ENG. 111

Area 51: Alien testing facility?
Area 51 is located near the town of Rachel, Nevada; Groom Lake surrounds the base (Strickland). To enter Area 51 you need a top secret clearance, a need to know, and an invitation by the upper most ranks of the CIA (Jacobsen xi-3). The majority of employees travel to Area 51 on unmarked aircraft from Las Vegas (Strickland). The U.S. government has never officially admitted to the existence of Area 51 (Jacobsen xi-3). This fuels the Alien controversies surrounding Area 51; theorists believe the government has aliens and alien aircraft on site (Strickland). Have aliens visited Earth? It is possible but unlikely that aliens are at Area 51.
The majority of conspiracy theorists believe aliens crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, on July 2, 1947 (Soodin). The UFO wreckage and three aliens were retrieved by the US military and sent to Area 51 for research. Lieutenant Walter Haut, a public relations officer at Roswell Army Air Field, claims to have seen the UFO and the alien bodies (“Roswell Theory”). He describes the aliens as having enormous heads and being approximately three and half feet tall. General William Blanchard wrote an official statement saying the Army had recovered UFO remains on the 8th of July, 1947 (Strickland). According to Haut there was a second crash site where more wreckage was recovered. This is why the U.S Army gave the first statement to take the attention away from the more significant site (“Roswell Theory”).
According to a former employee at Area 51 the U.S. government is using and studying alien technology (Strickland). In 1989 Robert Lazar became the first person to come forward and openly talk about what was happening at Area 51 (Jacobsen 13). George Knapp from Eyewitness News interviewed Robert. According to Robert, he worked at location S-4 at Area 51; he was hired to work on Alien technology and to reverse engineer the Alien equipment to use for U.S. vehicles (Strickland). The propulsion and the power systems is where he was told to start reverse engineering (Dreamland). A manual stating the aircraft were not from our planet and pictures and drawings of alien pilots were given to Lazar (Jacobsen 11-12). There are nine saucer shaped alien aircraft held at S-4 and on one occasion Lazar claims to have seen “a small, gray alien with a large head standing between two men dressed in white.”
Edgar Mitchell former Apollo 14 Astronaut and moonwalker claims aliens have visited the Earth many times (“Apollo 14”). Every UFO visit has been covered up by the government according to Mitchell. His contacts in the government describe the alien as short with unusually large eyes and head. Mitchell met with Lazar in 1991 and believes he really worked on reverse engineering of Alien aircraft (Dreamland). Since the Roswell, New Mexico, crash the government has been working on reverse engineering alien aircraft and technology. He is certain that the technology analyzed and taken from alien aircraft is already used in military and civilian planes (“Mitchell Believes”). There are allegations that the U.S. is and has been working with Aliens (Bertholdo). An engineer that worked at Area 51 from 1966 to 1979 claims he work alongside an Alien (Dreamland). He has kept his identity a secret due to fear of ridicule. He worked on UFOs and on an Alien aircraft flight simulator for U.S pilots. J-Rod was the code name of the Alien that he worked with. J-Rod communicated telepathically only and was describe as being gray and short. Dr. Dan Burisch a microbiologist also claims to have worked with an Alien named J-Rod at Area 51 (Bertholdo). Burisch worked with J-Rod on multiple Top Secret programs from fixing damaged cells to creating viruses. Burisch claims J-Rod’s race is from Earth but fled long ago and settled on a remote planet. The Roswell, New Mexico, crash of 1947 was not an alien aircraft nor was it a weather balloon (Broad). What crashed in Roswell was a balloon used for monitoring nuclear test blasts part of a U.S. secret program called Project Mogul (“Thick Report”). After World War II Dr. Maurice Ewing a geophysicist suggested an observation system to the U.S. Air Force to observe far-off nuclear blasts (Broad). The top-secret project started in 1946; the project used polyethylene balloons, radar reflectors, and sensors to track waves in the Earth’s atmosphere. Project Mogul was a scientific success it identified the Soviet Union’s first nuclear bomb test in 1949. The wreckage discovered at Roswell was one of the projects balloons, and sensors, and the radar reflectors made of metal foil (“Thick Report”). The geometrical jumble and severe angles of foil made the reflectors look tremendously strange and started the UFO misunderstanding (Broad). Reporters and skeptics have looked into Robert Lazar’s past and fail to find any evidence supporting his statements (Strickland). One of the leading experts on UFOs, Stanton Friedman a UFO scientist and nuclear physicist believes Robert Lazar is a fake (Jacobsen 15-18). Lazar claims to have a degree in Physics from MIT and a degree in Electronics from Caltech, but there is no transcripts or diplomas (Friedman). Friedman contacted the schools and they had not once heard of Robert Lazar. Lazar also claims that he worked at Los Alamos National Lab and has a phone document with his name on it but next to his name it states KM which is an outside contractor. According to Friedman “Lazar is NOT a scientist.” When Lazar was asked specific science questions he was unable to answer a single one. In 2007 the CIA released declassified documentation on aircraft testing at Area 51 (Thomson). Area 51 is the super-secret test facility for spy planes, in the 1960s the A-12 and the SR-71 Blackbird where among the aircraft tested (Lacitis). Some of the aircraft tested reached speeds in excess of 2,000 miles per hour. Other aircraft tested throughout the years were the U-2 Spy Plane, and the F117 Stealth Fighter (Strickland). Captured Soviet Aircraft were also used at Area 51 for training exercises against the newly developed secret aircraft. James Noce a former employee of Area 51, never saw aliens or alien aircraft but witnessed secret man-made aircraft (Lacitis). There were UFOs spotted at and around Area 51, but they were U.S. aircraft (Thomson). The aircraft tested at Area 51 could fly more than 85,000 feet and at speeds more than 2,000 miles per hour that is higher and faster than common aircraft of that time. Four days after the A-12 first flight a NASA X-15 pilot took pictures and one photo had the A-12 in it and the press called it a UFO (Jacobsen 204-213). The majority of UFO sightings were actually the A-12, the triangle shape and the titanium wings reflected the sun and made it look more out of this world. The CIA was unable to explain to the media what was seen due to the top secret classification. Thornton Barnes a hypersonic flight specialist at Area 51 in 1968 claims the rumors about alien aircraft aided the concealment of the secret plane testing (Lacitis). This is why the CIA and Air Force looked into the UFOs but never commented on them (Jacobsen 204-213). Area 51 is a super-secret facility for engineering and testing new technology critical to the security of the United States (Strickland). The only UFOs seen around Area 51 were the secret aircraft designed to out match the Soviet Union (Jacobsen 204-213). The CIA was unable to disclose or debunk the UFO sightings without harming national security. The alien controversies surrounding Area 51 spread like a wild fire. I believe there might be aliens somewhere but not at Area 51.

Works Cited
“Apollo 14 Astronaut Claims Aliens Have Made Contact But it has been Covered Up For 60 Years.” Daily Mail [London] 23 Jul 2008, n. page. Print. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1037471/Apollo-14-astronaut-claims-aliens-HAVE-contact--covered-60-years.html>.
Bertholdo, Stephanie. "MUFON Meeting Reveals Tales of Time Travel, Aliens and More." Acorn [Agoura Hills] 02 Mar 2006, n. page. Print. <http://www.theacorn.com/news/2006-03-02/Community/033.html>.
Broad, William. "Wreckage in the Desert Was Odd but Not Alien." New York Times 18 Sep 1994, n. pag. Print. <http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/18/us/wreckage-in-the-desert-was-odd-but-not-alien.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm>.
Dreamland: Area 51. Dir. Bruce Burgess. Bluebook Films, 1996. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se5x2D5-m_c>.
Friedman, Stanton. "The Bob Lazar Fraud."Stantonfriedman.com. N.p., Dec 1997. Web. 6 Jun 2012. <http://www.stantonfriedman.com/index.php?ptp=articles&fdt=2011.01.07>.
Jacobsen, Annie. Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base. 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. Print
Lacitis, Erik. “Area 51 Vets Break Silence: Sorry, But No Space Aleins or UFOs.” Seattle Times 27 Mar 2010, n. page. Print. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011461015_area51vets28m.html
"Mitchell Believes Aliens Crash-Landed." Rochester Sentinel 13 Oct 1997, 7. Print. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z69UAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ujsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5381,2348915&dq=edgar mitchell aliens&hl=en “Roswell Theory Revived by Deathbed Confession.” Sunday Telegraph [London] 01 Jul 2007, n. page. Print. <http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/roswell-theory-revived-by-deathbed-confession/story-e6frfkp9-1111113858718>.
Soodin, Vince. “Aliens Exist Say Real-Life X-Files.” The Sun [London] 11 Apr 2011, n. page. Print. <http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3519288/Aliens-exist-say-real-life-X-Files.html>.
Strickland, Jonathan. “How Area 51 Works.”HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery Communications, 05 Jul 2007. Web. 30 May 2012. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/area-51.htm>.
"Thick Report ‘Won't Lay it to Rest’ ." Register-Guard [Eugene] 18 Sep 1994, 8A. Print. <http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=31NWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-usDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6921,4493459&dq=project mogul&hl=en>.
Thomson, Keith. “The True Story of Area 51's UFO.”Huffington Post [New York City] 06 Nov 2009, n. page. Web. 30 May. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/the-true-story-of-area-51_b_348249.html>.