It consisted of three hangers, a control tower, a mess hall, runways, and an area with mobile homes for soldiers to live at. The U-2"tms were also brought here during this time (Campbell 1996).
Activity at Groom Lake soon started on August 4, 1955. This was the first flight of a U-2 plane at Groom Lake. Around two weeks later, President Eisenhower signed the executive order 10633. This order restricted air space over Groom Lake. This airspace was five by nine miles long, and was called the "Las Vegas Project" (Cambell 1996). When the public and press became aware of this area, they were told that this area was a small complex with "dormitories, equipment, buildings, and a small airstrip." The media was also told that this area was going to be a bomb testing area for the military. They were told nothing about the testing of the U-2 spy planes. When asked about the spotting of a U-2 plane in the area, representative of the base said that the plane was just there to make weather observations for the Air Weather Service of the US Air Force. It was later learned that this base was called "Watertown" (Wallace 1997).
But if there really are extraterrestrial life forms and spacecrafts, then who is looking over them, and who else in involved Do our presidents and higher personal in our government know about it By looking at some quotes that have been made by different presidents in our country, it seems that maybe they do know a little more than they let the public know.
Once Sheriff Wilcox had some pieces of the rubble, he immediately notified the authorities at the Roswell Army Air Field. After the military received the rubble, they then proceeded to seal off the area of the crashed object. They then went and collected every last piece of the wreckage, leaving nothing behind. They also did a dusting of the dirt floor at the area of the crash (Smith 1998). The wreckage was collected and brought to the military base in Roswell, and then transported to an undisclosed location.
It"tms clear that there was something going on at Area 51 that the government didn"tmt want the public to know about. At first, they told everyone that it was a practice bombing site. Then they informed the public that it was the site of a NASA base. But what really was going on here, and is all this information about secret planes and bombings just a cover up for what it really is, an extraterrestrial research center
Over the past years, former government officials have stated that in fact every president of the United States since Harry S. Truman has been briefed on the "alien threat already among us." The list doesn"tmt stop there. It seems that some military personal have know about the threat of aliens from outer space. According to Steige, (1990), "on October 9, 1955, General Douglas MacArthur told the New York Times that the nations of the world would have to unite. "The next war," he said, "will be an interplanetary war. The nations of Earth must make a common front against attack by people from other planets." (Pg.146). Then again General MacArthur talked about the threat of aliens. During the graduation of the West Point students, MacArthur said in a speech, "We deal now not with things of this world alone. We deal now with the ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy." (Steige 1990 pg.146).
During the 1960s is when the base "Watertown" officially got the name Area 51. The base was given the name because that was what the area would show up as on most maps and documents for the next two decades to come. Although the U-2 program had stopped, a new program, the A-12, had now started up (Cambell 1996). This program was yet another covert program by the CIA, like the U-2 spy plane.
Over the next year and a half, many new types of planes and helicopters were sent to Area 51 for test runs and experiments. During the next year, there was also an expansion of restricted airspace around Area 51 (Cambell 1996). Also, area military radar facilities in the surrounding area were ordered not to report any unusual sightings of high performance aircrafts (Wallace 1997).
Just a few years ago, the government released a case-closed statement about the Rosewell incident. In this statement, it was said that not only was it just a weather balloon that crashed at Roswell, but the balloon also had experimental radar equipment inside of the balloon. It was said in the statement that this equipment was the cause of all the odd shaped metal objects that were found in the fields that day in Roswell, New Mexico (Smith 1998).