The Secret Genesis of Area 51

by Td Barnes

  In 1942, Nevada, the “battle-born” state, became the “battlefield” state when the United States established a defensive network in Nevada to repel a feared Japanese invasion of the West Coast. The navy established its West Coast base outside Fallon, Nevada, and the army air corps established several military bases throughout the state to contain the Japanese army should it invade the West Coast of the United States. Nevada became the front line.

  During World War II, the Wendover Army Air Field straddling the Nevada-Utah line was the training site for the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit that carried out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Beginning with the Korean War, the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center near Lake Tahoe and the town of Gardnerville, Nevada, provided cold-weather training for replacement personnel bound for Korea.

  Nevada, the western coast line of defense, beginning during World War II. TD Barnes.

  When the Central Intelligence Agency chose Area 51 in Nevada for flight testing the U-2, it picked a state long known as a military state, a military test venue where no one would notice yet another war activity. Many of its 237,000 residents depended on the military and the Atomic Energy Commission for jobs.

  Next door at Yucca Flats, Yucca Mesa and Frenchman Flats, the Atomic Energy Commission was exploding atomic bombs that created mushroom clouds, entertaining tourists watching from Las Vegas hotels and casinos and forming fallout clouds that traveled directly over Area 51 before dissipating over Utah.

  At Jackass Flats, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Atomic Energy Commission were developing a nuclear rocket engine for a manned flight to Mars.

  Area 51 lay near the center of the four-hundred-mile NASA High Range Flight Corridor, where the United States was preparing to fly the X-15 that carried eight astronauts flying over the NASA High Range Corridor in Nevada. The CIA’s Groom Lake in Area 51 soon became an issue between the CIA and NASA when NASA designated it an emergency landing site for the X-15 Project.

  The CIA “weather research” project and the AEC activities received scant attention because the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and even the Coast Guard were all present, with most of the services conducting classified activities within the state. The U.S. Coast Guard patrolled Lake Meade near Las Vegas, and the army ran the largest weapons depot in the world at Hawthorne, Nevada.

  The U.S. Navy used the nearby Tonopah Test Range as impact targets for its Regulus II, Model XR33M-N-9A, tactical missile launched at sea. The navy also operated a naval air station at Fallon, Nevada, and operated at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Walker Lake near Hawthorne, Nevada. More than 7,000 armed forces and civilians worked at the Hawthorne arsenal during the war, making Hawthorne the busiest Nevada boomtown in a generation. In early 1950, nearly 2,500 people lived in government housing at nearby Babbitt while working for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps at Walker Lake.

  The CIA’s creation of its Area 51 facility and combination of its air space with the adjoining U.S. Air Force Nellis gunnery range created the largest contiguous air and ground space available for peacetime military operations in the free world.

  One might say the CIA chose Nevada because it was already hosting the unique and highly classified activities of four distinct worlds. These included the military world (army, navy, marine corps, coast guard and air force), the white world (atomic), the space world (NASA) and the black world (Area 51, the nucleus of black projects extending worldwide). A cloak of secrecy already shrouded Nevada’s guided missile and leadership in the national security of the United States, making it ideal for hiding the CIA’s U-2 spy plane posing as a NASA plane for weather research.

  AREA 51 NO SECRET

  The CIA did not build the Area 51 facility in secrecy. The “facility that didn’t exist” was public knowledge at the beginning in 1955 with the construction of the airstrip at Groom Lake, Nevada. The Atomic Energy Commission announced the construction on behalf of the CIA in the name of NASA, the use being weather research. Despite numerous such announcements over the decades, test site insiders, government officials, military personnel and the public perpetuated the myth that the existence of the facility was a closely guarded secret.

  Herb Miller of the CIA Development Projects Staff used the cover of the Atomic Energy Commission to organize a team of construction crews after he issued $800,000 in contracts for construction of the facility. Seth Woodruff Jr., manager of the AEC’s Las Vegas field office, participated in the cover by announcing to the news media his instructing the Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Co., Inc. (REECo) to commence the preliminary work on a small, satellite Nevada test site installation. He noted work underway at the location a few miles northeast of Yucca Flat and within the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range.

  Woodruff announced that the installation included “a runway, dormitories, and a few other buildings for housing equipment.” He described the facility as “temporary.” The press release distribution included eighteen media outlets in Nevada and Utah, including a dozen newspapers, four radio stations and two television stations. At the time and under the existing circumstances, the news release hardly rated as newsworthy.

  The latest weather maps at Watertown. CIA via TD Barnes Collection.

  Watertown weather briefing prior to U-2 flight. CIA via TD Barnes Collection.

  Preparing maps for photo rooms at Watertown. CIA via TD Barnes Collection.

  By July 1955, the AEC had provided the CIA with a secret facility by expanding its Area 51 boundaries to include Groom Lake. The CIA and AEC invented C.L.J, a fake construction firm, to oversee the construction done by subcontractors. The CIA contractors constructed hangars, a mile-long runway, a concrete ramp, a control tower, a mess hall and other amenities. Official records referred to the facility as Watertown Strip. The pilots and ground crews called it “Area 51.”

  History had shown the CIA took the right approach at the beginning by announcing through the AEC the construction of the facility. The CIA even identified it as a test site for the U-2, using the cover story of NASA building the facility to conduct weather research, thus providing enough information to satisfy the public’s curiosity without revealing agency involvement or classified operational details about the U-2’s mission. Only the security surrounding the U-2 belied the innocuous “weather research” cover story. The security for the project created little speculation considering the U.S. Air Force Gunnery, Atomic Proving Grounds and the Tonopah Test Range all having similar closed borders due to the classified nature of their activities.

  WHAT’S IN A NAME?

  The CIA never officially acknowledged or named the rectangular former World War II bombing and artillery practice airfield, now a CIA test area hidden inside a 38,400-acre Atomic Energy Commission grid identified as Area 51. The CIA chose to use this same name to unofficially identify its new facility only for internal administrative reference purposes.

  It wasn’t until 1979, when the CIA turned its Area 51 facility over to the air force, that the public even knew the former U-2 test facility was still operating. Many wondered what had occurred at the secret facility between when the U-2 planes left and the air force took over. Consequently, the Area 51 name conjured images of government conspiracy and unexplained mysteries. Since the CIA’s arrival in 1955, this nonexistent flight test facility had acquired several identities: Groom Lake, Dreamland, Nevada Test Site, Nellis Test Range, Paradise Ranch, Area 51, Watertown Strip and the Pig Farm, to name a few. People attempting to name an unnamed secret activity caused as much speculation, debate and skepticism as did the classified activities suspected of occurring there.

  An overhead view of the CIA Watertown facility at Area 51 in 1955 with the new six-thousand-foot runway. USGS.

  During the CIA era, its existence stayed secret because no one working there talked about it. The workers used the mailing address Pittman Station, a former one-room post office in a rundown area along Boulder Highway in Henderson, Nevada. The U-2
workers identified the facility as Watertown Airstrip, adopting the name of CIA director Allen Dulles’s birthplace of Watertown, New York. Even the Watertown name was debatable, with some thinking the name referred to rainwater flooding the Groom Lake dry lakebed from the runoff from the nearby mountains.

  CIA declassification of formerly top-secret documents had confirmed that the CIA adopted the name depicted on the AEC map dividing the Atomic Proving Grounds into areas. Identifying the number 51 adjacent to the much lower area numbers and out of sequence suggested the AEC most likely added Area 51 later in the sequencing.

  Some today think of Area 51 being a top-secret place where the United States tested new aviation technology. However, most of the world believed Area 51 was a mythical mecca for black conspiracies and coverups. Many believe the CIA constructed massive underground facilities for harvesting colonies of extraterrestrial alien species for their alien technology. For years, the media, movies and authors have competed to generate conspiracy stories concerning the CIA conducting reverse engineering at Area 51. The media feeds an endless number of diverse political and social groups throughout the world that associate with all sorts of trivial, superficial and sensationalist phenomena. It’s not because of what the media and some authors believe. Paranormal ufology and alien hypotheses simply sell. After all, 80 percent of the world believes in flying saucers and little green men.

  Allen Welsh Dulles, director of Central Intelligence from February 26, 1953, to November 29, 1961, under Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Wikipedia.

  According to theories, Area 51 had underground tunnels, subterranean chambers, flying saucers, little green men or wreckages from Roswell. In reality, it was the most unlikely place on the planet for such things when one considered that Area 51 became the most monitored spot on earth when the Russians launched their Sputnik satellite in October 1957, knowing at the time about Area 51. Other than base support, security and the special projects technical services team, Area 51 always served transient occupants, here today and gone as soon as they completed their project. Several lowskilled workers have come and gone at Area 51. No way could one of them not have said something over the past half century had the stories been true.

  Contrary to what the world wants to believe, Area 51 provides an operating technical laboratory for the advancement of aerial military systems, a business serving customers. Yes, a cloak of secrecy covers Area 51, but not necessarily because of military activities. In most cases, the secrecy exists to protect the customers competing with one another through proof-of-concept systems undergoing testing for sale to the military. They knew their trade secrets were safe at Area 51.

  CHAPTER 5

  ORGANIZING IN SECRECY

  The staffing called for a large number of communications engineers and technicians and security investigators, all having top-secret clearances. Security was so sensitive that the CIA performed its security clearance investigations rather than trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation to do it. Everything was on a need-to-know basis regardless of one’s rank, position or level of security clearance.

  The CIA considered the changing requirements and revised the staffing within the month to delete the support aircraft crews, who became an air force contribution. It increased the administrative support area, targeting clerical. It added a communications reserve cadre to permit retention of personnel while training on project equipment before their assignment to the field. For the four deployment bases, the staff changes replaced civilian contract guards with staff security investigators and added a supply depot.

  The director of personnel received a sterile version of the staff so he might produce agency candidates to fill the vacancies and provide support in keeping personnel records. The CIA assigned the highest priority to the project’s requirements and made every effort to staff it with the best candidates. However, the CIA found it more difficult getting the actual bodies on board than getting approval to add them.

  To handle the task, the Offices of Communications and Security set up their own recruiting and training programs to meet the requirements for personnel without depleting their staffs. The office reached an early decision disallowing accompanying dependents at either the ZI or foreign bases. Thus, the CIA chose single men wherever possible. To this end, the project made excellent use of air force enlisted men in clerical slots. The “no dependents” rule continued in effect until the end of 1957.

  Dick Bissell and the deputy director for support, Colonel Lawrence K. White, soon realized the complexities of organizing all the functions required for Project AQUATONE. They had to find qualified personnel having a top-secret security clearance in departments that they had never envisioned. Everything was compartmentalized and on a need-to-know basis, so it wasn’t a matter of publishing help wanted ads in the newspaper. The project required staffing experts in building the plane, the engines, the cameras, everything. Thus, the project’s operating organization evolved slowly from January to April 1955, with most of the individuals working on AQUATONE remaining on the rolls of their agency components.

  Toward the end of April 1955, Bissell’s staff finished developing, and the deputy director for support approved the organization staffing for AQUATONE. Now operational, the project totaled 357 personnel divided among project headquarters, a U.S. testing facility and three foreign field bases. The CIA employees represented only one-fourth (92) of the total. The U.S. Air Force personnel commitment totaled 109 positions, not counting many other air force personnel, such as SAC meteorologists, who supported the U-2 project in addition to their other duties.

  Contract employees made up the largest Project AQUATONE category, with 156 positions in 1955. This category included 5 maintenance and support personnel per aircraft from Lockheed, the pilots and support personnel from other contractors for items such as photographic equipment. By October 1956, AQUATONE would reach a high-water mark of 600 personnel and face a reduction in force. The training stopped, and the detachments left Area 51.

  SECURITY FOR THE U–2 PROJECT

  On April 29, 1955, Richard Bissell signed an agreement with the U.S. Air Force and the Navy, which exhibited interest at the time. The services agreed with the CIA assuming primary responsibility for all security concerning the overhead reconnaissance Project AQUATONE. From this time on, the CIA took responsibility for maintaining the security of overhead programs.

  Headquarters building at Watertown. The flag is at half mast following U-2 pilot Sieker’s fatal crash. CIA via TD Barnes Collection.

  Watertown control tower at sunset. CIA via TD Barnes Collection.

  This responsibility placed a heavy burden on the Office of Security. The challenge called for establishing procedures to keep scores of contracts untraceable to the CIA. The responsibility included determining which contractor employees required security clearances and devising physical security measures for the various manufacturing facilities.

  The Office of Security found keeping the U-2 and subsequent overhead systems secret a time-consuming and costly undertaking. The most important aspect of the security program for the U-2 project called for the creation of an entirely new compartmented system for the product of U-2 missions. Strict control of access to the photographs taken by the U-2 often limited the ability of the CIA analysts to use the products of U-2 missions.

  The terminology used to describe U-2 aircraft and pilots played a part in maintaining the security of the overhead reconnaissance program. The CIA reduced the chances of a security breach by always referring to its high-altitude aircraft as “articles,” with each aircraft having its “article number,” and the CIA referred to each U-2 with its article number of classified internal documents. Similarly, the CIA referred to the pilots as “drivers,” a name that never sat well with the former fighter pilots. (The prototype U-2, Article 341, never received a USAF serial.)

  Cable traffic referred to the aircraft as KWEXTRA-00 with the two-digit number identifying the precise aircraft; these
numbers were unrelated to the three-digit article numbers assigned by the factory. The CIA identified the pilots by a two-digit number identifying the precise pilot. Thus, even if a message or document concerning overflight activities fell into unfriendly hands, the contents could refer to articles and code numbers without indicating the identity of the program.

  Access to Area 51 required top-secret and SCI security clearances. Obtaining such clearances—or, for the Atomic Energy Commission, “Q” clearance—entailed passing a background investigation. The procedure involved the applicant submitting an executed Standard Form 86 (SF86) for the background check process. Standard elements included background checks of employment, education, organizational affiliations and any local agency where the subject lived, worked, traveled or attended school. These checks led to interviews with persons who knew the subject both personally and professionally. The investigation included the subject’s spouse or cohabitant for the past ten years or to age eighteen, the lesser of the two. The investigation expanded as necessary to resolve issues and address employment standards unique to individual agencies.

  Workers passing through security to a shuttle flight from Watertown to Burbank. CIA via TD Barnes Collection.