Buzz
The 'Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us' movement, which emerged in September 2019, ultimately fizzled. However, what happens at Area 51 remains in Area 51. Yet, the government-endorsed conspiracy theorists, who claim that extraterrestrial life and their craft are hidden within, no longer seem entirely unreasonable. Just a week before the viral call to action, the U.S. Navy officially admitted that UFOs exist. After decades of refutation, the Navy publicly acknowledged the presence of 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.' No matter the label, these bizarre aerial objects spotted by Americans are not weather balloons or secret military planes, as previously suggested.
It took the government nearly as long to confirm the existence of a place known as 'Area 51.' A Freedom of Information Act request revealed its existence to the public in 2013. Officially, the site is used for aircraft testing and development. The base is formally called the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake, one of the two military training areas in the Nellis Air Force Base Complex in Nevada. Located about a two-hour drive from Las Vegas, the remote desert site is near UFO-themed tourist towns such as Rachel and Hiko. Whistleblowers and eyewitnesses continue to reveal secrets about what’s truly happening at Area 51 and other military facilities.
10. Malmstrom Air Force Base
Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), is located near Great Falls, Montana. In 1967, security and maintenance crews at the base reported a UFO hovering above one of the missile silos. Shortly afterward, all ten missiles deactivated, one by one. Although declassified documents confirm that the nuclear weapons were indeed rendered inoperable, there is little corroborating evidence of the UFO incident. However, an earlier UFO sighting in 1950, known as the Mariana UFO Incident, provided some intriguing evidence. Nick Mariana, a minor league baseball manager, might have been the first person to intentionally capture UFO footage. While inspecting a baseball field, he saw a flash of light and managed to film two silver discs moving at incredible speed over the city. His 16mm film captured 16 seconds of color footage, but he later claimed that 35 frames were missing after the Air Force examined the film and returned it. These frames allegedly showed the rotating discs in the sky.
9. Carswell Air Force Base
The 1947 Roswell Incident in New Mexico stands as one of the most infamous UFO encounters. Initially, a press release claimed a flying saucer had been discovered, but a later statement retracted that, labeling the object as a weather balloon. Operations officer Robert Shirkey observed an aluminum-like material, marked with symbols, being prepared for transport to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. Flight crewman Robert Porter noted that the crates containing what was described as 'pieces of a flying saucer' were as light as empty boxes. Over time, UFO sightings continued around the base. In 1954, a T-shaped craft was observed and tracked on radar, hovering at 4,000 feet over the nearby airport. Another sighting, reported by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1965, described a triangular UFO with three lights.
8. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Captain Oliver W. 'Pappy' Henderson, a senior pilot at Roswell AFB during the Roswell Incident, flew a plane to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio shortly after the event. For over three decades, he kept the details of his mission under wraps due to his security clearance. However, in 1977, he confided in his business partner, revealing that he had transported wreckage from a spacecraft, as well as small alien bodies. He even showed his partner a piece of the metal, which appeared similar to aluminum but was lighter and considerably stiffer. In 1982, Henderson shared the same story with several of his colleagues from Roswell during a reunion. Other military personnel, including Marine Lieutenant Colonel Marion M. 'Black Mac' Magruder, corroborated Henderson’s account. Magruder, on his deathbed, recalled seeing an alien that appeared 'squiggly.'
7. Fort Dix
Major George Filer shares his extensive experience of over sixty years investigating UFOs and extraterrestrials in John Guerra's *Strange Craft: The True Story of An Air Force Intelligence Officer’s Life with UFOs*. One of the most notable incidents Filer recounts is the shooting of an alien at Fort Dix in New Jersey. In 1978, during the early hours of a freezing January morning, a military policeman tracked a low-flying aircraft through the army base's wilderness. A creature, standing at 4 feet tall with a grayish-brown hue, long arms, a slim body, and a large head, appeared in front of the MP's truck and was shot. The alien's remains emitted a distinct ammonia-like odor. Filer, a key member of the Disclosure Project, advocates for the full release of UFO-related information. In 2017, the Pentagon made public footage of an extraterrestrial craft outpacing U.S. Navy fighter jets, further supporting some of Filer's earlier claims.
6. 29 Palms
Located in California's Mojave Desert, 29 Palms was the setting for a major multi-regimental live-maneuver exercise in October 2019. This Marine base, featured in Project Redbook, is known for more than just its military activities. Project Redbook is a database containing details of alien activity sites beneath the surface, compiled for those interested in exploring these locations, though it makes no claims of verifying any site. Researcher Val Valerian has suggested that recovered alien technology is studied in underground facilities at the base. The area has also been the scene of numerous UFO sightings since the 1950s, including an extraordinary sighting in May 2019, when a worm-like UFO was observed hovering over 29 Palms.
5. Fort Meade
In *Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny*, Dan Sherman describes his recruitment to Fort Meade in Maryland, where he trained for an ultra-secret Air Force program known as 'Greys.' In 1992, Sherman was selected to communicate with Grey Aliens, beings first encountered during the Roswell Incident. Sherman's mother had allegedly been visited by these aliens and underwent genetic manipulation, which enabled Sherman to fulfill his role as an 'Intuitive Communicator' and receive messages from the Greys. Sherman’s duties involved sitting in a communication van at undisclosed locations to relay these messages. Over time, he began receiving what he referred to as 'abduction data.' The National Security Agency (NSA), based at Fort Meade, has declassified a number of documents in recent years, some of which discuss attempts to decode a mysterious 'radio message' received from outer space.
4. Edwards Air Force Base
Skeptics often question why extraterrestrials seem to communicate with ordinary individuals rather than world leaders. However, one of America's most prominent leaders, Dwight Eisenhower, may have had an encounter with them. Depending on who you ask, the story varies: some claim that Eisenhower made a secret trip to Edwards Air Force Base while on a golf vacation, while others say he went to the dentist for a chipped tooth repair. Eisenhower's dentist insists he saw the president on the evening of February 20, 1954. Dr. Michael Salla, a key figure in exopolitics—the study of extraterrestrial life and its political implications—believes that Eisenhower met with two aliens at the base. These extraterrestrials reportedly had white hair, colorless lips, and piercing blue eyes. Interestingly, the Associated Press briefly reported that Eisenhower had died on February 20, 1954, only to retract the announcement moments later. Eisenhower's great-granddaughter, Laura Magdalene Eisenhower, has publicly asserted her belief that her ancestor did indeed meet with extraterrestrials.
3. Dobbins Air Force Base
Michael Hitt, a police officer from Roswell, Georgia, compiled *Georgia’s Aerial Phenomenon 1947-1987*, a collection of 234 UFO sightings across the state. Many of these reports come from military and civilian pilots, including those from Dobbins Air Force Base, who shared their experience from 1952. These airmen witnessed an object shoot across the sky before vanishing, and radar confirmed its speed at 1,200 miles per hour—twice that of a conventional aircraft. Bruce Beach, a control tower operator, recalls that UFO sightings were so frequent at Dobbins in the 1950s that the tower used a 3D camera, an uncommon technology at the time. Sightings continued in the years that followed, with one particularly striking report in January 2019: a large, square, black UFO, the size of a Boeing 727, was seen near the base and reported to MUFON.
The spaceship-shaped McDonald’s in Roswell, New Mexico, stands as a quirky reminder that humanity may not be alone in the cosmos. While evidence remains largely anecdotal, with military personnel, pilots, and law enforcement officers sharing their experiences, the government has confirmed that UFOs are indeed a real phenomenon. Who knows what other secrets might be uncovered in the future?
2. Holloman Air Force Base
Holloman Air Force Base, located in New Mexico, is notorious for its connection to numerous UFO sightings. Project 1947, an ongoing project that gathers articles and documents about UFOs from 1900 to 1965, highlights one such event. In 1950, electronics engineer Cliff Booth and a colleague used an Askania theodolite to photograph a cigar-shaped UFO. Though both men were convinced they had witnessed a 'craft from outer space,' the photos were too blurry to confirm their claim. Decades later, filmmaker Robert Emenegger was asked by the US Air Force to produce a UFO documentary. In 1974, *UFOs: Past, Present and Future* was released, but the most striking part of the story was omitted. The Air Force had promised Emenegger footage of a UFO landing at Holloman in 1971, which showed three UFOs, one of which landed, and three aliens emerging. However, the Air Force later withheld the footage.
1. Kirtland Air Force Base
A declassified government report from 1980 revealed that guards at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico had witnessed UFOs in the Coyote Canyon area. During the same period, radar in the area was mysteriously jammed for six hours by an unknown source. The strange lights in the sky, which Paul Bennewitz, a physicist, inventor, and UFO researcher, had observed for a year prior, seemed to move toward the base almost every evening. Bennewitz filmed the lights and also captured footage of other objects in the air and on the ground. Over time, he amassed over 2600 feet of film. Bennewitz also recorded low-frequency radio signals that he believed were transmitted by aliens, and he created a computer program to decode these transmissions. He further claimed to have evidence that aliens were using electromagnetic devices to control humans.
