Nearly 220,000 people have signed up to a Facebook event planning a late-summer raid on Area 51 in the Nevada desert to "see them aliens" by running really fast en masse like a cartoon ninja at the secretive air force facility.
Area 51, also known as Homey Airport, is infamous for the alien conspiracy theories that have centered on it since the 1950s. Most famously of all, it supposedly stored what was found at the site of the notorious—and thoroughly debunked—Roswell UFO incident.
The joke event, titled "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," is scheduled for 3 a.m., September 20, and was set up by a Facebook page dedicated to "s***posting" memes and SmyleeKun, who streams himself on Twitch playing video games.
According to the description, everyone will meet at the "Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry." Organizers recommend that the group runs in unison in the style of animé ninja Naruto Uzumaki, with their heads forward and arms held outstretched behind them.
"If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let's see them aliens," the event description says. Whether or not anyone takes the joke seriously and shows up on September 20 at the heavily-guarded and closely-surveilled site remains to be seen.
Edwards Air Force base in California, which administers Homey Airport, did not respond immediately to Newsweek's request for comment.
The location of Area 51 is around 88 miles by road northwest of Las Vegas. The U.S. Air Force says Homey Airport is a flight testing facility for new aircraft.
In 2015, the CIA released documents relating to Area 51 in what was the first official confirmation of its existence. The same year, the CIA published a brief history of the controversial and mysterious Air Force site.
It all started with the testing for Lockheed's first U-2 back in 1955, a reconnaissance jet used throughout the Cold War by the U.S. Air Force, which took place at Area 51 and was shrouded in secrecy because of its military significance and sensitivity.
The land got its name Area 51 because of its Atomic Energy Commission map designation. It was also nicknamed "Paradise Ranch" by the U-2's engineer Clarence 'Kelly' Johnson, and Watertown because rainwater from the mountains flooded the dry lake bed.
"Although the commonly preferred official name for the facility today is the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake, both the names Watertown and Area 51 were used as official names for the facility," the CIA history says.
In 2018, Politico revealed the existence of a multi-million dollar program at the Pentagon to investigate UFO sightings by American pilots and other military personnel amid concern that foreign powers had developed technologies that surpassed that capabilities of the U.S. It is called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more
