Area 51 is target of nearly 500K volunteers to ‘storm’ the site

By Marvin Clemons Las Vegas Review-Journal

5 years ago

Dean Baumgartner, left, of Adventure Photo Tours, photographs Becky Cooper and Shane Cooper of ... — Dean Baumgartner, left, of Adventure Photo Tours, photographs Becky Cooper and Shane Cooper of England, on a tour of Delamar Dry Lake on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. Baumgartner lead a small group of tourists to Rachel and other sites related the super secret military base, known as Area 51, and its conspiracy theories about extra-terrestrial beings and UFO spacecrafts. (David Becker/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Rocks scattered over the Delamar Dry Lake are seen on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. Over the years the lake bed has been designated as an emergency landing strip for various test flights and as landing spot for a crew space transportation parachute drop test in 2012. (David Becker/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Fred Dunham, former Area 51 security guard, poses for a portrait at his home Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Las Vegas. (Elizabeth Page Brumley/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @ELIPAGEPHOTO)

Former EG&G Special Projects security officer Fred Dunham, who was employed at Groom Lake, Nev., better known as Area 51, arrives at CHR, Inc., Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007, prior to giving a deposition before a Department of Labor representative. Dunham claims contact with dangerous chemicals has destroyed his health. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A child’s shoe is seen near the perimeter of the well-guarded military installation on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. The super secret site, known as Area 51, is full of conspiracy theories about extra-terrestrial beings and UFO space crafts. (David Becker/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Is it possible to find out what is at Area 51, the mysterious research base northwest of Las Vegas?

Apparently nearly a half-million people are willing to put their lives on the line to find out on Sept. 20.

A tongue-in-cheek post on Facebook has 469,000 people signed up to storm the base. The figure is growing by the minute.

The event,“Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” is inviting anybody to join a “Naruto run” — a Japanese manga-inspired running style featuring arms outstretched backwards and heads forward — into Area 51.

Area 51 has been the focus of conspiracy theories for decades, and many people think it is where the U.S. government stores secrets about aliens.

In 2013, Area 51 was officially acknowledged as a military site, but theories live on.