Nellis AFB 'ROFL'ing over PM article [a.c.a51]

From: Ken MacGray 
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 09:24:30 -0800
Subject: Nellis AFB 'ROFL'ing over PM article [a.c.a51]


From: groomwatch@aol.com (GroomWatch)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.area51
Subject: Nellis AFB 'ROFL'ing over PM article
Date: 19 May 1997 15:47:12 GMT


The June issue of Poplular Mechanics magazine may have suddenly become an
unexpected "bounty" to the Air Force, particularly to those folks at
Nellis AFB who are, no doubt, rolling on the floor laughing over the
article on AREA 51, which was for the most part filled with  factual
errors to their absolute delight!!    Sheila Widnal (Secretary of the AF)
must also be 'ROLF'ing, too.
It is my hope that this type of apparently misinformed article may not
serve to curtail the general public's interest and scrunity of AREA 51
(Groom Lake), particularly for those issues concerning alleged infractions
of environmental statutes.
 The article, written by Jim Wilson, infers that "the Air Force has
abandoned top-secret testing at its once most secret test site".  Then
Wilson comes  to the conclusion and states that "we know why and we know
where they moved it to (i.e., Utah)".
Nothing is farther from the truth than that overly generalized inference.
Jim Wilson, despite his probable sincerity and good intentions, obviously
missed the entire picture.   To begin with, he obviously took a wrong turn
on 'Groom Lake Road' and went to the wrong location.   It is apparent from
the photo that what he did was go south on the 'Mail-Box Road', crossed
the 'Groom Lake Road' and went further south all the way till he
encountered an old, poorly maintained wind fence, believing that he had
arrived at the back gate of AREA 51.   There he decided that nothing was
happening at AREA 51, and makes a statement, saying "the 'cammo dudes' are
no longer patrolling the perimeter of AREA 51" and further declares  that
"what we found was a securely locked wind fence that appears to have been
undisturbed for months".   He further comments that even though he had
arrived at the back door to AREA 51, there was "no guard post".
Brilliant!
He also states that the "warning signs flanking the gate aren't very
threatening either", and comes to the conclusion that "AREA 51 has shut
down".
Again, brilliant conclusion!
I suggest next time that he go to the right location....towards the real
Guard Shack area....where he may encounter the 'cammo dudes' and perhaps a
military chopper to welcome him.
>From what I understand from several reliable sources, Groom Lake has not
had a major lessening of activity whatsoever.   In fact there may be more
going on at Groom Lake than before.   New testing of "skins" for the outer
coating of stealth technology is going on, just to mention one example.
It is reported that major components of a new prototype of (small-scale)
VTOL produced by Lockheed have recently been transferred to Groom from Air
Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif.    Moreover, most sensitive programs
have always been  conducted below ground level at Groom.
The Popular Mechanics article is in such a drastic contrast to the more
well-researched article that appeared in the May issue of Popular Science
in which Groom Lake was mentioned several times, with an inference that
there is still plenty of activity at Groom.   Another erroneous fact
Wilson mentioned was that there is an "officially named AREA 6413" in
Utah.  There is no AREA 6413.   What he meant was Restricted Air Space
6413 in Utah.
 Sure, there may be some new programs going on in Utah, but to infer that
AREA 51 moved to Utah is totally suspect.


Norio Hayakawa