250,000 people pledge to storm Area 51 to ‘see them aliens’
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Grab your tinfoil hats!
More than 250,000 Facebook users have signed up to attend a raid on Area 51 in the Nevada desert in hopes to steal alien secrets, Newsweek reported.
The tongue-in-cheek affair entitled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” is scheduled to take place at 3 a.m., September 20.
According to the event’s description, an army of alien hunters will gather in front of a tourist center near the base, then raid the grounds and look for aliens. Participants are being told to run in unison, “Naruto”-style, with their heads forward and arms outstretched behind them.
“If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let’s see them aliens,” the event description reads.
The event, which is clearly a joke, is hosted by a page entitled “S***posting cause im in shambles.” The page is run by SmyleeKun, who streams himself on Twitch playing video games, and is dedicated to posting memes.
Area 51, also known as Homey Airport, is a highly-classified detachment of Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Its primary purpose remains a mystery, and the secrecy surrounding the base has led to a trove of conspiracy theories involving UFOs.
The CIA confirmed its existence for the first time in 2015 by releasing some documents related to Area 51 and later publishing a brief history of the base.
According to CIA history, testing for Lockheed’s first U-2, a reconnaissance jet used throughout the Cold War, took place at the base in 1955. It’s called Area 51 due to its Atomic Energy Commission map designation. It was also nicknamed Watertown because rainwater would runoff hte nearby mountains and flood the dry lakebed of Groom Lake, according to Newsweek.
“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.
Base officials did not respond to the magazine’s request for comment.