For decades, Area 51 has been a source of quite a lot of urban legends — and it looks like an ever-growing group of people wants to put them to the test. In recent days, a Facebook event named “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” has gone viral, which suggests that a giant group of people attempt to visit and “Naruto run” their way into the secretive military base. At the time of this writing, the event has earned over 800k RSVPs, with another 755k people marking that they’re “interested” in the event.
While the event is clearly a joke, the sheer number of people responding to it has garnered an official response from the Air Force, who are apparently “ready to protect” the base should the event actually come to fruition.
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“[Area 51] is an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces,” Air Force spokesperson Laura McAndrews said in a statement (via Yahoo). “The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets”.
For the uninitiated, Area 51 is a section of the Edwards Air Force Base in the Nevada desert. For decades, it’s never been abundantly clear exactly what the base does, outside of evidence that it has been used to create experimental aircraft and weapons systems. Some have believed that the base is secretly hiding proof of extraterrestrial life, either through studying a crashed UFO or attempting to contact a new one.
As the event jokingly argues, having such a large number of people descend on the base at once would render its forces useless, allowing everyone to find out once and for all what extraterrestrial things hide inside. Granted, there’s no telling exactly how that would hold up against the Air Force’s efforts, but the idea behind it is certainly memorable.
“We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry.” the event’s description reads. “If we [Naruto] run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens.”
The “Storm Area 51” event is theoretically scheduled for September 20th, so everyone will just have to wait and see if any of the hundreds of thousands of people actually turn the joke into action. If they do, it sounds like the Air Force will be ready.
What do you think of the Air Force’s response to the “Storm Area 51” event? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
