Area 51

Area 51 Facts

-highly classified US Air Force facility

-unit of the Nellis Air Force Base

-part of a massive complex of military installations.

-created during the Cold War.

-38,400 acre land area

-has runways up to 12,000 ft long

-previously used to develop the U-2 and other aircrafts.

-kept classified for purposes of national security.

-currently used as an open training range for the US Air Force.

Location

-April 12, 1955: CIA Officer Richard Bissel first saw the area in Southern Nevada at Groom Lake while on an aerial scouting mission.

-He decided it would make an ideal site for testing the Lockheed U-2 Reconnaissance planes.

-Excellent flying weather, unparalleled remoteness, perfect natural landing field.

-About 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

-Rachel and Hiko are the nearest towns.

-Rachel population: 54

-Hiko population: 119

-Next to the Nevada Test Site where US nuclear weapons were tested from the 1950s to 1990s.

Name

-name Area 51 comes from its map designation.

-previously referred to as "Paradise Ranch" to make it sound more appealing to those that would work there.

-also referred to as Watertown after the CIA director's birthplace, Watertown, NY.

Area 51 Early Uses

-July 1955: CIA begins using Area 51 to develop the U-2 reconnaissance plane

-Project Aquatone

-The U-2 spy plane flew in excess of 60,000 ft.

-nicknamed Dragon Lady.

Aliens

-some believe Area 51 is the location where the US government stores and hides alien bodies and UFOs.

-the rumors first started in the 1980s with the publication of the book "The Roswell Incident."

-It examined the 1947 incident when a crashed nuclear surveillance balloon was found.

-many people thought the wreckage was an alien spacecraft and the government had taken the aliens to Area 51.

-media had called it a flying saucer adding to the idea that it was some sort of alien spacecraft.

-At the time the Air Force said it was just a weather balloon.

-It wasn't until much later that they came out and said that it was a nuclear surveillance balloon that was part of Project Mogul.

Other military sites (Nevada)

-Yucca Flats

-it is one of four major nuclear test regions within the Nevada Test Site.

-it affected tests and training at Area 51

-employees were required to evacuate prior to each detonation.

-they would be able to re-enter within 3 to 4 weeks.

-the HOOD bomb was detonated at the Yucca Flats.

-5x as powerful as bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

-part of Operation Plumbbob

-controversial because of the extremely high amounts of radiation released into the atmosphere and because thousands of servicemen were also exposed to relatively high amounts of radiation.

-released some 58,300 kilocuries of radioiodine into the atmosphere.

Other military sites (New Mexico)

-White Sands Missile Range

-located in Otero, NM

-widest and largest military base in the US.

-covers an area of about 3,200 square miles.

-supports essential defense and space exploration programs for all branches of the military and NASA.

-site of the world's first atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945.

-named Trinity Site.

-was also the birthplace of America's space program.

Possible Environmental and Health Effects

Area 51

-1994: 5 unnamed civilian contractors and the widows of contractors Walter Kasza and Robert Frost sued the Air Force and EPA because of the burning of unknown chemicals.

-Area 51 employees have said that Air Force officials regularly ordered toxic materials to be burned in open trenches the length of football fields.

-doused mountains of debris with jet fuel and set it alight.

-after a long process, President Clinton exempted the Air Force from having to disclose what workers were exposed to.