The Air Force has warned a potential mob of more than one million against their idea of storming Area 51 in Nevada.
A Facebook event titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” has gone viral on Facebook with more than one million users having RSVP’d as “going” to the event on Sept. 20, and nearly a million more expressing interest.
The event’s satirical description says, “We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” referring to a truck stop located an hour away from the base.
“If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let’s see them aliens,” the description concluded.
“Naruto run” refers to an exaggerated running form of anime character Naruto Uzumaki.
While it’s not clear if anyone will actually attend and attempt to breach the gates of a guarded Air Force base despite the joking nature, the branch has issued a warning to those considering it.
“[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. … The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets,” spokeswoman Laura McAndrews told The Washington Post.
Area 51 is a 1950s-era government facility located in the Nevada desert some 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It is located inside the Nevada Test and Training Range and is a detachment of Edwards Air Base.
Area 51 was originally designed to conduct secret tests of the Air Force’s U-2 spy plane. The secret spy plane project resulted in sightings of “unidentified flying objects” that couldn’t be answered. Shortly after, Area 51 became the center of alien conspiracy theories
Area 51 expert Annie Jacobsen, who authored “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base,” said the public can’t get anywhere near the base.
“That base is so jealously guarded, both in terms of media and in terms of actual physicality. I don’t think the Air Force or any of the other military partners or intelligence community partners that are all working out there at Area 51 are gonna let anybody anywhere near the entrance to Area 51,” Jacobsen told “Fox & Friends.”
Jacobsen said “disinformation” and “cover stories” continue to conceal Area 51’s operations even to this day.
One of the event creators, Jackson Barnes, included a post on the event page that laid out a strategy complete with anime, gaming and pop culture terms.
“P.S. Hello U.S. government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan. I just thought it would be funny and get me some thumbsy uppies on the internet,” Barnes added.
