Alien hunters arrive at Area 51 for attempted raid on mysterious US site - follow live

As expected, the "Area 51" raid seems to be a pretty big bust, but I think the AF really missed an opportunity here:

They could have set up "alien" displays, had things under tarps, given "tours" of the unclass facilities, and generally had a great time with this. It would have been a lot of free publicity that they could have turned into a massive recruiting effort.

AF PERSON: "Hey, you want to see what's in the "secret" hanger?"

AREA51 KID WHO LITERALLY HAS NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN HANG OUT IN THE DESERT ON A FRIDAY: "Yeah!

AF PERSON: "Just sign on this dotted line.. for insurance purposes... and for a recruiter to call you with your basic training date...."

AREA51 KID: "Sounds great!" *signs paper*

AF PERSON shows him the "secret" shuttles that everyone already knows about.
They could have planned an air show with planes zooming over and all the fancy stuff! They had months to plan and would have had to do ZERO publicity!
When the big crowd was all gathered, they could have sent out helicopters with search lights and a convoy of armored vehicles... and they would roll up real quick, and the back doors would burst open and a bunch of black-clad Soldier people would jump out... and hand out water and donuts! And then ask that everyone follow them back onto the base.

It would have been a win-win!