QUOTE(dcman @ Sep 7 2007, 11:52 AM)

This is from NSA website about ufos. The document talks about ufos and keeps stating in brackets (probably balloons) and much of the documents has been blacked out. It reports ufos as probably balloons, but mentions nothing about corroborating evidence to prove that allegation. If a UFO beached American airspace, you would think that fighter jets would have been scrambled to intercept said UFO to ascertain what is was…but nothing is mentioned of it, only radar tracking. So much for securing our airsapce. Some instances of altitudes at around 90,000 to 100,000 feet altitude with unknown speed.
the government files:
http://www.nsa.gov/ufo/ufo00044.pdfhttp://www.nsa.gov/ufo/ufo00045.pdfhttp://www.nsa.gov/ufo/ufo00046.pdfArticle: The Strange Case of Capt. Thomas Mantell
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The Strange Case of Capt. Thomas Mantell
By Paul Urbahns
PRESIDENT, ANCESTRAL TRAILS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In this issue we examine a unique piece of Fort Knox history, which
deals with the death of Captain Thomas F. Mantell, Jr. and is based on
official documents, but those files were based on human interpretation
of the facts. Captain Mantell was considered a "hero" according to
Courier Journal newspaper reports of the day.
A graduate of Louisville Male High School entered the Air Force soon
after his graduation. He took part in the invasion of Normandy and
numerous other missions. Mantell was one of the first flyers to cross
the Cherbourg Peninsula on D-Day. he won the distinguished Flying Cross
for services over Holland. Enemy fire severed the rudder and elevator
controls and set fire to the tail sections while the plane was 100 miles
from the target. Mantell succeeded in completing his mission and getting
plane and crew home safely. Mantell separated from the Air Force about a
year before the incident we are studying here and since that time had
been associated with the Kentucky Air National Guard.
In the little town of Maysville, Kentucky, on January 7, 1948 at
approximately 1400 hours, a number of people saw a strange-looking
object in the sky. Similar to the opening credits of the old Superman
television show, the people looked heavenly in amazement. But unlike the
television series, the witnesses could not identify what they saw.
These were post World War 2 years and many people were still concerned
about attack by foreign countries. Anything unusual was noted and
discussed. The Kentucky State Police were called and reports were made.
Meanwhile, other reports of the same craft started pouring in from a
variety of locations, describing the unknown craft in similar terms: It
was round, between 250 and 300 feet in diameter, metallic in color and
glowing brightly. Many informants contended it was moving westward at "a
pretty good clip".
Members of the Kentucky State Police confirmed the sighting of an
unusual aircraft or object flying through the air. This in turn was
reported to the Commanding Officer, Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky.
The Commander in turn called the Godman Tower and ask them to have
Flight Service check with Flight Test at Wright Field (now
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) to see if they had any experimental
aircraft in that area.
Captain Hooper, at Flight Test Operations stated, We have no
experimental aircraft in that area, however, we do have a B-29 and an
A-26 on photo missions in that area."By this tiime the personnel at
Godman Tower had seen the object in question and reported ..."a disc or
balloon, or some strange object was seen hovering in the vicinity of
Godman Field" according to the report filed by Captain Arthur T. Jehli,
Shift Supervisor. The object was seen by both the Commanding Officer,
Col. Guy F. Hix, and Captain Gary W. Carter, Operations Officer of
Godman Field, who advised they would attempt to send aircraft to
ascertain the size and shape of the object. PFC Stanley Oliver, who was
on duty that afternoon in the Control Tower, stated, " I saw the object
but thought I was imagining I saw it." Oliver looked again and stated,
"...to me it had the resemblance of an ice cream cone topped with red."
This is where the story turns into a case of being in the wrong place at
the wrong time. We will quote fairly heavily from Captain Jehli's report
because it is probably the most complete chronological account of the
events of that day. Additional information from other sources will
continue to be inserted were necessary to fill in the gaps and will be
identified as such.
Captain Jehli's report continues. "At this time there was a flight of 4
P-51's enroute from Marietta Georgia to Standiford Field, Louisville,
Kentucky. The lead ship was NG3869, pilot Mantell. The Commanding
Officer, Godman Field contacted this pilot and requested that he
investigate the object overhead."
The P-51 was a propeller driven airplane commonly referred to as a
"Mustang". Actually, contact was made by Tech. Sergeant Quinton A.
Blackwell, another eye witness and chief operator in the Control Tower,
who reported about the P-51's, "As they passed over the tower I called
them on "B" channel, VHF and asked the flight leader, NG 3869, if he had
enough gas and if so, would he mind trying to identify an object in the
sky to the South of Godman Field. He replied in the affirmative...."
By this time reports of sightings were coming in from other communities
such as Irvington, Kentucky.
"One of the ships in the formation NG336 pilot Hendrichs, landed at
Standiford Field, the other 3 aircraft started to climb toward the
object."
According to the report filed by Capt. James F. Duesler,Jr., another
eyewitness of the object over Godman Field, Captain Mantell "reported
his position at 7,500 feet and climbing. Immediately following the
Flight Leader's transmission, another member of the Flight asked "Where
in the hell are we going?" In a few minutes the Flight Leader called out
an object "twelve o'clock high." Asked to describe this object, he said
that it was bright and that it was climbing away from him. When asked
about its speed, the Flight leader stated it was going about half his
speed, approximately 180 MPH."
Tech Sgt. Blackwell's statement quotes the flight member's (identified
as a wing man) question as," What the Hell are we looking for?" the
reports agree on Mantell's reply.
"At 22,000 feet pilot Hammond, NG 737, advised Clements, NG 800, that he
had no oxygen equipment. Both pilots then returned to Standiford Field;
pilot Mantell, NG 3869, continued climbing.
Tech Sgt Blackwell's statement quoted Mantell as saying, "I'm still
climbing, the object is above and ahead of me moving at about my speed
or faster. I'm trying to close in for a better look."
"Pilot Clements, NG800, refueled and went back up to 32,000 feet but did
not see either the strange object or the aircraft NG3869 again, and so
returned to Standiford Field."
Starting to sound like an alien abduction, doesn't it? Well that was not
to be Captain Mantell's fate that day.
"At 1750 Eastern Time, Standiford Field advised that NG3869, pilot
Mantell, crashed 5 miles SW of Franklin, Kentucky at approximately 1645
Central Time."
Godman then notified Maxwell Flight Service Center that Mantell's plane
had crashed. Maxwell Flight Service Center in turn made a long distance
telephone call to Franklin, Kentucky and spoke to police officer Joe
Walker. It was officer Walker that took charge at the scene of the
accident.
According to Captain Jehli's report, "Officer Walker stated that when he
arrived the pilot's body had been removed from the aircraft. Upon
questioning eye witnesses, Officer Walker learned that the aircraft had
exploded in the air before it hit the ground, but, that the aircraft did
not burn upon contact with the ground. The wreckage was scattered over
an area of about one mile, and at that time the tail section, one wing,
and the propeller had not been located."
There you have the basic facts and circumstances surrounding the death
of Captain Thomas Mantell, the first recorded casualty due to a UFO.
Most of the information in this article comes from declassified Air
Force Operation Blue Book reports. Operation Blue Book was established
in 1947 (under the name Project Sign) by the government to investigate
reports of unexplained phenomenon during those years of post-war nerves.
Blue Book officers were stationed at every Air Force base in the nation.
They were responsible for investigating all reported sightings of UFOs;
to determine whether UFOs pose any security threat to the United States;
and to determine if UFOs exhibit any advanced technology which the U.S.
could utilize. Blue Book headquarters was at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base, but the bulk of the investigations was interpreted by field
officers. The results of this investigation led officials to determine
that most people see not extraterrestrial spacecraft, but bright stars,
balloons, satellites, comets, fireballs, conventional aircraft, moving
clouds, vapor trails, missiles, reflections, mirages, searchlights,
birds, kites, spurious radar indications, fireworks, or flares.
What was this large glowing object seen by hundreds of people "hovering
over Godman Field"? Was Captain Mantell "shot down" by an alien
spaceship? Were the citizens of Maysville, Irvington, Madisonville, and
Owensboro, Kentucky crazy for seeing the object. What about the sanity
of the Godman Field eyewitnesses? Captain Arthur T. Jehli, Shift
Supervisor at Godman; Col. Guy F. Hix, Commanding Officer; Captain Gary
W. Carter, Operations Officer at Godman; Captain James F. Duesler, Jr.;
Tech Sergeant Quinton A. Blackwell, chief operator in the Control Tower;
and PFC Stanley Oliver all gave statements as to the object they eye
witnessed that day. Were these airfield professionals duped?
The Courier Journal reported on January 9, 1948, "Chase for Flying Disk
Blamed In Crash Death". The newspaper reported Mantell was following
something described as a "star" by fellow flyers.
To add more questions to the puzzle, in addition to the sighting
involving Captain Mantell, the statement signed by Captain Jehli
included the following:
"So much for the accident - now hold on to your hat!"
"Godman Tower again contacted us to report that there was a large light
in the sky in the approximate position of the object seen earlier. Then
Lockborne Tower and Clinton County Tower advised a great ball of light
was traveling southwest across the sky....."
"Later we received a call from St. Louis Tower advising that a great
ball of light was passing directly over the field - Scott Tower also
verified this. We then received a call from Air Defense Command through
Olmstead Flight Service Center advising us to alert Coffeville, Kansas,
Ft Smith, Arkansas and Kansas City, Missouri, and they plotted the
object as moving WSW at 250 miles per hour."
You can see the description of the second object is radically different
than the object Captain Mantell was chasing.
The Blue Book investigators in their final report on the Godman Field
activities took information from four incidents reported on January 7,
1948 numbered 30, 33 (Godman Field); 32; 48; and considered them as one
investigation.
Based on their investigation, the Blue Book report states, "...all these
times and bearing agree closely with the time and place of the setting
of Venus.
" The stellar magnitude of Venus on January 7, was - 3.4 which makes it
30 times brighter than the bright star Arcturus."
Justification for this conclusion continued with three reasons: First,
Venus shining through clouds could very easily give the effect of a
flaming object with a tail. Second, the motion of clouds past the object
(Venus) could give the illusion of rapid movement. Finally, a third
though admittedly remote possibility, according to the report, is based
on a rarely-observed phenomenon, is that owing to thermo-inversions in
the atmosphere, stars near the horizon have been known to jump about
erratically through arcs of two or three times the moon's apparent
diameter. Venus, when very close to the horizon, has been known to
twinkle brilliantly with rapidly oranging colors."
Needless to say, the "official" government explanation that Captain
Mantell lost his life chasing Venus did not set well with locals or the
national interest this case caused. It was widely reported in many early
UFO books as an example of a government coverup.
The report of Captain Jehli stated "The Military Police at the scene of
the accident called back and advised Godman Field that someone in
Madisonville, Kentucky had observed, through a Finch telescope, an
object described as a cone shaped , 100 feet from top to bottom, 43 feet
across, and 4 miles high proceeding SW at 10 miles per hour."
You may remember PFC Stanley Oliver's description from the first article
in this series, that the object appeared to resemble "an ice cream cone
topped with red".
"St. Louis ATC advised of an article printed in the "Edward-sville
Intelligencer," Edwardsville, Illinois, describing an object, over the
town at 07200, of aluminum appearance without apparent wings or control
surfaces which was moving southwest."
Another report, apparently ignored by investigators was from Dr.
Seyfert, an astronomer at Vanderbilt University that had spotted an
object SSE of Nashville, Tennessee that he identified as " a pear shaped
balloon with cables and a basket attached, moving first South Southeast,
then West, at a speed of 10 miles per hour at 25,000 feet."
Does this sound like the planet Venus to you?
What the government did not acknowledge in their conclusions was that
there was such an object over Godman Field on January 7th that fit that
and the descriptions of other airfield professionals that witnessed that
days events.
Declassified at this time, we now know , almost fifty years later, about
a large balloon used for high altitude experimental flights and known as
"sky hooks." Sky Hook balloons fly at altitudes in excess of 60,000 feet
and reach diameters of approximately 100 feet.
During the period of this sighting at Godman Field, the Navy was
conducting a program utilizing "sky hook" balloons. The Navy program was
classified at that time.
It was subsequently determined that on the date of the Godman sighting a
balloon was released by the Navy from Clinton County airport in Ohio.
The release time of the balloon was related to a wind plot for 7 January
1948, and it revealed that the balloon would have been in the area of
Godman at the time of the sightings.
It is the (Air Technical Information Command) opinion that Captain
Mantell lost consciousness due to oxygen starvation, the aircraft being
trimmed continued to climb until increasing altitude caused a sufficient
loss of power for it to level out. The aircraft then began a turn to the
left due to torque and as the wing drooped so did the nose until the
aircraft was in a tight diving spiral. The uncontrolled descent resulted
in excessive speed causing the aircraft to disintegrate. It is believed
that Captain Mantell never regained consciousness. This is born out by
the fact that the canopy lock was still in place after the crash,
discounting any attempt to abandon the aircraft.
The object pursued by Captain Mantell is believed to have been the "sky
hook" balloon and this was probably the object seen by other eye
witnesses and described as pear shaped and metallic.
Numerous books are available at local public libraries on the UFO
Phenomenon and contain references to the Mantell Case. Modern books as a
rule do not mention it as much as older books because a satisfactory
explanation has been presented for the incident.
The Mantell Case was also presented on the syndicated television series,
"Sightings", which is currently aired on the SCI-FI Channel.
Though explained, the events almost fifty years ago at Godman Field on
Fort Knox still present an interesting and unique slant on the history
of our area. Captain Mantell's place in history is assured whenever the
subject of UFO's is discussed.