Message posted by Peter Merlin (Member since 11/13/2003) on October 08, 2021 at 22:16:31 PST:
The Groom Lake facility has had many names. The CIA really did call it Watertown Airstrip and also Station D. In 1959 it became Area 51, which was an actual official name. It's in the declassified documentation and on official government maps. The Area 51 designation fell into disuse after the Air Force took over responsibility for the base from the CIA in the late 1970s. In the 1990s an Air Force official claimed the facility "has no name per se," which was kind of a game of semantics. It can be accurately called Detachment 3, Air Force Test Center, which is also the name of the operating organization. It has also been called the National Classified Test Facility, which sounds like a descriptive term but looks like a name. It has had many other names besides, both official and unofficial. Some names are curiously boring and others incredibly silly. Even the term Dreamland has been used interchangeably as a radio call sign, organization name, and location depending on what document you are looking at.
In Reply to: Re: Area 51 "Official" Name? posted by mrburns on October 08, 2021 at 21:52:32 PST:
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