# you are President: how do you broach Area 51? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566 "2018-07-25T17:41:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/1 "2018-07-25T17:41:03Z")
Inspired by a General Questions thread on what state secrets a President can/can’t know: You become President and are very curious, like most people, about Area 51. How do you ask to learn about it without feeling embarassed or ashamed? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/2 "2018-07-25T18:02:41Z")
You immediately ask to be flown to Area 51 in Air Force 1. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/3 "2018-07-25T18:04:16Z")
Why would you feel embarrassed? I’d just tell my Chief of Staff to set up a briefing with whomever knows about this stuff. That would be within the first week, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/4 "2018-07-25T18:29:58Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > You immediately ask to be flown to Area 51 in Air Force 1. There is a 99.9% chance that Groom Lake is exactly what it is supposed to be, a top secret aviation research facility. There are people who watch the airfield from afar. If AF1 is seen flying in there the CTers will go nuts for no good reason. Better to be just briefed on it and send someone to check if need be. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/5 "2018-07-25T18:32:00Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > There is a 99.9% chance that Groom Lake is exactly what it is supposed to be, a top secret aviation research facility. There are people who watch the airfield from afar. If AF1 is seen flying in there the CTers will go nuts for no good reason. Better to be just briefed on it and send someone to check if need be. But where is the fun in that? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/6 "2018-07-25T20:21:26Z")
> [@Jim\_Peebles](#): > > Inspired by a General Questions thread on what state secrets a President can/can’t know: > You become President and are very curious, like most people, about Area 51. How do you ask to learn about it without feeling embarassed or ashamed? Well, if it actually were me I wouldn’t be all that curious except wrt black projects I need to know about, assuming there are any I DO need to know about as president. But if I actually thought there were aliens and such there I’d ask for a briefing. They would either tell me or not…not much I could do about it if they gave me a brief that didn’t have aliens and such in it, since you’d have to rely on the fact that they are telling you what you need to know. I suppose you could additionally push things by requesting a tour then see for yourself. Basically, if I actually was the kind of person who believed in this stuff AND was president I doubt I’d be all that embarrassed about asking. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/7 "2018-07-25T20:27:06Z")
“Hi, I would like a briefing on all our classified aerospace programs, including those at Groom Dry Lake.” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/8 "2018-07-25T20:32:36Z")
I would type up an alhabetized list of projects/sites, saying I wanted to review them. I would leave out Area 51, and a few others things I knew the name of. Then I would insert, by hand, Area 51, and the others purposefully omitted, so they looked like an afterthought. Then I would say, “for simplicity, let’s go in alphabetical order”, so we would hit Area 51 early on. They would never suspect I only became President to meet “the Greys”. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/9 "2018-07-25T21:08:53Z")
I thought [Dugway Proving Ground](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_Proving_Ground#UFO_speculation) was the new Area 51 anyway… ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/10 "2018-07-25T21:42:46Z")
It’s like a new Prime Minister of the UK asking about the Loch Ness Monster. There’s nothing to investigate. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/11 "2018-07-26T00:22:27Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > There is a 99.9% chance that Groom Lake is exactly what it is supposed to be, a top secret aviation research facility. There are people who watch the airfield from afar. If AF1 is seen flying in there the CTers will go nuts for no good reason. Better to be just briefed on it and send someone to check if need be. Air Force One is whatever random USAF aircraft POTUS happens to be one, POTUS can also fly one a non-military aircraft (Executive One), and the presidential call-signs can be avoided for security reasons. The bigger problem would be getting POTUS away from the press corps and explaining away the hole in his schedule. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/12 "2018-07-26T01:14:28Z")
I would get my approved body double to go golfing, while I flew there and had a look-see. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/13 "2018-07-26T02:03:14Z")
At this point we know there is nothing odd about Area 51, because if there was the meathead in chief would have tweeted about it already. There was some moron who was convinced that microprocessor designs came from aliens. I worked in microprocessor design. They didn’t. That is unless the aliens were way stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/14 "2018-07-26T02:29:19Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > At this point we know there is nothing odd about Area 51, because if there was the meathead in chief would have tweeted about it already. That presupposes they would tell him about it. If you were in charge of the Alien Secrets, would _you_ have told him? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/15 "2018-07-26T02:45:31Z")
Hey, DJT is good friends with the guy who runs those supermarket tabloids I am sure he has the lowdown on aliens and such. Or maybe his handlers just screened him a copy of E.T.that would have kept him quiet til he lost interest. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/16 "2018-07-26T02:46:02Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > There are people who watch the airfield from afar. There was a UFO/CT skeptic who hung out at Rachel in the mid-90s and wrote about expeditions to “Freedom Ridge” and his interactions with the denizens of the Little A’Le’Inn in his blog called The Groom Lake Desert Rat. Interesting reading. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/17 "2018-07-26T02:56:28Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > The bigger problem would be getting POTUS away from the press corps and explaining away the hole in his schedule. “POTUS is going to Camp David and ya’ll aren’t invited” ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/18 "2018-07-26T13:47:00Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There was some moron who was convinced that microprocessor designs came from aliens. I worked in microprocessor design. They didn’t. So says the guy whose location is “Deep Space”? A real master of disguise I see. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/19 "2018-07-26T15:59:16Z")
One of my favorite moments from the original **Independence Day** was the president’s entry into Area 51: A51 Guard: Here’s our main research facility. President: Let’s see it. A51 Guard: I’m sorry sir. It’s a clean room. We keep it static free… President: (_making it clear that it is an order_) Open…the door. A51 Guard: (_half second of hesitation, fumbles with keys_) Yes, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/20 "2018-07-26T17:21:24Z")
Area 51 is a toxic hellhole whose actual problems like poisoned workers get largely ignored thanks to people obsessing over silly rumors about aliens. I’d be more interested in having the people responsible fired and prosecuted than anything else. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566.md?page=2)