I served in Area 52 and have been left riddled with tumours – I can’t get help because my mission was top secret
SICK veterans who served at the top secret nuclear base Area 52 claim they are being denied help because the US refuses to confirm they were ever there.
Mark Ely, 63, said his assignment at the lesser-known sister site of Arena 51 almost half a century ago has left him riddled with tumours and other serious health problems.
For decades, the mysterious base in the Nevada desert known as Tonopah Test Range has been used by the US military to test nukes, missiles, bombs and aircraft.
Now, it’s come under fire from a wave of allegations from former Air Force servicemen who say their classified work at Area 52 left them with lasting health defects.
Ely told CBS News: “There’s a slogan people say: ‘Deny deny until you die.’ Kind of true here”.
He added: “It scarred my lungs. I got cysts on my liver. … I started having lipomas, tumours inside my body I had to remove. My lining in my bladder was shed.”
In the mid-1980s, Ely was in his 20s and tasked with inspecting secretly obtained Soviet fighter jets stored in what was known as the “hush house”.
He is unable to get health care because his stint at Area 52 – which he signed a NDA for – is not on his official service record.
Ely said he is furious he gave so many years of service to the military just to be turned away when he most needs help.
A 1975 federal environmental assessment confirmed toxic radioactive material was at the site.
However, the US government concluded that stopping their tests at the site went “against national interest” and concluded the benefits far outweighed the “small and reasonable” costs.
Ely slammed this decision, stating: “Upholding the national interest was more important than my own life”.
A fellow veteran David Crete said he worked as a military police officer at the same secret site.
He told CBS news how he suffers with breathing issues like chronic bronchitis, and, like Ely, has had a tumour removed.
Crete said he has spent eight years tracking down hundreds of other veterans who he says have “all kinds of cancers” from the toxic residue of the weapons testing that went on.
Other employees stationed at Area 52, largely from the Department of Energy, have received $25.7billion (£20bn) in federal assistance.
However, that aid does not apply to Air Force vets like Ely and Crete because their time at the base is off the record and they cannot prove they were ever there.
This means they have no entitlement to compensation and have to live with their ailments or pay for healthcare.
Last August, Crete and another Area 52 vet filed a lawsuit against the federal government for compensation relating to their illnesses.
What is Area 52 and how is it different from Area 51?
AREA 51, the highly classified US Air Force base which has for years been at the centre of a alien conspiracies has a lesser-known sister facility that harbours its own dark secrets.
Area 52, otherwise known as the Tonopah Test Range, is located in the middle of Nevada desert, around 70 miles northwest of the infamous Area 51 facility.
The military facility spans 525 square miles and was opened in 1957 as a testing site for United States Department of Energy weapons programs.
Missiles have been tested, bombs have been dropped and state-of-the-art aircraft have all been piloted at the base over the last six decades.
Unlike its sister facility, Area 52 is visible on maps and via satellite, though the road leading up to its front gates is not.
However, much like Area 51 – which for years UFO truthers have claimed is actually an alien research lab – the mysterious Area 52 has fun itself at the centre of conspiracies.
TOP-SECRET TESTS
Between 1977 and 1988, the range hosted a combat training program code-named Constant Peg which tested Russian Mikoyan MiG aircraft against US aircrews, radars, and UAVs.
Despite flying thousands of missions over the course of 11 years, the operation was kept completely secret until November 2006.
The famed twin-engine stealth attack aircraft Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was also secretly tested at the site from 1982 through 1989 while the F-117 program was classified.
But around 1992, very little is known about the aircraft that were tested at the site thereafter.
Still, the base remains incredibly active today and just four years ago received a number of state-of-the-art upgrades to help advance the US’ nuclear arsenal modernisation initiative, as well as other programs.
RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION
Recent listed test activities at the base are listed to have included trajectory studies of simulated weapons, air-launched rockets, explosives testing, and ground perpetrator tests.
Much of the site is currently said to be off-limits because of contaminants in the environment and soil as a result of decades-worth of weapons tests.