The Secret Genesis of Area 51

by T.D. Barnes

The man “who has done more than anyone to lift the veil of secrecy . . . about what’s unfolded out there in the desert” reveals the origins of Area 51 (KLAS 8 News Now).   In 1955, the Central Intelligence Agency established a clandestine base of operations in the Nevada desert with a mission to protect the United States from a growing communist threat. Special projects at Area 51 were shrouded in mystery, and the first was one of the world’s most famous spy planes, the U-2. It fueled half-truths, rumors and legends for more than half a century. Now with many details of that endeavor declassified, the real story can finally be told. Author and Area 51 veteran TD Barnes sifts fact from fiction in one of America’s most protected origin stories.

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 13, 2015

About the author

Thornton D. “TD” Barnes, author and entrepreneur, grew up on a ranch at Dalhart, Texas. He graduated from Mountain View High School in Oklahoma and embarked on a ten-year military career. He served as an Army intelligence specialist in Korea and then continued his education while in the US Army, attending two and a half years of missile and radar electronics by day and college courses at night. Barnes deployed with the first combat Hawk missile battalion during the Soviet Iron Curtain threat before attending the Artillery Officer Candidate School, where an injury ended his military career.
Barnes’ career includes serving as a field engineer at the NASA High Range in Nevada for the X-15, XB-70, lifting bodies and lunar landing vehicles; working on the NERVA project at Jackass Flats, Nevada; and serving in Special Projects at Area 51. Barnes later formed a family oil and gas exploration company, drilling and producing oil and gas and mining uranium and gold.
Barnes currently serves as the CEO of Startel, Inc., a landowner, and is actively mining landscape rock and gold in Nevada. He serves as the president of Roadrunners Internationale, an association of Area 51 veterans, and is the executive director of the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame.
Two National Geographic Channel documentaries feature Barnes: Area 51 Declassified and CIA—Secrets of Area 51. Numerous documentaries on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel and others also feature him. The Annie Jacobsen book Area 51 Declassified documents his career.

Reviews

[David Yasuo Henna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most comprehensive treatment of American spy planes ever.

Mostly about the engineering and the development of the infamous U-2 spy plane, but the pilot who was shot down, Gary Powers, didn't take up inordinate book space. I had the preconceived notion that any book on Area 54 would
treat U.F.O 's and extraterrestrials, but they weren't mentioned at all, which is why I didn't give five stars. The most interesting fact was Gary Powers and other pilots had been issued quick-acting poison in case they were captured which Gary wisely abstained.