USU students participate at Area 51
AP Photo by John Locher
Little A’Le’Inn owner Connie West speaks on the phone outside of the bar and restaurant, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019, in Rachel, Nev. West was preparing for an event spawned from the “Storm Area 51” internet hoax.
Erik Fogth, Leif Lofgren and their fellow USU classmate, Emily Price, left Logan Thursday night to drive to Rachel, Nevada, where the Area 51 raid took place.
“It was nothing like we expected,” said Fogth. “There was a dance party and people at the gate, but no one stormed it.”
“Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” was a Facebook event created by Matty Roberts on June 20. Roberts created the page as a joke, but the general public quickly reacted to the idea. Over two million people responded they were “going” to the event.
The purpose of the raid was to get into Area 51 to discover the secrets the government is hiding there. Some Facebook users even had an attack strategy to get past the defenses.
“We had huge battle strategy with Naruto runners and rock throwers and everyone else was going to run in through the back,” Fogth said. “The Naruto runners were even in costume.”
Here is the second #NarutoRun rush that happened this morning outside #area51.
The first rush of about 20 people happened this morning and they were so fast our camera didn't catch them. pic.twitter.com/nO69XTsBsL
— KSL Newsradio (@kslnewsradio) September 20, 2019
“I was hoping to be a rock thrower, but we arrived too late,” Lofgren said.
Lofgren said there definitely weren’t two million people there.
“We didn’t even get to see any aliens,” Lofgren said.
“We were weak at numbers,” he said. “I didn’t feel compelled to raid because we had a friendly relationship with the officers at the gate. We were joking and having fun with them.”
There were five armed police officers at the gate arresting anyone who attempted to raid.
“People were pretending to Naruto run through the gate and officers would laugh with them,” Lofgren said.
Over 3,000 people attended the raid and the music festival that accompanied it.
“There was a huge dance party outside the gate,” Fogth said. “When it was time to raid no one wanted to go first, because everyone knew the first few people would get arrested.”
Fogth said they met a man from Sweden who was part of a covert operation.
“He showed his tattoo a group that had similar alien tattoos,” Fogth said. “These people were going to go around a mountain to distract the snipers so that the raid would be protected.”
“It was great,” Price said. “I met people from Paris, Sweden and other countries.”
When asked why they didn’t storm Area 51 themselves, Fogth, Lofgren and Price said they didn’t do it because they were late.
“If I was surrounded by my brothers, I would’ve done it,” said Fogth.
—jonahhansen14@gmail.com