Area 51 - A Personal Account
Transcript of V.L.'s Custer Meeting in August, 1995. This is a transcript
from a tape of a talk that L.V. gave regarding his 12 years at Area 51. V.L.
is an upstanding citizen, a gentleman and speaks the truth, this we assure
you. Please excuse any misspellings of names or places.
I spent from June of 1965 to August of 1977 directly on the Nevada Test
Site, worked there full time. I was Radiation - Health and Safety. Most of
the time I worked there, I either worked for Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory out of Livermore, Berkeley rather,
California or Sandia Corporation out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. All those
testing laboratories have since changed their names. Lawrence Radiation
Laboratory is now the Lawrence National Laboratory, they dont use the word
radiation. In my job we had responsibility for and access to all of the
areas of the Nevada Test Site which encompasses about 1800 square miles. It
begins north of Las Vegas at Indian Springs where the bombing and gunnery
range starts and goes all the way to Beatty, Nevada. Its an area that has
armed guards around it, surveillance devices, its a restricted air space,
you cant fly over it. If youre caught on it, things happen to you. I had a
top secret clearance and I think there probably wasnt a square mile of that
test site that I havent been on or seen, part of which is Area 51. One of
the things Id like to tell you folks right now is that theres certain
things that I cannot and will not talk about. When you quit out there,
quitting what used to be the Atomic Energy Commission, its now the
Department of Energy, its kind of like quitting the Central Intelligence
Agency. You never quit. They never let loose of you. There are certain
things that I saw and was part of that I will take to the grave with me
without talking about. However, there are a lot of things that I can talk
about. And I think the news media has titillated public interest in a very
dishonest way because 95% of whats at area 51 is totally uninteresting,
its very mundane. The federal government tests aircraft at Area 51 that
they want to keep secret. To give you an example, when I was out there,
during the later years I was out there, they tested the stealth fighter and
the stealth bomber, the Blackbird, SR-71 flew in and out of there on a
weekly basis. The reason the government uses Area 51 is because it has a 10
mile long runway, absolute secrecy, you cant see anything thats worth
seeing from the air or the ground. And that hill that sits away from Area 51
where everybody goes up and looks, all they can see... we used to sit there
and look back at people and do this (wave) because all you can see is
administration buildings. Thats all you can see. The government knows that
people are out there looking into the area and because of that a deliberate
effort has been made that theres absolutely nothing to see right there. Now
if you go a few miles north, theres a lot of things that people might want
to see but never will. The Dept. of Energy now has yearly tours on the test
sight, once a year the families of employees, that belong to certain
classifications of workers, are allowed to take bus tours through part of
the test site. Its a very small area that they let people see, its
Frenchman Flat, the flat where the old air bursts, where atmospheric tests
were performed. But you cant get within 40 miles of Area 51. As I told Paul
Strassels on the radio the other day, there were things I saw and have seen
in Area 51 that would make one wonder where they came from. Ive also seen
things out there that violate most of the laws of physics. My degree is in
physics, and we , on a routine basis, used to observe... because we worked
at night, it was a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year operation out there. And I
worked all three shifts, graveyard, swing and days. I worked at night a lot
out there. Ive seen things that most aircraft or no aircraft that I know of
could do, do. So the news reports that you hear are accurate to the extent
that someone is testing either weapons or various vehicles that go through
the atmosphere that use technology that were not really in possession of.
Now, if that sounds a bit odd, I would say this. The federal government is
afraid... in fact we had a whole division of public relations people to feed
the public information that was cleansed. The federal government is afraid
that if the population of the United States knew some of the things that we
have done and have seen and have found, people would panic. And thats all I
can say about that. The other thing is that while we were testing nuclear
weapons out there, the last year I was out there, the last full year I was
out there, in 76, we had 53 or 54 underground nuclear weapons tests. We
announced 2 of them to the public. The reason for that was strictly
political.
There was a ground swell movement to eliminate nuclear weapons testing, the
government didnt want people thinking they were hopelessly contaminating
part of Nevada for all times, which they have, its too late now, it poses
no real threat to us, anyway. So they didnt announce those things. I use
that as an example of part of which isnt told to the public. There was
nuclear weapons testing I was involved in, I should hasten to say that most
of that was stockpile testing. We would take a nuclear device out of stock
pile and test it, see if it worked. Its as simple as that. Nuclear weapons
tend to deteriorate when they sit around for periods of time. Degrade is the
term. We havent tested at the test site now since 1992. Probably never will
again. Theres a massive clean-up effort out there, that will take a long
time. As far as Area 51 goes, I have a lot of friends that work at the test
site, still. Area 51 is the most secured area in the United States. Area 51
happens to sit in a place where, as I said, security has to be absolutely
tight because its nothing but desert, government public lands, its secured
public land. A lot of what goes on in Area 51 goes on at night so the
Russian satellites cant see whats going on. Thats why people from time to
time see things. Its a fascinating place. If any of you have questions of
me Ill either answer them or I wont but Ill tell you up front whether I
can tell you about it or not. I saw some things in Area 51 that, objects,
that were strange, didnt seem to be something that, at the time, we had the
capability of manufacturing. I dont know where they came from, I dont know
much about them. But I saw what I saw with my eyes. I did ask, on 2 separate
occasions, one of caretakers, thats what we called them, and I was told the
first time - dont ask. Now, remember, I had to top secret clearance, I had
a need to know. Our group, 80 of us, could go anywhere. We could ask any
questions because of what we did. But that was one subject that I was told,
dont ask. The second time I asked, I was warned that if I asked again, some
rather dire things might happen. So I never asked again. Im familiar with
the Roswell incident in 1947 in New Mexico. I have every reason to believe
that the federal government found something there. I have every reason to
believe the federal government will never tell what they found there. We
have so much paranoia of humans, anyway, if there was any leak that some
sort of life form had visited this planet, the federal government is
convinced that people would panic and that anarchy might prevail for awhile.
Thats about all I can say. The government is telling people that theyre
dismantling Area 51. I always found that curious because theres actually
nothing to dismantle out there. Everything thats out there has been brought
there from somewhere else. Right next to Area 51 is the Nellis/Indian
Springs AFB bombing and gunnery range and thats where all the armored
experiments go on. So its all kind of part of the same area. There were no
nuclear weapons tests that were performed in Area 51. Thats an area that
has been kept pristine, for very good reasons, mostly the other different
parts of the test site have starting with Area 1 and ending with Area 26.
Every area out there is numbered. Area 51 somehow got a designation of 51.
There is no 27 through 50. But somebody decided to do that, its just like
all of our nuclear weapons, they all have names. Every one had a name. That
name was a code as to what size it was. The largest, I can say this without
fear, the largest underground weapon I ever participated in was a five and a
half megaton device, buried 5500 hundred feet below the desert floor, that
we set off. Thats equivalent of 5 and a half million tons of TNT. And that
was the biggest device ever exploded in the United States. A larger device
than that exploded underneath Amchitka Island (?) in Alaska some years
later. There was a nuclear device set off in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I
dont know how many of you people knew that, that was done in the 60s.
Weve had a number of accidents out at the test site the public never knew
about. Im not really at liberty to talk about that except it may be
interesting for you to know that I now live in South Dakota, I dont live in
Nevada anymore. And I will never live in Nevada. I personally have 2 body
burdens of plutonium 39 in me and if I live long enough and become old
enough, I will die of bone cancer. But Im not worried about that because I
knew what the risk was when I got into the business. A lot of the friends
and people I worked with are dead now. Its a very risky, its a very high
hazardous job. Nuclear weapons are something that are, well, there are so
many of them that... the hazard that a nuclear weaponry poses isnt blasting
people off the face of the earth. We could have a war with Russia and they
could have one with us and China and everybody could get involved in it, it
still wouldnt wipe out the human race. The problem comes after the bomb
goes off because of whats called fission products. And thats the
contamination that ensues. Its getting to be a real big problem because of
the reactors, the fire reactors create of fission products and debris that
were having a hard time figuring out what to do with. Probably most of that
debris and waste will end up at the Nevada test site and that will be an
area that for thousands and hundreds of thousands of years, no one will
never be able to live there or, it will be a closed area. Were developing
the technology now, and I dont mind talking about it because Popular
Science came awfully close to the truth here a few months ago in one of
their issues and I dont think they even knew it. The Air Force in
cooperation with the Department of Defense is developing an aircraft now
that will go in speeds in excess of speeds of 10,000 mph which is almost
fast enough to achieve orbit without boosters. And that is a nuclear powered
thrust system. Whether or not that will ever become public or not, its hard
to tell, because nuclear engines are very dirty. Very dirty. The only other
things I can tell you about Area 51 is that there will never, in our life
times, be any information let out about some of the things that are out
there. I will say that it has become a storage area for oddities. Thats
where, other than Kirkland Air Force Base, the Roswell debris was supposedly
taken. All I can say is sometime, during my tenure at the Nevada Test Site,
there was debris from Roswell, New Mexico stored away at Area 51. I was
lucky enough or unlucky enough to see some of it. I dont take any pleasure
in that knowledge because it puts a constrain on me I dont like to have.
Question: Could you describe what you saw concerning the Roswell debris?
Answer: No. Ill tell you why, folks. I dont know if any of you have been
to Leavenworth, Kansas or not but thats where the federal prison is. Its
hot, its humid and I have no desire whatsoever to go. I still have a real,
legitimate respect for the Department of Defense security. When you leave
out there they debrief you. And the debriefing lasted quite a few hours, the
better part of a day and the bottom line was - dont talk or else. That was
the bottom line. And they gave you a list of things not to talk about. I
have not violated any of those this afternoon. Since I left out there, I
dont believe I ever have. Im very careful about it.
Question: I lived near an Air Force base and I used to see unusual things
flying about. Are these things terrestrial or extraterrestrial?
Answer: Well, a group of fellows and I were on our way to work one night to
the test site. We saw something that to this day.....this was an aircraft of
some sort, aircraft being defined as an object in the atmosphere that is
moving around. There were 6 of us, we were all trained observers, we were
not the type of people who see things go bump in the night, Im pretty
skeptical about things, generally. That aircraft that we saw land, which was
next to the test site, did some things that with the technology we had then
and probably with the technology we have now, were impossible to do. We saw
it, I saw it, the 5 other fellows with me, we stopped the car and got out
and watched it for 15-20 minutes. I have no idea what it was. I had access
to and was privy to a lot of classified information, for instance, the SR-71
was a common place aircraft to us and yet the general public knew nothing
about it. But it came in and went and it made a lot of noise, thats the
only thing I didnt like about it. It came in hot and it left hot. It came
in over the speed of sound and it left at the speed of sound. So it was
always making this horrible noise. That was a very common thing to see. Some
of the other things I saw were uncommon.
Question: Whos the boss, how did you get hired?
Answer: That was a mundane process. I went out there....
Question: Was it the Department of Defense?
Answer: At the time it was the Atomic Energy Commission when I was hired.
And then it became the Energy Research and Development Administration and
then it became Department of Energy, the government keeps changing the name.
I was there during the visit of two presidents of the United States, Lyndon
Johnson was one of them, Gerald Ford was the other one. Neither one of them
were shown certain things. The President does not have Top Secret Clearance.
Question: Do you agree or disagree with that?
Answer: Thats a tough one. We live in a republic, a democratic republic,
supposedly. I dont trust most politicians, however, not because theyre
dishonest, necessarily. Nuclear weapons are a very terrible thing. Im
ambivalent about it. I dont know. The time when Lyndon Johnson came out
there we tracked him through an area that was hot, none of us had
anti-contamination clothing on, we had no instruments, we were dressed just
like this, we let him walk through a contaminated area because it wasnt
supposed to be contaminated. Thats all I can say about that.
Question: These things you cant talk about, in your opinion, do you feel it
would cause mass hysteria? You seem calm.
Answer: No, it doesnt bother me, I have this belief. We have already been
to the moon, okay? Big deal. Its not going to be too many more years until
humans will be to Mars and beyond. Its a matter of propulsion systems, its
a matter of getting people to the point where they can live in space for
long periods of time, either suspended animation or whatever, so they dont
come apart, mentally or physically. We have the technology to literally
explore the solar system right now, the planets that are in the vicinity of
us. And so its not a big thing. It doesnt take much of a leap, quantum
physics tells you accurately that the speed of light is not a speed which
beyond is you cannot go. That old theory is gone. Quantum physics says that
you may go faster than the speed of light. If thats true, which it is, then
travel to the nearest stars is possible. If we, who are barely out of the
primeval mud as beings can do this, it doesnt take much, its very logical
to assume that there are other life forms out there somewhere. Were not
unique. Good Lord, if we are, its not much of a testimony is it? There are
other life forms, certainly....nothing that I saw surprised me. What
surprises me is the governments paranoia about what the government knows.
Consider the fact that the federal government wont even tell you the truth
about the budget process let alone anything else.
Question: There are some who believe we are already on Mars.
Answer: Well, I dont think so.
Question: Go back to the question whos the boss.
Answer: Well, during the time I was out there, one of the bosses was Edward
Teller. Edward Teller is the father of the hydrogen bomb. He worked for
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, hes still alive and hes as close to being a
God in the scientific community and the nuclear weapons community as anybody
on this earth. Edward Teller was held in far higher esteem than the
President or anybody else. Might be interesting to note and this is not
classified, during the time I was out there, the Soviet Union had an
exchange program with us. It was not unusual to see Soviet scientists out at
the test site on a regular basis. We shared a lot of information with them.
I came to the conclusion, having talked to a lot of them over the years,
that they were really not our enemies anywhere near to what the politicians
wanted you to believe they were. We showed them... I showed them things that
I couldnt believe we were showing people from the Soviet Union. And I asked
about that and was told that we had an exchange program and they were able
to see things and become aware of things that I certainly wouldnt have
shown them.
Question: Did they see certain things that you couldnt see?
Answer: No, they couldnt go to Area 51.
Question: Why were we told they were so bad?
Answer: Its always helpful to a nation to have an enemy.
Question: Between Teller and Oppenheimer, whats your opinion about
Oppenheimer......
Answer: Openheimer was railroaded, he was ruined because of the paranoia
that was going on during that time. Robert Oppenheimer to me was a hero in
the scientific community and the mans life was ruined because of paranoia.
Question: Teller was kind of a political puppet.
Answer: Edward Teller was the kind of man that would have been loyal to
Adolph Hitler or to whoever was the boss, so to speak. I didnt like the
man, I still dont like the man. Hes arrogant, he was totally unsympathetic
to radiation health and safety, he was totally unsympathetic to peoples
lives and he still is.
Question: I was noticing your medical ID |