I just took the time to read some of the posts above mine and I would like to comment on some of those things. The secrecy part mostly. You are very correct. My grandfather never, ever talked about anything that had anything to do with him. He would never talk to me. He would never answer any questions that have him in them. But when it comes to basketball he loved it so much and he would talk for ages. Anything but himself. He wouldn't even answer questions about college, meeting my grandmother, the vacation trips that they took. Nothing! It's not because he didn't like me, either. He loved talking with me, just not about himself. He would take long walks in Hubbard all around the town just for fun every single day. Leading up until his death he had this "episode" where he walked from central Vegas all the way to the Red Rock mountain! That's like miles! My family used to all meet up at their place in Vegas for Christmas, general reunion, Easter, etc. So I know the layout. My grandmother said that a medic helicopter found him clinging to a rock, he had been gone for four days. This was about a month before his death, bless his soul. Just simply died of age. He was 89 years old, bless his soul. My mom will talk about her job, but she never Actually Says Anything! She's so vague. Also she scares me sometime. She says a whole lot of stuff without ever actually saying anything even remotely specific or important. Once again I'd like to remind everyone that the work place was a "test site" for nuclear bombs. It's not sooo much of a big deal like "Oh you got to be the best, of the best, of the best sir!" to work there. I mean my mom was a young girl, bud she got the job because of my grandafther, and expreienced military and citizen engineer. I even forgot up until about a month ago that my mom even had a history over there in Nevada. She never talks about it with me which kind of hurts me because we talk about everything openly. She talks about it, sure. But only says things like "I worked at the Nevada Test Site" "It was a big open place with a lot of underground tunnels" "There was an underground train that we took to the blasting site" She never talks about anything else. I ask her about other areas that were there, provinces, regions, etc. She never says anything past that. Just says "The FBI is gonna kill you, etc." She says it jokingly because I am the one who started the whole "Governments gonna kill you if you talk about your past job, etc lol" but now she uses it as a scapegoat to just stop talking. I don't know what her prob is, she pisses me ooff.

personally i think most Area 51 employees are full of it

Most Area 51 workers could not tell you. Whenever the workers leave for vacation, they are constantly watched and spyed upon to make sure information is not leaked. Now what they do when they leave permanently? Maybe they brainwash them, but maybe they keep a close watch on them. Implanting chips into them could possibly indicate everything they do, and they could use this to keep a close eye on them.

Nobody has any chips that can do this.

People think the government is like a movie than how it really is, which is a bureaucracy. If you want to make a prediction, think like a bureaucrat and not Lex Luthor. This is what I'd guess. When you leave, you go to an exit interview, where somebody from HR and security brings out your file and all the regulations. They will make it very clear about the term of secrecy and what is involved, and make you sign all sorts of forms. You will get a print out of your retirement contributions and benefits. If you are part of the US Government, it is deposited in the Thrift Savings Plan. Then they show the form and the executive order describing how such assets can be seized with some federal asset forfeiture law even prior to criminal conviction if you were to violate sections xx.yy.zz et al.

Now most of the people are middle aged men with families, children who need orthodontics and college and these mundane things really matter. These employees also know that because what they did was secret and government oriented, they don't have many marketable skills in the civilian sector (which could be verified), and the only jobs that they could get require a security clearance. They also know very well that there is no right to a clearance, and it can be revoked without explanation. They can also read the paper and see the 11% unemployment (which is a true 18%+) and they think what their wife would think or do if they wrecked their and their family's future for some random nerds on a conspiracy website.

Originally posted by MountainStar
I'm probably the only ATS'er who lives the closest to Area 51. Here's a picture of one of my views below..................

I did talk to a fellow who claimed he worked at the secret base. In fact he was the 'Area 51 Caller' who called up Art Bell. Believe it or not....I met this fellow when he called Art on the local "Tradeio" program. Art did that radio talk program once a week. Callers could buy, sell or trade anything on the program. I had a big screen television for sale and left my phone number with Art and Ramona Bell.
Than the Area 51 caller called in and was interested in it. He also reminded Art who he was. Art gave him our phone number and he came out to our house. He did tell us some things concerning the base. That's all I can say. I believed this fellow. The only thing I can say......is something sure did change him physically. He did buy the big screen television.

.Suposedly you spoke to the art bell area 51 worker
.You sold him your tv
.he told you stuff

.you cant talk about it

my uncle knew one he was going to pass away soon and he told my uncle that the alens are real and that they act like little kids and disobey the orders theyre given

I have an underwhelming addition for the thread:

In the Air Force, I worked with a Sgt. who worked TDY there off and on for a few years in the 70's. He was doing hydraulics at the time. He said (in 1991-ish) that they'd fly in, take a no-window bus to the location where they would be working, go inside the building, follow a prescribed corridor of black plastic sheeting to the underside of the plane where the day's specific work was to be done.
Never saw anything more than a small section of the plane. Classic example of compartmentalized work. He was pretty sure in retrospect that what he was working on was the stealth. Hush hush then, not so secret by the time we talked.

A lot of but strange but nonetheless interesting stories I think Area51 should open its gates one day and let a filming team inside so at least we can have a little walk around virtually but that of course won't happen

I've always been under the impression (especially from seeing some of the posts on this site) that if anybody ever came out and willingly gave information about Area 51 that it wouldn't be believed.

For instance. If I had actually worked there, if I had seen some crazy stuff, and then decided that the public needed to know about what I saw, came on here, made a well informed, well put together post, how many of you would call B.S?

I pretty much believe a member of Area 51 would be safer expressing what they'd seen on a website such as this because 80% of people would call troll, or disinfo agent and they wouldn't be believed.

:/

My cousins dad claimed that he had a very dear friend who worked at Area 51 during the 90's before he was mysteriously let go on a "medical discharge".

Thats all i heard from it but i assume there was a lot more that he couldnt tell me

My former neighbor who moved to Utah a few years ago was a rocket scientist. Seriously. That was his job title. He had moved out here to work for ATK. He had been an engineer for decades and had retired once already before taking the ATK job.

He was a cool guy. We used to talk quite a bit. He claimed that he had worked at Area 51 back in the early 90's as an engineer. He said that all he did was work on rocket and missile systems all day every day. Whenever they had somebody coming through his work area, a light would flash meaning to cover his work. When the light went off, you could go back to what you were doing.

I don't have any reason to doubt him. He was a very smart and knowledgable guy.

yes he's my neighbor

Originally posted by bzap
There are many, many people who read ATS and I was wondering if any of you have ever met anyone, or read an interview with anyone, who has ever worked at Area 51 before. Surely someone has got to have some insight from a relative, or engineer friend, or someone who may have been connected to some of the dealings at the base though the government.

While I do not know anyone who has worked at Detachment 3, I am very good friends with an employee who is employed by one of its major defense contractors. He is a project manager. For training, the company sent him to Nellis AFB when he first began employment with them. Maybe he did go to Area 51? Maybe not? I don't know. I stated this on a previous thread on ATS before...He once told me that he overhead other employees discussing alien technology. He told me that the government has alien hardware, but its broken and we're trying to make it work. He also said we do not have any alien bodies. I asked him two things: 1) are you screwing with me and 2) do you think it was disinformation. He said no on both accounts. He told me the geeks who were discussing it didn't look like the disinformation types.

Now, I really don't know what to think of this. We have been friends for over ten years and he's a solid guy. If its true, he really didn't tell me anything we didn't know already, so he really didn't violate any oaths. He's not working on it so he didn't give up any info on his projects. I really don't know what to think of it. He told me about it, it wasn't like I was even probing him. He brought it up first. It was a pretty brief conversation. My jury is still out.

To make things more palatable and pragmatic, I've always thought that maybe a spaceship didn't crash in Roswell, maybe it was just a probe. We've sent off countless probes into space. Isn't that what we would do if we were scouting out a planet? Maybe we have a downed probe or something. Just hardware. I'm not sure.

Originally posted by dribbler
they probably would not tell you if they did.

I'm thinking you're probably right. That is something that I would think is highly discouraged.

A relative of mine had a pretty high security clearance in the intelligence branch of the Marines. He's never been there, but he's heard a handful of people talk about it. He said there are people who talk about it like it's a big accomplishment, then there are people that actually had real tasks there, like working on aircraft, etc. The ones who talked openly about how much they did out there probably didn't do a whole lot (security and maintenance types), and the ones who did have any real tasks (technical/skilled trade) had their tasks so compartmentalized that there really wasn't a whole lot to tell.

It would be like if you were a welder, and you went out there to weld something. You wouldn't walk into a hangar to repair a hangar door. You'd walk from an adjacent building, right up to the door, repair it without being able to see anything, then turn around and walk out and board your plane.

That's what people don't get. Everything is compartmentalized, even up to the highest levels. There are probably only a handful of people who have a bird's eye view of what's going on at any of these locations, and they're probably responsible for a lot more than A51. Everyone else sees only what they need to see. If you work on aircraft landing gear, that's all you're going to see. If you do electrical maintenance, that's all you're going to see. If you're a cook, you're going to look at a grill all day. You might hear the aircraft landing gear guy talk about top secret Goodyears he put on a plane that he couldn't see because it was draped with cloth, you might hear the electrician talk about top secret grounding receptacles he installed in the bathroom. Even so, the cook wouldn't be able to put it all together.

But he could probably make you a mighty fine top secret chicken fried steak.

I wanted to make a new post on this topic, but since I am new and cannot make a new post i found this old one from 2004 to reply to. ANyhow, i wanted to share my experience with an area 51 worker.

Obviously to protect the identity of the person involved I will not give away his exact location or anything.

I was living in the Vancouver, WA area while going to school at Portland State University. While on a break, I was hanging out with my friends and playing poker in his friends dad's basement. His dad visited Vegas regularly and loved playing poker with us since he could win all our money. It was obvious being older, probably in his 60's or 70's his dad was retired. I noticed very few military memorobelia on the walls of the basement. One night, after losing as usual, I paid attention to the pictures and achievements on the wall. I noticed one plaque that stood out. It read as follows, and I remember it very clearly to this day, because it blew my friggin mind.

"Thank you for all the years of dedication and hard work at the place that doesn't exist" Signed and stamped by some official.

This was the turning point in our relationship.

I immediately pointed to the plaque and smiled, as the kid inside my mind could barely keep himself calm. I think i stuttered something like yyyyou -- aaaaarea fififififty1? I was 21, give me a break...I asked him if there was anything he could tell me. Obviously I wanted to go off on a tangent asking about aliens and ufos, but this guy worked his whole life and that last thing he needed was for that. He said, I will tell you the same thing I have told everyone in my life about that...and he told me his rank, job title, and thats about it. But the smile on his face was worth noting. and talking to his kids is where i got some interesting information. They never said that no they dont exist, and they never said yes they do exist. they just kinda smiled, and told me that if i knew what they knew It would blow my mind. Theres more i could share, but only if this thread brings some interest.