Will Area 51 Be The Next Big Tourist Attraction?

It was over ten years ago that I was contacted by a small group of former military personnel who had some amazing stories to tell. Individually and as a group, they claimed to have piloted captured Alien hardware for the U.S. Government. In those whistleblower days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was no shortage of ex-government folk claiming to have intimate knowledge about the Government cover-up of information concerning Aliens and UFOs. Some of these people were believable enough, but most lacked a story or evidence that stood up to long-term scrutiny. These guys were different.

Having grown up around active and retired military personnel, I always found them easy to spot. Among that group, Officers and Military Pilots were definite standouts. As I was introduced to this group of men over a short period of time, they struck me as officers and pilots. More then that, they also seemed to have the kind of technical backgrounds and training that would befit Astronauts. It was obvious that these guys were telling either the truth or a well-scripted story that I was supposed to believe and share.

These ‘UFO Pilots’ are people of strong character and conviction. They came to me because they had a beef with the Government. After watching how whistleblowers like Bill English, John Lear, Wendelle Stevens, Robert Lazar and others were belittled or ignored by the press, roasted by their peers and mistreated by over-zealous UFO researchers, they wanted no part of all that. After hearing me during a guest spot on a local radio station in Orlando, one member of their unique little group decided to attend a seminar that I gave in Florida. While unsure whether to trust me or not, he liked the fact people at the seminar seemed to trust me with personal stories and decided to give me a try.

After a short series of cloak and dagger style contacts, I met with the guy I call the “UFO Pilot’ and heard his amazing story at a small motel in Florida. He came to me because several of his crewmates died in what he considered unnecessarily dangerous tests of Alien hardware in different places around the USA. In at least one case, several civilians were killed as well. To understand his frustration, I have to share a few details about these tests.

The men and women of this special team of pilots worked under more then unusual conditions. Due to the mechanical nature of the Alien objects they were flying, it took up to five people to pilot one craft. These people were jammed in a most uncomfortable and unsafe way into what amounts to a ‘wooden box’ inside the control area of the object. The ‘wooden box’ structure provided a still unclear measure of safety and access to human operation of the object that was never fully explained to me for security reasons. Inside the box, the human pilots had access to controls that had been specially built for them. These special devices gave the pilots some, but not a full measure of control needed to operate the craft.

The pilots had been told very little about how the object they were trying to fly came into U.S. Government hands. It was obvious to them that the technology and design of the craft came from a completely different sphere of technical influence. It seemed as though the beings that built this craft started from a framework of manipulating the natural forces of the universe, while we started our modern era of transportation with the internal combustion engine. This made for two very different and often incompatible technologies. The result of trying to combine the two was often disastrous.

After several crashes, near crashes and deaths within their group and among the civilian population of areas where tests took place, these men were made scapegoats. All were unceremoniously dumped from the program they were involved in. That was not akin to just losing a job. They were blamed for being unable to properly operate Alien technology that was never meant to be touched by humans. This made them pariahs as possible test pilot candidates for any other future government programs involving secret or captured air or space craft. In addition, the secrecy side of their work made them unavailable for flight duty or employment of any kind inside or outside of the U.S. Military.

Although I felt sorry for them, I knew that anytime anyone accepts unusual duties within the U.S. Military or Government Services; they throw the dice of life. There are no shortage of Veterans, long forgotten by an allegedly grateful nation, who are dying of diseases and medical problems directly related to their service. Many have limited or no access to government medical services and have not been properly compensated for their sacrifice.

The best I could do for these people was to share their story in my newsletter and through my seminars. Lacking the ability to learn or share their identities or other specifics about the world of secrecy in which they existed, I had few options. Calling a press conference would be fruitless. It did not and has not worked for even the most impressive former military or technical people claiming involvement with secret UFO projects and it would not work for them.

Although extremely intelligent and well trained, I could easily see that these people were very naïve about the U.S. Government’s ability to just throw people away. None believed it could or would happen to them, until it did. I could also understand their lack of enthusiasm when it came to sharing specifics or personal identities. They were all left with some sort of small financial compensation and none wanted to risk the stipend they were receiving despite their frustration, anger and feelings of betrayal.

Although I have had infrequent contact with most of these people, the news has been promising. All have managed to move on in one way or another, despite their obvious identity and employment constraints. In addition, the occasional contacts I have had with them have proven to be a good source of information when it comes to the world of hidden facts, secret projects and captured Alien hardware. The most recent tidbit may be something for all of us to get a bit excited about.

Anyone with half a brain knew that the government was not going to leave captured Alien hardware lying around a place that was quickly becoming as infamous as it had been secret. Once Robert Lazar and the other whistle blowers came forward, there was little doubt that most of the good stuff would be or was already in the process of being moved elsewhere. Given that, the Government had some tough choices to make about Area 51.

Despite a land grab that was designed to keep the curious away from Groom Lake, the area quickly became the focus of everyone from mildly interested tourists to dedicated UFO researchers alike. Over the past decade, new photos of the property available from photo sneaks and private eyes in the sky have shown improved roads and new buildings. Because we know so little about the property, it’s difficult to say what that kind of expansion means.

While we all assume that most of what happens in and around Groom Lake has to do with advanced aircraft testing, it’s important to remember that the secret nature of the property also makes it a prime place for government research into almost anything they don’t want you to know about. Given the information provided to me by the UFO Test Pilot group previously mentioned, I believe that Area 51 may be moving in a new and very unexpected direction. An already successful Base model may aid that direction.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is the home to the U.S. Air Force Museum and a lot more. A huge facility, it is easily accessible from several Interstate Highways and convenient local roads. The very public side of the Base in the form of the Air Force Museum hides a very private side as well. It’s no big secret that some of the most important and secret research conducted by the Air Force has been and continues to be carried out there. Hide in plain site seems to be their motto.

Alleged home of the legendary Hangar 18, Wright-Patterson was at least one destination of some material from the 1947 Roswell UFO crash. Many believe that one or more captured Alien spacecrafts have been brought, studied and possibly stored there over the years. Home to exotic Air Force agencies of the past and present like Project Bluebook and the Foreign Technology Division, many consider Wright-Patterson to be the very heart of the Air Force.

During the early 1990s, a television news crew was allowed access to some of the areas underneath the base. Although access was severely limited, their camera work revealed the existence of underground tunnels, vaults and storage areas. These could simply be bunkers with a few connecting passages, but maps and documents leaked out over the years seem to indicate a large number of interconnecting underground facilities beneath the base. None of this seems to have affected the ability of Wright-Patterson AFB to host foreign military visitors, national and international dignitaries and the general public.

It has worked with Wright-Patterson, so why not Area 51? If the UFO Pilots are correct, parts of Area 51 may soon be open to the public. How open and which parts remain to be seen. Will they follow the Disney model of opening a Welcome Center before anything else is ready? If such a plan exists, only select parts of Area 51 will be available for public visitation. After all, every major division of the U.S. Military and various U.S. Government agencies are represented there.

If we are to believe our own eyes, satellite photos indicate that quite a bit of building has gone on since Area 51 first came to the public’s attention. It’s a given that some of it has to involve underground construction as well. After all, the place already has a reputation for hosting deep underground bunkers, tunnels and research areas. It would be logical to assume that the Nevada heat and need for secrecy would create the certainty of utilizing the space below ground in as many practical ways as possible.

Apart from the quiet mutterings of the UFO Pilots and other insiders, making Area 51 a place for public visitation would be a brilliant move from a publicity standpoint. At a time when many people in the USA either love or hate the military, opening Area 51 might have a very positive effect on public perception. Although I do not see any sign of the UFO cover-up lifting, opening the Base and exposing the conventional side of the Area 51 story would allow us all access to some level of forbidden history.

Most government insiders fail to recognize the value of ‘coming clean’ about past secrets. Whenever that happens, there is always a rise in the level of confidence people have in their government and the military. It’s almost ridiculous that there are still classified documents that have never been released to the public dating back to the days before World War I. Most classified document researchers believe that it may be at least fifty to well over one hundred more years before even a small number of the many secret files from the World War II time period are released.

When Area 51 became the target of investigative journalists and UFO researchers, it also became a place with new security concerns. There can be little doubt that at least a few of the many thousands of people who have taken bus tours or day trips out to the very edge of the property have had other agendas. Some may have been foreign operatives. Others could have been potential terrorists. Either way, no secret facility could ever survive the kind of scrutiny leveled at the Groom Lake test facility for very long.

Area 51 faces an enemy greater then foreign agents or investigative journalists. That enemy is expansion. While the government still owns or controls most of the land area in Nevada, the southwestern housing boom is bringing people ever closer to the government’s front door. Despite environmental concerns, alleged water and electricity shortages and economic slowdowns, permanent housing and all the support structures that come with it are moving ever closer every year.
Whether Area 51 has become a victim of the whistleblowers, the housing boom or is just a white elephant facility that has outlived its usefulness, it’s a given that changes will come. Considering the infamous nature of the Base, it would be unlikely that such a facility would merely become a place reclaimed by the natural Nevada landscape. It would either become a series of smaller units inside a large multi-use property that could be sectioned off for government use, or become adapted to include an area that the public would be able to visit. I suspect it will be the latter.