I heard an interesting program this afternoon on Fresh Air. Annie Jacobsen, an editor at the LA TImes, whom you may remember from an incident involving strange goings-on on a Northwest Airlines flight, has written a book about Area 51. Apparently, although it doesn’t exist officially it does exist.
The explanation she got from what sounds like a pretty solid informant on the infamous “crashed flying saucer” incident is very nearly as hair-raising as it would have been if it actually had been alien invaders.
You can listen to the program here:
I was shocked that she had been unaware of the open air nuclear weapons tests in Nevada in the 1950s. I guess she’s too young.
In the early 50’s my dad was driving up California 395 one night when he saw a flash in the rearview window. He looked back to see the glow of a nuke back through the mountains in Nevada.
I always thought that was so cool, to see one, but far enough upwind(?) to be safe.
I’m kind of annoyed that the mystery of Area 51 may be solved. I’ve gotten one book out of it and numerous glancing references. And there must be 100 other writers who’ve bounced off Area 51 in one way or another. It’s a drag to lose it.
It’s WAY more than 100 writers if you throw in TV and movie script writers. But take heart – most people will never hear this story. And for those that do? I’ve got one Kenyan-born US President hanging out with one very tall skinny Muslim and some old guy from Mississippi with bad hips telling me that no one will believe it anyway.
I listened to the program as well with great interest and was also shocked that she was so shocked at some of the stuff that occurred at the Nevada test site. Of course, I’m a collector of sorts – I have the all the declassified nuclear test footage that currently exists, as far as I’m aware, so I have a good knowledge of the history. The author’s breathless conspiratorial tone got quite annoying however and she basically outed her supposedly anonymous source on the UFO stuff. Guess he will get a visit from the men in black soon.
FWIW, I don’t see that this impacts the writers. They just get a new set of facts to weave into interesting stories.
Sure there were above ground blasts because we were fighting aliens!