What If Area 51 Was Declassified? | Unveiled

What If Area 51 Was Declassified?

Whether its aliens, UFOs, or suspicious weather balloons, Area 51 has been shrouded in mystery ever since the supposed Roswell cover-up in the late 1940s. Over the decades, this government facility has become a focal point for debating the possible existence of extraterrestrials. This is Unveiled, and today, we’re answering the extraordinary question; What if Area 51 was declassified? The obsession with Area 51 began in early July, 1947. A New Mexico rancher found a bizarre wreckage of scrap metal outside his home and reported it to the local authorities. But, within hours, the strange sighting had earned the attention of high-ranking government officials and the find was quickly confiscated. The next day, the United States Army put out an official statement revealing the wreckage to be a “crashed weather balloon”. It was around this time that the US were running an operation known as “Project Mogul” - a State initiative founded to basically keep tabs on communist Russia. These supposed “weather balloons” were genuine bits of high-tech kit, equipped with long-distance microphones that could reportedly detect sound waves created by Soviet Union atomic bomb tests. The project apparently ended in 1949… But, for some, the Roswell Incident was a little too suspicious to just unquestionably take the government’s word for it. It wasn’t long before the public began creating theories that Roswell wasn’t weather balloons but was instead a top-secret base where autopsies were performed on mysterious “space men” and alien spacecraft were tested. Of course, the media picked up on these ideas as well, and there followed dozens of movies and television shows entertaining, terrifying and convincing audiences that intergalactic lifeforms really had landed in their country. So, let’s explore that notion first. What would happen if Area 51 was completely declassified, and it really was a state-sponsored alien research hub complete with little green men, colossal insectoids and/or super-intelligent blobs of goop? What if Area 51 really was aliens? Well, if the US had truly been experimenting on alien anatomy for the past seventy years, we’d likely have hundreds - possibly thousands - of files including autopsy reports, audio recordings from past experiments, and actual, 100% genuine video evidence - as well as, theoretically, a lab full of live alien beings. The everyday person would go from living in a world with no verifiable proof that aliens exist, to suddenly having it all there in front of them… so public reaction would be difficult to predict. On the one hand, we could well see panic break out. The knowledge that we’re not alone in the universe would, after all, change our fundamental appreciation of life. But it could also prove surprisingly easy for modern society to accept the revelation. Thanks to countless sci-fi movies, TV, literature, and video games, we’ve in many ways already desensitized ourselves to the idea of other lifeforms existing. That’s not to say we wouldn’t have cause for concern, though. Questions would remain about whether other alien planets knew as much about us, as we apparently did about them. Plus, the revelation that America had been housing such a secret would seriously threaten all existing diplomatic ties between the US and everyone else. As for the conspiracy theorists who had long since claimed that Area 51 was hiding aliens, they’d suddenly find themselves as one of the world’s few trusted voices. And so, even if we could accept - given contemporary scientific thought - that extraterrestrials had always been here, if Area 51 really was declassified as an alien research lab, we’d still see massive societal change. But of course, not every Area 51 theory says that the site is housing the bodies of Martian invaders. So, what else could it be? Some have linked it to the moon landing - arguing that it’s actually the location where the Apollo 11 missions were filmed and hoaxed. NASA, and much of the scientific world, has disproved these claims time and time again, though. Other, less lofty explanations have billed the no-go zone as simply a top-secret military base, where the US forces develop weapons and strategies without anyone else knowing what they’re up to. There’s no denying that Area 51 maintains extremely high security. No one’s allowed in or out, and trespassers risk a massive fine or even jail time. Even the President couldn’t spill the beans because allegedly even they don’t completely know what goes on in there. The only President known to be strongly involved with Area 51’s activity was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who approved at least one of the projects during his presidency. By contrast, Bill Clinton reportedly tried digging up files on aliens, but found nothing. So, most American leaders couldn’t tell you about Area 51 besides what’s already been declassified. That Eisenhower project probably gives us our most reliable insight, though. In the mid-1950s, President Eisenhower gave his approval for the CIA to use Area 51 as a testing site for their latest aircraft - the Lockheed U-2. A state-of-the-art machine, it was to help the US government spy on the Soviet Union and take photographs without being detected. According to documents declassified by the CIA in 2011, another aircraft dubbed the “Archangel-12” was also built after the U-2. And, future aircraft projects at the site would pave the way for the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel - both specifically built for espionage. So, it does seem most likely that Area 51 simply isn’t the alien museum many dream it could be. So far, most declassified documents have shown that it operates as a testing site for United States spy tactics. The facility’s expansion in 2016 further supports this theory. Eagle-eyed users of Google Earth found that more hangars and airstrips had been built within the parameters, most likely to increase production of the latest tech. The expansion is reportedly used by both the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, with some speculation that the site is now linked to sophisticated drone production as well as aircraft. With that in mind, Area 51 may not be hiding anything so unusual from us. But, even if it’s official use was ever declassified, it’d no doubt still be a source of speculation. Since the infamous Roswell incident, we’ve steadily learned a lot more about Area 51. And, instead of aliens and UFOs, documents have described tests for stealth planes and weather balloons. Maybe that’s all there is… But it’ll always encourage us to wonder; “what if?” And that’s what would happen if Area 51 was declassified!