Susan Wright - UFO Headquarters: Investigations on Current Extraterrestrial Activity in Area 51

A S A SURVEY of the UFO phenomenon, this book rests on the dedicated work of hundreds of scientists, ufologists, and journalists. I thank each and every one, with special thanks to: Glenn Campbell, Mark Farmer, Tom Mahood, Steve Douglass, Bill Hamilton, Jan Aldrich, Francis Ridge, and Barry Greenwood for answering my endless questions and giving generously of their time.

And many thanks to my agent, Peter Miller, and to my editor, Jim Fitzgerald, for his valuable guidance in developing this project.

SUSAN WRIGHT

JULY 6, 1997

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A S WE PULLED UP to the border of Area 51, marked with large white signs, a brand-new Jeep Cherokee slowed to a stop on the other side, neatly blocking the dirt road. The windows of the Jeep were nearly black, so with the sun setting in the hills behind them, I could barely see silhouettes of the two men inside.

USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED , one of the two border signs stated in bold red letters. Both cited Federal Regulation #795 as forbidding entrance to the government installation.

Though the signs didnt say it, we were at the eastern border of Area 51, the secret government facility approximately ninety miles due north of Las Vegas, Nevada. From almost any vantage point, the six-by-ten-mile block of land that encompasses Area 51 is hidden behind low mountains.

But the mountains cant hide the aircraft that take off and land on the runways across Groom dry lake bedsaid to be the longest in the world at nearly thirty thousand feet. The new stealthy aircraft, such as the mythical hypersonic Aurora, are rumored to be capable of reaching speeds of Mach 8, which means it would take a racetrack half the size of America for it to turn in a circle at top speed.

People are drawn to Area 51 not only to see supersophisticated aircraft, but because of the numerous sightings of flying saucers and UFOs. There is actually video footage of a UFO over Nellis Range that is remarkably like a video of a Brazilian UFO. And there have been strange cattle mutilations as well as reports of abductions by aliens while visitors were in the area.

In a 1989 interview with George Knapp on KLAS-TV, a former government employee named Bob Lazar said that he worked at S-4, just south of Area 51, in a project to back-engineer alien flying saucers. Lazar says our government has obtained nine discs and is trying to decipher the alien technology. He went public, he claims, in order to protect his own life after breaking his security oath.

No one knows for sure which government agency controls Area 51, so I tried to get in by contacting Nellis Air Force Base, which operates the Nellis Range Complex, a bombing and gunnery range that surrounds the Groom Lake area. During one of my phone conversations I was told, Its dangerous out theretheres bombs dropping all over the place. One of the uses of the Nellis Range is Red Flag, established in 1975 as a realistic combat training exercise involving the Air Force and its allies. These forces attack Nellis Range targetsmock airfields, vehicle convoys, missile sites, tanks, parked aircraft, and bunkered and defensive positions. The Gulf War owed a measure of its success to Red Flag exercises.

The Air Force denied me access to Nellis Range, and Technical Sergeant James Brook sent me a fax of the official Groom Lake Statement (dated 26 October 1994):

There are a variety of activities, some of which are classified, throughout what is often called the Air Forces Nellis Range Complex. The range is used for the testing of technologies and systems and training for operations critical to the effectiveness of U.S. military forces and the security of the United States. There is an operating location near Groom dry lake. Some specific activities and operations conducted on the Nellis Range, both past and present, remain classified and cannot be discussed.

Brook explained that he couldnt talk about anything regarding the Nellis Range, even about his personal feelings, because of security reasons. And he never let the words Area 51 cross his lipsthe secret base is officially known as the Groom Lake facility. Brook then referred me to a next higher level: to Air Combat Command and the Secretary of the Air Force, Department of Defense.

I sent letters to the Pentagon requesting a tour of the Nellis Range, including but not limited to Papoose Lake and Area 51, but I wasnt surprised when one after another request simply disappeared into the black hole of black project secrecy. Thats when I asked my congress-woman for help, and the Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney, member of the House of Representatives for the 14th District, New York, wrote several letters to Lieutenant Napoleon Byars, National Affairs Division, urging that my request for a media tour receive prompt review and every possible consideration.

While the Pentagon never did answer me, Congresswoman Maloney kindly sent me a copy of her reply from Lieutenant Colonel Patricia M. Fornes, Congressional Inquiry Division. Fornes refused to grant my request on grounds of policies and regulations relative to national security.

For further inquiries, a phone number was offered. So I called Major Guy Thompson, Public Affairs, and asked, Now that youve acknowledged the existence of the Groom Lake facilities, what would be the harm in allowing in a few select media? Youve done it before at supersensitive government facilities, why not here?

Major Thompson was extremely pleasant and interested in my project, but he only replied, Weve had quite a few journalists ask for a tour, but we cant because of issues of national security.

The Department of Energy (DoE) was infinitely more accommodating, as per the dictates of former Energy Secretary Hazel OLeary, who took President Clintons request for openness literally. The DoE gave me an extensive tour of the Nevada Test Site (NTS), a 1,350-square-mile restricted area just west of the Nellis Range. On BLM maps, Area 51 is a small box of land barely connected to the northeastern part of NTSand technically considered to be under the same land management.

NTS, otherwise known as Americas Nuclear Proving Ground, is a vast complex of underground test tunnels, assembly plants, bomb craters, and nuclear waste storage facilities. On my tour, I viewed the shafts where a warhead and a small amount of plutonium were going to be detonated 980 feet underground in June 1997. While eating lunch on Rainier Mesa, I had a fantastic view of the runways and the northernmost half of Groom Lake.

A few days later, at the eastern border of Area 51, I couldnt see the base, although I was physically much closer than I had been at NTS. With the narrow road blocked by the security Jeep, we were boxed into a narrow ravine where two mountain buttes overlapped. The two men didnt budge.

There were two cameras on the butte to the left, tracking our Dodge Diesel (equipped with two scanners and a CB radio). The sophisticated camera setups had video uplinks, parabolic dish reflectors, and yagi antennae. Near the white warning signs, another surveillance camera was tied to a yucca tree, an unsettling cyborg of ancient flora and silicon chips.

Ironically, this electronic Berlin wall was erected across what used to be known as Freedom Ridge, appropriated by the Air Force in a much-publicized land grab. In April 1995, the border of Area 51 was pushed outward, eliminating the last two easily accessible vantage points to view the Groom Lake facility.

The name Area 51 wasnt even acknowledged by the government until legal suits were filed against the Department of Defense, the Secretary of Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency. These suits were filed by a group of Area 51 employees and their families because of alleged exposure to toxic wastes burned in open pits at the Groom Lake facility. This lawsuit finally forced the Department of Defense to release their 1994 Groom Lake Statement, which tersely admits, There is an operating location near Groom dry lake.