Chief of Staff General David Goldfein has ominously insisted that the Air Force is taking the viral ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us’ event “very seriously” as the US has “secrets [that] deserve to be protected.”

“All joking aside, we’re taking it very seriously,” Goldfein told reporters during the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. “Our nation has secrets, and those secrets deserve to be protected. The people deserve to have our nation’s secrets protected.”

Goldfein’s comments will likely fan the flames of conspiracy theories already raging online, particularly in the wake of an explosive admission by a US Navy official that videos show encounters between US Navy aircraft and UFOs are real.

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Over two million indicated they were taking part in the “Storm Area 51” event planned to take place on Friday.

Although the event page itself has been scrubbed from Facebook, and the Air Force has already issued multiple warnings and even closed off the surrounding air space, thousands of people are still expected to descend upon the top-secret desert facility, or at least its perimeter defenses (which are actually several miles from the base itself).

Matt Donovan, acting secretary of the US Air Force, added that security at the base has been beefed up ahead of the viral event.

“[T]here’s still a lot of media attention out in Las Vegas, so they expect that some folks that are going to show up there. We’re prepared. We have provided them with additional security personnel as well as additional barricades and that sort of thing, because, as the chief said: We’re taking it very seriously,” Donovan said.

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Two Dutch YouTubers were arrested just last week, proving the allure of ‘them aliens’ is still strong, regardless of the danger of taking on the US armed forces.

The base is located in the middle of the Nevada desert, some 83 miles north of Las Vegas, and has been the focal point of many conspiracy theories over the years with the CIA only officially acknowledging its existence in 2013.

While it was used to test top-secret aircraft in the past, such as the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and the B2 stealth bomber, its current function remains a mystery, leading many to speculate that it houses the remains of alien spacecraft.

General Goldfein was asked directly whether the secrets included aliens, which he merely responded to with a wry film reference. “I’m actually looking for the very small airman I can put in the ET uniform,” he quipped.

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