What Is The Raid On Area 51 & Will A Million People Really Storm It To See Aliens?

If Facebook event RSVPs mean anything, nearly 900,000 people will be meeting under the cover of darkness and storming the notoriously secretive Area 51 on Friday, September 20, because sometimes you just need to “see them aliens.”

Using the classic “they can’t catch all of us if we all run up at once” tactic, the Facebook event “Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us” has earned just as many “interested” indications as it has RSVPs. The comments section is filled with theories and memes for how to best storm the seemingly impenetrable government base. We all know where it is, but here is everything else you might want to know about the not-so-serious Area 51 raid happening this fall.

Right now, it’s just a Facebook event created by popular video game streamer SmyleeKun that has received a lot of attention. The Washington Post questioned what would happen if public intrigue were to supersede the obvious joking tone of the post. Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews gave a short but clear answer to the question when she said that they were aware of the Facebook event and that “[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...The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.” If we’ve learned anything from movies about extraterrestrials, it’s that the U.S. government does not take kindly to people trespassing. And that aliens like Reese’s Pieces, but mostly the thing about the trespassing.

The Facebook event is planned for Friday, September 20, 2019. If you’re planning on going, we recommend you look into Airbnbs and hotels now because the nearest town, Rachel, NV, is very small. Like, population of 53 small. It will also be under cover of darkness. The event says from 3 to 6 a.m., so maybe bring a flashlight or headlamp. Save your phone battery for getting that sweet, sweet proof that we’re not alone in the universe.

The all-important question of any Facebook event: Who is going to be there? Well, it seems like a pretty good mix given there are nearly 1 million people who claim to be planning to attend. The pinned post in the event broke down attendees into three helpful groups: the naruto runner battalions (a reference to anime ninja Naruto Uzumaki), the rock throwers, and the Kyles (a reference to the meme series depicting all people named Kyle as Monster-energy-drinking, dry-wall-punching fiends). Though the task at hand would imply that this plan would be extremely detailed, it’s pretty laid-back as far as raids go, so it seems like a choose your own group situation.

We got you covered.

But we all know that even when people RSVP on Facebook, you should probably shoot them a quick text to see if they’re actually coming.