An Air Force veteran stationed at Area 51 alleges that the US government has hidden a serious health crisis affecting military bases across the nation.
David Crete, a former Air Force Sergeant, served as a security guard at the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), the secretive site that includes the notorious top-secret base.
He’s one of many veterans who became seriously ill with the same mysterious symptoms years after working at NTTR.
Crete, who worked at NTTR from 1983 to 1987, claims that many workers from the facility have died from serious illnesses, including cancer, after their service at the classified site.
He identified this issue as an ‘invisible enemy’, primarily involving hazardous radiation affecting the water, soil, and atmosphere around the base, which was constructed on a former nuclear weapons testing ground from the 1940s and 50s.
Even though a 1975 US Department of Energy report highlighted the area as heavily irradiated, military personnel continued to be stationed at NTTR.
Crete additionally alleged that similar conditions at other bases, missile sites, and secret laboratories have led to severe health issues that the government has yet to recognize.
‘I think that the government has tried to sweep a whole lot of places under the rug,’ Crete claimed.
David Crete (pictured) spoke to the House Veterans Affairs Committee in April, claiming that he and his fellow veterans at Area 51 developed tumors after their service
Area 51, an area of more than 2.9 million acres, is located next to the Nevada Test Site
When asked if there are still classified projects taking place at Area 51 that are exposing soldiers to deadly radiation and other contaminants, Crete said the answer was ‘100 percent’ yes.
Those projects could include the development of advanced fighter aircrafts, which is where Crete and many of his fellow guards were allegedly contaminated in the 1980s.
During that time, the Area 51 veterans were employed by the Air Force’s security police squadron to guard the F-117A Nighthawk, America’s first stealth bomber, which was being developed and tested at the base.
Crete revealed that, since his retirement from the military, he has spoken with a physicist who studied the radiation and other chemicals detected in the Nevada desert and said it’d be a miracle to walk away from NTTR without developing health problems.
According to Crete, the scientist said: ‘The odds of somebody working up there for four years and not getting sick are one in a million.’
In response, Crete founded an advocacy group that has been pushing for legislation in Congress to lift the lid of secrecy and get soldiers at these bases the care they need.
‘You can’t do this to people and call it good. It’s not okay,’ he said.
The veterans who have joined Crete’s advocacy group didn’t know there was a connection between US military bases and their cancers until a reunion party a decade ago, Crete claimed.
‘One of the guys asked the question “Does anybody have a tumor?” which is kind of an odd question,’ he recalled.
‘Well, six out of eight of us in my backyard at the time that afternoon had tumors.’
Crete and other airmen were employed as Air Force security police, guarding experimental aircraft at Area 51
US Air Force F-117 stealth bombers (pictured) were part of the top-secret projects being worked on at NTTR
Crete claimed that the damage to his DNA and that of the other veterans stationed at these facilities throughout the US hasn’t just affected them. He alleged it also has severe health implications for their families.
‘One of the other guys spoke up and said his kid was born with a tumor,’ he explained.
‘And then I said something, because my wife and I, our first son, was born with something called neurofibromatosis, which is a genetic disorder, and one of the effects of it is you can get tumors at nerve endings.’
The two bills currently in Congress, S.2220 and H.R. 1400, are attempting to get the Pentagon to acknowledge veterans potentially exposed to toxins get them the medical care.
If these measures pass, Crete said he’s hopeful that future bills will also focus on expanding that aid to family members affected as well.
‘We are not unique. Maybe the radiation stuff that we dealt with is a little more unique than other places. But even that is not a unique problem,’ Crete said.
The Air Force veteran said that he’s spoken with fellow servicemen and women who were stationed at places like George Air Force Base in California, which was shuttered in 1992 due to severe environmental contamination at the site.
‘People who were stationed there are sick because they know that there are toxins that were buried there,’ Crete claimed.
‘We know the missileers, the people that worked in the missile silos, the missile crews for the ICBMs, they’re having health issues. People who were bomb loaders are having health issues.’
Crete alleged that the US government, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, has done nothing for these soldiers, denying them medical care because few can prove they were at these classified bases.
For the men and women stationed at Area 51 and NTTR specifically, their work was so top secret, all records of their activities have been marked as ‘data masked,’ meaning the government won’t acknowledge they were at the base.
The Pentagon declined a request to comment and referred the matter to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Daily Mail is awaiting the agency’s response.
‘Our existence up on the range to this day is still classified, and they keep it classified to protect them,’ Crete claimed.
However, he added that the healthcare changes he and other veterans have pushed for wouldn’t reveal any of the work they did for the US military.
Moreover, two pieces of legislation currently being debated in Congress may end up providing medical support for military personnel who could still be exposed to potentially dangerous contaminants.
