iStockphoto
Pretty much everyone has heard stories about Area 51, the highly classified and restricted United States Air Force facility located at the Nevada Test and Training Range. But what about Area 52?
It turns out that Area 52 might be just as mysterious and perhaps even more sinister than Area 51.
Many veterans, which may count into the hundreds, believe they have had serious health issues because of their time serving at Area 52.
Area 52, the Tonopah Test Range located about 30 miles southeast of Tonopah, Nevada, is another highly classified and restricted military installation. It is run by the United States Department of Defense and owned by the United States Department of Energy.
It is used for nuclear weapons testing and nuclear stockpile reliability as well as military training. It is also the subject of conspiracy theories surrounding experimental and classified aircraft.
That nuclear weapons testing, which the United States government did for decades near Area 52, is why so many veterans who worked there believe they are now suffering serious health issues.
Those health issues are now being compounded by the fact that these veterans can’t get the proper healthcare assistance because the government claims that technically they never worked there.
The jobs many of them performed were so top secret that they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
“Upholding the national interest was more important than my own life,” former Air Force technician Mark Ely recently told CBS News.
“It scarred my lungs. I got cysts on my liver. … I started having lipomas, tumors inside my body I had to remove. My lining in my bladder was shed,” he added.
Unfortunately, now that he is trying to get treatment, his service records do not list his time at Area 52.
Dave Crete worked as a military police officer at Area 52 and now he too has suffered health issues such as chronic bronchitis and a tumor he had to have removed from his back.
Crete claims that he has located hundreds of other veterans who worked at Area 52 and said they have had “all kinds of cancers.”
“It makes me incredibly mad and it hurts me too because they’re supposed to have my back,” Ely said. “I had theirs and I want them to have mine.”
“When I went up to the area, it was real cool being assigned to a top-secret assignment,” Ely told CBS News Chicago. “So, you go up to that area and you’re doing that job, and it’s a very elite moment. And you have this belief that everything there is safe, and everything you’re doing is contributing to the greater good. Somewhere up the food chain, someone knows differently.”