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The US military has plenty of good reasons to keep its operations away from the general public. However, they've been known to make mistakes in the past, letting slip the dark side of their work and botching attempts to cover it up. In some cases, there is hard evidence that reveals horrifying secrets; in others, the public has used tidbits of leaked information to piece together theories.

Check out some of the areas and operations conducted by the US military that should have stayed a secret, and the conspiracy theories that many Americans believe.

▲New York City’s most iconic station hides a top secret power station that doesn’t show up on any blueprints. Known as M42, the existence of the 22,000 sq ft bunker located 10 floors down from the main floor was acknowledged in the 1980s.

▲Its original converters powered much of the New York Central Railroad, thus performing an important, clandestine role in World War II, as the Germans sought to destroy rail movement on the east coast.

▲Famously shrouded in mystery, this United States Air Force facility in Nevada is said to have been used as a secret flying zone in the 1960s to test spy planes. The correct names for the facility are Homey Airport (ICAO: KXTA) and Groom Lake, but the name Area 51 was used in a CIA document from the Vietnam War.

▲Many believe the base still serves a similar function, while many others believe the places is also used to house top secret weapons.

▲The secrecy surrounding the facility has led the spot to turn into an alien pop culture reference.

▲Located about 70 mi northwest of Area 51, the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) in Nevada has riled the interest of conspiracy theorists because of the site’s use of experimental and classified aircrafts.

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Unlike its neighbor, the test range has avoided linkage to extraterrestrial activity, thus the mystery surrounding the place is strictly in regards to military and government. The site is currently used for stockpiling nuclear weapons, reliability testing, research, and the development of fusing and firing systems.

▲Located about 85 mi southwest of Salt Lake City, this US Army facility was established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons.

▲The testing of dangerous biological and chemical weapons in a super secret facility is bound to attract attention. In 2004, the Deseret News reported that the president of Utah UFO Hunters, Dave Rosenfeld, said “UFOs have been seen and reported in the area in and around Dugway.”

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One of the most shocking programs ever carried out by the CIA, the MKUltra was a series of illegal experiments on human subjects intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to induce confession and the release of other information during interrogations through mind control techniques.

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Though it sounds like a conspiracy theory, the program was real. It started in 1953 and continued through the 1970s, but many believe the program is still being carried out. At least two Americans have died as a result of these experiments.

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Located in the Yucca Flat of the Nevada desert, the mile-long landing strip is speculated to be a base for testing sensors on a top secret fleet of drones.

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Located about 12 mi northeast of the infamous Area 51, little is known about the site, though the onsite Yucca Airstrip is used by both the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

▲The US government operation involved faking a terrorist attack against American civilians to justify a US military intervention in Cuba in 1962 and trick Americans into supporting it.

▲The operation has led many Americans to believe that the US government may be behind other attacks on American soil.

▲The CIA’s efforts to kill the former Cuban ruler included some bizarre plots. In one of these attempts, the agency poisoned a box of Castro’s favorite cigars in 1960, but they never reached El Comandante. No one knows what happened to the cigar box.

▲In yet another failed attempt, the CIA employed two of the FBI's most wanted gangsters to take out Castro. They were none other than Sam Giancana, the boss of the Chicago mob, and Santos Trafficante, the head of the mob’s Cuban operations.

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Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the reusable unmanned spacecraft began as a NASA project in 1999, and was transferred to the US Department of Defense in 2004. The problem is that not very many people know its purpose or what it’s being used for.

▲In May 2010, Tom Burghardt wrote for Space Daily that the Boeing was being used as a spy satellite or to deliver weapons from space, claims the Pentagon has denied. Other rumors suggest that the X-37B is meant to damage other nation’s spacecrafts.

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First launched in 2004, this nuclear-powered submarine is said to be involved in a secret mission to spy on North Korea.

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In 2017, the Washington Examiner reported that the submarine was flying a Jolly Roger, and speculated that the machinery was in the midst of some sort of espionage operation.

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Officially the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, the data storage facility located in the Utah desert supposedly spies on everything we do on the internet and on our phones.

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Its website openly states the motto “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

▲The FBI consistently included artists on its watch list in post-World War II America in an attempt to curb communism and other anti-government, anti-war sentiments.

▲Some of the names on the list included John Lennon, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, and Charlie Chaplin.

▲The Obama administration announced in 2008 that the government had eliminated all Abu Ghraib-style prisons, or “black sites,” in Afghanistan.

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However, journalist Kimberly Dozier (pictured) revealed in 2011 that the Joint Special Operations Command was hiding 20 prisons where Afghans were still being abused and tortured by the guards.

▲The Reagan administration authorized the implementation of the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, an ionospheric research program in Alaska to analyze the ionosphere and investigate potential technology developments for radio communications and surveillance. But the program has attracted different obscure theories.

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One of the rumors suggested that mind-control experiments were being carried out, while others believed that the Reagan Administration was developing technology to control the climate and weather. The base, located in Poker Flats (pictured), supposedly shut down a couple of years ago.

Sources: (Washington Examiner) (NSA) (Wired)

Revealing insights into US military operations

From Area 51 to MKUltra

07/05/25 por StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Us military

Check out some of the areas and operations conducted by the US military that should have stayed a secret, and the conspiracy theories that many Americans believe.