Students React To The Area 51 Raid
By Bernadette Kelly | Published by September 29th, 2019
The heavily joked about “Area 51 Raid” actually happened outside of Area 51.
“Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” was a Facebook event created by Matty Roberts, a student from Bakersfield, California that took place on Sept. 20, at Area 51, a United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range, for people to see if alien life exists.
“Area 51 Aliens – Alien Fresh Jerky Baker California”
Photo courtesy of Anthony Quintano via Creative Commons
“If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets” was the event’s running joke that people reenacted when arriving at the facility.
For those who are unaware, a Naruto run is a type of running where the person leans forward with their arms stretched out behind them.
More than two million people RSVP’d to the event on Facebook. However, out of those two million people, only about one thousand showed up outside the gates of Area 51 at different times during the day of the raid.
The internet memes surrounding the event gained a lot of attention over the course of the last few months. Many students have viewed and reshared these memes on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit.
“Alien” Photo courtesy of Greg Strasz via Creative Commons
Students such as Kayla Lombardo, a senior majoring in Communication Studies, saw the memes on Instagram. Lombardo said that she herself is a believer that there is alien life out in the universe.
“At first I thought it was funny because I thought it was a joke,” Lombardo said. “But then I realized later that people were actually serious about it.”
Lombardo said that although the memes were funny, she didn’t feel inclined to join the raid due to the threat of legal ramifications, such as being arrested for trespassing.
During the day of the raid, six arrests were made, including one for public urination and five for trespassing.
The United States Air Force had sent out a warning before the raid against anyone trying to infiltrate the base, saying that “any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged.”
Angela Elzind, a sophomore majoring in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, said that she thought the raid was simply a joke taken too far. Elzind said that she feels Area 51 could be housing some secrets related to aliens, but she is not sure if the public should find those secrets out.
When asked if she would have participated in the raid if she had the chance, Elzind stated that “it would probably not be the best idea due to a lot of unknown aspects of Area 51.”
At this time, no one has managed to infiltrate the base, and the secrets of Area 51 continue to remain unseen by the public.
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