By Phil Briggs
(Connecting Vets) - Part of us really wants to see an army of alien enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists, meme artists, and other weird warriors actually try to invade a remote Air Force base in order to prove the government is secretly hiding proof of alien life forms.
But after a Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” appeared earlier this month, urging UFO enthusiasts everywhere to descend upon part of the larger Nevada Test and Training Range at Nellis Air Force Base, the military has issued a response and it’s clear they’re not messing around.
Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews told The Washington Post, "(Area 51) is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces," she said. "The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets."
However, according to the group's Facebook event page there are now over 1.3 million people declaring they will attend and at least 1 million people who have said they’re interested.
A recent pinned post on the event page indicated the whole thing was a joke rather than a serious effort to break into a heavily armed Air Force Base. “P.S. Hello US government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan. I just thought it would be funny and get me some thumbsy uppies on the Internet,” the post reads.
But, on the "Details" portion of their page, the joke is not so clear, "We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry. If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens."
Going further down this alien-conspiracy-event rabbit hole, NPR reported they spoke with the event's creator who is a “20-year-old man from California who would be identified only as Val.”
According to NPR, “Val” told them, “I just thought it would be a funny idea for the meme page. And it just took off like wildfire. It's entirely satirical though, and most people seem to understand that."
Val went on to claim that there have been conversations with people about creating a different kind of “shindig, perhaps something educational,” and that it’s doubtful anyone will be "sprinting through the desert at 3 a.m."
But it’s the intersection of crazy and sarcasm where the Internet never disappoints.
Twitter also has some real gems under #StormArea51, ideal for those interested in the truth about UFOs or just fans of snarky comments.
As the comments, memes and other hilarious conversations continue to fill Facebook and Twitter, the official "Storm Area 51" website has one mission that is clear ... selling T-shirts.
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Follow Phil Briggs @philbriggsVet.