senior officials discussed and decided what the public was to be told
