‘Raid’ of the Century: Unmasking Area 51

Maddyn Forks, Journalist|September 25, 2019

No one ever thought that an internet joke could turn into a reality, until Area 51. Area 51 is a United States Air Force facility that people believe to contain “nonterrestrial beings.” This sparked many ideas for visiting the facility. 

The well-known memes came flowing in when a 21-year old man from Bakersfield, California posted something on Facebook about how people should raid Area 51 from 3 AM till 6 AM on Sept 20, 2019. Over two million people responded to that post saying that they were going and 1.5 million were listed as “interested”. The same man that started this entire “raid idea” also came up with a music festival that would occur near the gates of the base. Celebrities like hit star Billie Ellish was scheduled to perform at this festival, but because the Area 51 raid is such a big deal, he decided to “cancel it.”

“Due to the lack of infrastructure, poor planning risk management and blatant disregard for the safety of 10000+ alienstock attendees, we decided to pull the plug on the festival. We are not interested in, nor will we tolerate any involvement in a fyrefest 2.0. We foresee a possible humanitarian disaster in the works, and we can’t participate in any capacity at this point,” Matty Roberts says.

When this joke became something serious, the military had to get involved, saying that if anyone was to trespass onto the Area 51 base, they have the right to arrest them and physically harm them if it comes to that extent. 

“It’s public land. They’re allowed to go to the gate, as long as they don’t cross the boundary.” Lincoln County sheriff stated. 

On Sept 18 the HuffingtonPost stated, “The U.S. Navy confirmed a series of leaked UFO videos are real and said they should have never been released.” 

These videos consist of something that looked like a UFO in the sky. The government was hiding these videos of the “UFO sightings.”  

On September 20th, at 3 AM, people started to arrive at the gates wearing space helmets and holding signs with things written on them like “Let us see dem aliens”. Only about 75 people showed up to the base, which was disappointing to some since there were a lot of people signed up to go. The “raid” was more of a protest than anything since no one actually entered the facility. There were policemen lined up on the gate, holding guns, just in case it came to those drastic measures.

The internet craze turned into an anti-climactic event. There were no aliens seen or saved despite the immense craze and obsession of Area 51. The fascination with the idea of aliens has taken over the world. 

“Though the base is known for conspiracy theories about it housing aliens, in reality, it’s a United States Air Force base that works on ‘”Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.”’ buissnessinsider.com states.