300k people are signed up to storm Area 51 and “see them aliens”

Set in a desert valley and surrounded by warning signs, more than 300,000 people plan to invade a top-secret military base for one reason only.

The Clinton administration couldn’t get there. Russian spies tried and failed, too. But that won’t stop nearly 300,000 alien enthusiasts from gathering in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, with plans to invade top-secret military base Area 51, where conspiracy theorists believe the Government is hiding information on extraterrestrial life.

The ironic Facebook event, dubbed “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us”, has nearly 300,000 confirmed attendees and some 324,000 interested in the mission.

“We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Centre tourist attraction and co-ordinate our entry,” the event details read. “If we naruto run” — referring to the widely memed manga character — “we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens.”

The meme-inspired event feed has been flooded with harebrained schemes to break into the heavily guarded government facility, including rock throwing, a squadron of “Kyles” — a much-memed character born on the internet — hopped up on Monster Energy drinks; and a legion of nagging “Can I speak to your manager? Karens” (Yes, another meme persona), who one participant jokes “would be left untouched”.

Signage on the highly guarded perimeter of Area 51 in Amargosa Valley, Nevada.

The call to action is, of course, satire (hopefully) since Area 51 is infamously secured by barbed fences, radar and heavily armed military personnel. The 12,950-square-kilometre desert site has been in operation for more than 60 years and officially fronted as part of the Nevada Test and Training Range, affiliated with the Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas Valley, though only recently did the government intelligence recognise Area 51’s existence.

What really goes down on the grounds has yet to be revealed to the public — though many have attempted to uncover its presumed secrets.

Though Area 51 was established in 1955, the mystery began somewhere in the 1980s when a man who claimed to have been employed there said he saw scientists engineer an alien aircraft, which some believe may have been modelled after a UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in the late ’40s. The so-called alien saucer turned out to be an advanced weather balloon, and the man’s story was later found to be fabricated.

Despite the debunking, the legend has persisted through more tales of highly classified air tests using experimental technology and has firmly established itself as a bona fide conspiracy theory that has captivated stargazers for decades.

If the “Storm Area 51” caravan goes through with the stunt, they’ll be met by gun-toting guards who have been cleared to stop any intruders at any cost — per the site’s strongly worded signage: “Use of deadly force authorised.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission