I was drawn to learning more about Area 51 for a couple of reasons. First, I have an innate curiosity to know about places that are restricted, abandoned, or off limits to the general public. When I see a “keep out” sign, I automatically want to know more about that place and to find out what someone doesn’t want me to know. Books and television documentaries have been a great resource to gain at least some knowledge to satisfy my curiosity. Secondly, my husband, an Air Force veteran, views the world similarly to Fox Mulder. He 100% believes in aliens, which has me wanting to believe as well. 👽

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen is incredibly well researched and well written. I commend the amount of time and energy Annie has put into this book. The length alone is a huge feat, but to collect the amount of documentation, the time spent interviewing people, and the effort to compose this book is unimaginable. Honestly, I was primarily hoping to learn about the Roswell incident and the truth about J-Rod. I ended up learning SO MUCH MORE!

Annie starts at the beginning of Area 51’s development; back when there was only the Nevada Test Center out in the desert. If you’re interested in learning about spy planes, this is the book for you. Annie thoroughly describes the progression from the U-2, to the Oxcart, and the SR-71. As I was reading this book, I kept sharing information I learned with my husband. Of course, he already knew most of what I relayed. He was kind enough to dig out a picture of a U-2 that had landed at the Air Force base he was stationed. We have visited the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio a few times and took pictures of the SR-71. These aircrafts are amazing to see in person.

I was often blown away with the stories told in this book about nuclear bombs, missiles, and drones. I know I shouldn’t be surprised by the activities of the US Government, but I was still shocked by stories relayed in this book. Employees were given fake names at the base and had to lie to their families about their jobs. I wouldn’t have been able to hack it. I can keep a secret, but I would have struggled to keep my daily job a secret from my husband. Briefly, there are mentions of Nikola Tesla’s remote control boat and Oppenheimer that were interesting. Annie also addresses the lunar landing conspiracy.

Annie is very clever in how she told the story of Area 51. The book opens with an eye-popping story about a potential alien sighting at Area 51. This got me excited and hopeful for stories about Roswell, the Kingman, Arizona crash, and J-Rod. I anticipated that story the whole time I was reading this book; hoping it would be in the next chapter. Annie saved it for last. I won’t spoil it for you, but Annie does provide an account for what happened at Kingman, Arizona and the aliens from engineer Bob Lazar. It was not the story I was expecting. Initially, I didn’t want to believe Lazar’s report. I’m still kind of on the fence about it; however, I bought into all of the other stories presented in this book, so why wouldn’t I believe the one about the aliens too? The account by Lazar is pretty bizarre and doesn’t paint the government in a positive light whatsoever.

I shared with my husband the explanation for the Kingman crash and the aliens. He isn’t buying it. He said he’s been to Area 51 and met J-Rod. J-Rod communicates telepathically, so my husband said the conversation went really well. He showed me his pass and gave me permission to include it in my blog post. 😂

I found an interesting article about what happened to J-Rod, composed of excerpts taken from the book Beyond Area 51 by Mack Maloney. You can read the article here. I haven’t read Beyond Area 51 yet…consider it added to my TBR. 🤓

My husband and I are often interested in watching television documentaries about Area 51. Our favorite are the three episodes on the History Channel’s television show, Histories Greatest Mysteries. A YouTube video is included below for a sneak peek into the first episode.

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base is a great book that I highly recommend. I borrowed the audiobook from my local library with the Libby app. The author, Annie Jacobsen, does a wonderful job narrating the audiobook.

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