Message posted by Norio Hayakawa on June 10, 2000 at 19:32:41 EST:
One of several demands made by the public at the Area 51 People's Rally was a demand that the government clearly come out and reveal or designate the name for this secret "base", such as Groom Lake Test Base, or Groom Lake Air Force Base, or Groom Lake Air Force Flight Test Center, etc. etc. However, personally I think that this may indeed be a difficult issue for the government, especially if the "highly compartmentalized" agencies themselves do not know or cannot agree on a designation or if there is actually no official name given to this multi-faceted conglomerate test facility, except to describe it as an "operating base at Groom Lake". On this line of thought, the May 1, 2000 article on Area 51 that appeared on Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine was significant in more ways than one. Not only was the article, written by Michael A. Dornheim, the most comprehensible and up-to-date article ever written on the subject matter so far, but it brought up some significant points. Not only did the 4-page article (including photos) wisely omit the designation of Area 51 (a misnomer for the site, used by the D.O.E. prior to the acquisition of the location by the Air Force in early 50s), but it has placed an official stamp of approval to the reality of the recent years' persistent allegation that the real operating entity behind Groom Lake complexes is Edwards Air Force Base's AFFTC Detachment 3. Although this may well be the case, this still does not prove definitively that the true official name of the Groom Lake base is DET3-AFFTC or DET-AFFTC. Aviation Week's article does, however, refer to the research done by www.ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, former activist on Area 51). AWST and other publications' recent years' references to AFFTC seem to have risen from the initial in-depth investigation done by Glenn Campbell in 1996 when he referred to the DET 3 SP (Security Patrol), a.k.a. the "Cammo Dudes" in his article on the "Cammo Dudes" roster, which can be found at:
Replies: