From - Fri May 02 15:06:19 1997 X-POP3-Rcpt: ez073888@sol Received: from guilder.ucdavis.edu by sol.ucdavis.edu (8.8.5/UCD3.8.16) id LAA11754; Mon, 26 May 1997 11:39:23 -0700 (PDT) From: GroomWatch@aol.com Received: from nf1.netforward.com by guilder.ucdavis.edu (8.8.5/UCD3.8.16) id LAA14408; Mon, 26 May 1997 11:39:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from root@localhost) by emout09.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) id OAA14769 for s4@thepentagon.com; Mon, 26 May 1997 14:39:18 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 14:39:18 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <970526143917_1955944275@emout09.mail.aol.com> To: s4@thepentagon.com, NorioA51S4@aol.com Subject: NORIO HAYAKAWA's commentary on POPULAR MECHANICS Article on AREA 51 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 4391 Check our new domain names! http://www.netforward.com v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v A commentary, by NORIO HAYAKAWA The June, 1997 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine may have suddenly become an unexpected bonus "bounty" for the Air Force, particularly for those folks at Nellis AFB who are, no doubt, rolling on floor laughing over the article on AREA 51, which is for the most part filled with factual errors to their absolute delight! Sheila Widnall (Air Force Secretary) must also be 'ROFL'ing, too! It is my hope that this type of misinformed article may not serve to curtail the general public's interest and rightful scrutiny of AREA 51 (Groom Lake Complexes), particularly in regards to those issues on alleged infractions of environmental statues at the site. The article written by Jim Wilson infers that "the Air Force has abandoned top-secret testing at its once most secret test site". Then Wilson comes to the conclusion and states that "we know why and we know where they moved it to (i.e., Utah)". Nothing is farther from the truth than this overly generalized inference. Jim Wilson, despite his probable sincerity and good intentions, obviously missed the whole picture. To begin with, he obviously took a wrong turn on "Groom Lake Road" and went to the wrong location. It is obvious from the photo that what he did was go south on the "Mail-Box Road" from Hwy 375, crossed the "Groom Lake Road" and went further down south all the way till he encountered an old, poorly maintained wind fence, believing that he had arrived at the back gate of AREA 51. There he decided that nothing was happening at AREA 51, and makes a statement, saying "the 'cammo dudes' are no longer patrolling the perimeter of AREA 51" and further states that "what we found was a securely locked wind fence that appears to have been undisturbed for months". He further comments that even though he had arrived at the back door to AREA 51, there was "no guard post". (There never ever has been one at that location!!). Brilliant! He also states that the "warning signs flanking the gate aren't very threatening either", and comes to the stunning conclusion that "AREA 51 has shut down"! Again, a briliant conclusion! I suggest next time that he go to the right location.....towards the real Guard Shack area....(west all the way on Groom Lake Road).....where he may really encounter the "cammo dudes" and perhaps a military chopper or two to welcome him. >From what I understand from several reliable sources, Groom Lake has not had a major lessening of activity whatsoever. In fact, there may be more going on at Groom Lake than before. Remember that most sensitive compartmentalized programs are thought to be conducted below ground level, to begin with. New testing of several "skins" for outer coating of a new generation of stealth program is going on, just to mention one example. Components of a new (small-scale) VTOL assembled by Lockheed have just recently been transferred to Groom from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. Wilson also quotes from the Air Force Times that "the distinctively painted CT-43 transports, which previously flew workers between AREA 51 to a depot at the edge of McCarren Airport in Las Vegas, have begun making flights to Utah". Nothing new. There have always been such flights to several test facilities in Utah as well as Colorado. Moreover, I wouldn't buy every single word that the Air Force Times prints, since the paper is primarily intended to serve as a conduit for public relations and pre-screened information distribution. All in all, the Popular Mechanics article is in such a drastic contrast to the more well-researched article that appeared in the May, 1997 issue of Popular Science in which Groom Lake was mentioned several times, with an inference that there is still plenty going on at Groom Lake. Another erroneous fact Wilson mentions is that there is an "officially named AREA 6413" in Utah. There is no "officially named AREA 6413" in Utah. Sure, there may be some new programs going on in Utah, such as under R-6413 in Utah, but to infer that AREA 51 "moved" to Utah is totally suspect. Norio Hayakawa ( Norio Hayakawa's Central Web-Site Link is at: http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/h/hayakawa )