The Death of Capt. Thomas Mantell

What the file holds

Project Blue Book’s papers on the case are one unit in the National Archives catalogue, “Godman AFB, Ken., January 1948 - Incident Number: 33” (NAID 28930550, 75 images). Among them:

• the record card (image 1) and the check-lists for incidents 33 to 33g with summaries of the accounts (images 2–17), the same pages as DOW-UAP-D087, pp. 81–96;
• the air inspector’s report of 9 January 1948 with Col. Hix’s indorsement (images 34–35) and six signed statements of the same day from the control tower (images 36–40 and 42–44);
• a report of an unusual incident from a flight service centre, with the names of the pilots and the time of the crash (images 31–33);
• the request for a transcription of the radio conversation and its answer (image 25), the check of the position of Venus (images 18, 20 and 26–27) and the exchange about the theodolite readings, with weather briefs (images 21–24);
• the request of 23 April 1948 for the accident report and the indorsement of 21 May 1948 that transmitted it (images 45–46), a cover sheet and sixteen photographs of the wreckage (images 50–66), and letters of 1964 about the accident file (images 28–30 and 41).

Blue Book’s index lists the case on image 15 of NAID 28921348. Two papers on the same day’s sightings are in another unit, “Wilmington, Ohio, January 1948 - Incident Number: 48” (NAID 28930193, images 2 and 5).

The afternoon of 7 January, from the tower

Reports passed on from the state police reached Col. Hix at about 13:00 (image 42) and the tower at about 13:20, through the commanding officer’s office (images 17 and 36). T/Sgt Quinton A. Blackwell, the chief operator: “About 1345 or 1350 I sighted an object in the sky to the South of Godman Field.” (image 38) Others came up to the tower over the next hour, and each described the object differently:

• PFC Stanley Oliver: “to me it had the resemblance of an ice cream cone topped with red” (image 36), and “it was so far I couldn’t tell if it was moving or not” (image 37).
• 1st Lt Paul I. Orner: “a small white object in the southwest sky. This object appeared stationary.” Through binoculars “it partially appeared as a parachute does with bright sun shining on the top of the silk but there also seemed to be some red light around the lower of it.” (image 43)
• Capt. Cary W. Carter, called to the tower at about 14:07: “The object appeared round and white (whiter than the clouds that passed in front of it) and could be seen through cirus clouds.” (image 39)
• Capt. James F. Duesler, Jr., at about 14:20: the check-list for his account has “like tear drop - round; later, object seemed fluid” (image 10).
• Col. Guy F. Hix: “At 1445 hrs. the Tower notified me that an object had been sighted at about 215°. I went to the Tower and observed the object until 1550 hrs., when it disappeared behind the clouds.” It “appeared to be about one-quarter the size of a full moon, white in color”, and “It remained stationary for 1½ hours.” (image 42) Blackwell’s statement and the check-list for his account have Hix in the tower at about 14:20 (images 17 and 38).
• Lt. Col. E. Garrison Wood, the air inspector: “circular in shape and, if it was a great distance away, was 1/10th the size of a full moon. If it was an earthly object, the size, as compared to the diminishing size of the P-51’s flying toward it, seemed to be at least several hundred feet in diameter.” (image 34)

The flight and the radio

At about 14:30 to 14:40 a flight of four P-51s “approached Godman Field from the South, enroute from Marietta, Ga. to Standiford Field, Ky.” (image 38). Blackwell asked the flight leader, NG 869, to try to identify the object; one aircraft went on to Standiford, and the leader and two others “flew a course of 210°” (images 17 and 43). The flight service centre’s report names the pilots: “The lead ship was NG 3869, pilot Mantell.”; Hendrichs, NG 336, landed at Standiford; at 22,000 feet Hammond, NG 737, told Clements, NG 800, that he had no oxygen equipment, and both returned to Standiford while Mantell “continued climbing” (image 31). Capt. Duesler’s statement also names the leader: “The Flight Leader (Capt. Thomas F. Mantell) answered that he would, and requested a bearing to this object.” (image 40)

What the leader said reached the file only through people on the ground, and they remembered it differently. The page “Info taken from reports of radio conversation between Control at Godman and NG 869” sets out four versions (image 4; DOW-UAP-D087, p. 94):

• Hix: “Object traveling at 180 MPH - half my speed”.
• Orner: “high and traveling about 1/2 my speed at 12 o’clock position”, later “Closing in to take a good look”.
• Blackwell: at 14:45 “Object traveling at 180 MPH Directly ahead of & above me now and moving at about 1/2 my speed.”, and at 15,000 feet “It appears metallic of tremendous size.”
• Carter: “Object going up and forward as fast as he was”, “approx 360 MPH”, and “going to 20,000 ft and if no closer will abandon chase”.

The check-list made out for Mantell from “a report describing a radio conversation” has “Approximately 500 mph” (image 5). Carter’s own statement adds: “It was impossible to identify which plane was doing the talking in the above report.” (image 39) By Blackwell’s statement the last contact “was at about 1515” (image 38); by Oliver’s, the tower “kept in contact with the flight leader for about twenty-five (25) minutes” (image 36). NG 800 reported “It appears like the reflection of sunlight on an airplane canopy” and, after refuelling, searched to 33,000 feet without seeing anything (image 38); the flight service centre’s report has 32,000 feet (image 31).

The flight service centre’s report: “At 1750E, Standiford Field advised that NG 3869, pilot Mantell, crashed 5 miles SW Franklin, Kentucky at approximately 1645E.” (image 31) That is 15:45 Central time (our conversion). Eye witnesses told a police officer at Franklin “that the aircraft had exploded in the air before it hit the ground” (image 32).

What the file does not hold

• The radio conversation. On 13 January 1948, after the investigation at Godman on 9 January, the office MCIA asked for a transcription, because “it was learned that such a recording was made 7 January regarding an unidentified flying object”. The answer of 15 January: “This office does not have a record of the conversation that took place between the three P-51 National Guard aircraft and the tower operator at Godman Field.” (image 25)
• The theodolite readings. A weather observer at Godman Field tracked the object with a theodolite, “keeping a record of times, elevations and azimuths” (image 33), and the check-list for Orner’s account says the bright light seen at 17:35 was tracked the same way (image 15). In a message that Godman answered on 3 February 1949, the Air Materiel Command wrote that “ONLY THREE READINGS ARE ON FILE HERE” (image 21), and Godman replied: “There are no further theodolite readings available at this base.” (image 22) The three readings are not among the scans (our reading of the unit’s images); they would give times, elevations and azimuths, not distance or size.
• The accident report. On 21 May 1948 the Air Inspector transmitted “a photostatic copy of an AF Form 14, Report of Major Accident” on P-51D No. 44-63869, “piloted by Captain Thomas F. Mantell, Jr.” (image 46). The form, accident 48-1-7-1, is not among the scans (our reading of the unit’s images): the unit holds the indorsement and sixteen photographs of the wreckage (images 50–66). On 10 July 1964 “All available information regarding the accident” went to the Federal Aviation Agency, and a letter of 23 July 1964 noted: “No photos of the body, autopsy report or medical data were included with the accident report.” (image 30)
• The pilots’ own accounts. The file holds no statement by any of the three other pilots.

What the files say about its label

The record card has “BALLOON” written by hand, with no date, signature or reason (image 1), and Blue Book’s index has “136 7 Godman, Kentucky (FOLDER) ... Balloon” (NAID 28921348, image 15). The other papers say:

• The check-lists, undated. On the check-list for Capt. Duesler’s account: “Later, an astronomer was contacted who attempted to account for this phenomena as either Venus or a comet. (?)” (image 11) On the check-list for Capt. Carter’s: “Does not seem to tally with report that the phenomena was ‘Venus or a comet’” (image 9).
• 27 October 1948, the Equipment Laboratory. “It is doubtful that Venus could be observed by the unaided eye from the ground or 15,000 feet as it would probably be hidden by the high degree of sky brightness due to its proximity to the Sun.” (image 18)
• 10 November 1948, the Intelligence Department. “It is apparent, from the data given above, that the object sighted at Godman Air Force Base on 7 January 1948 was not the planet Venus. Therefore, this sighting must be considered as unexplained.” (image 26)
• 10 December 1948, Study No. 203. Earlier incidents at Godman “may also have been observations of the planet Venus” (DOW-UAP-D094, p. 21; see below).
• 5 January 1949, the Air Materiel Command on Project “SIGN”. The letter sends the summaries of incidents 1 to 172 to the Air Weather Service “for study and recommendations as to which of the incidents may be eliminated as balloons released on routine synoptic ascents”, and in its opinion incident 33 is among those “having the greatest possibility of being balloons”: “This list does not eliminate the possibility that many of the remaining incidents are balloons.” (NAID 28930193, image 5) Research projects using balloons, the same letter says, “are checked by the Intelligence Department of this Command”. The Air Weather Service’s answer is not in either unit.
• Hynek, for Project Grudge, undated. His evaluations list incident 33 as astronomical, “High probability” (NAID 28929152, image 8). An unsigned evaluation of a sighting over Columbus the same day, which we read as his: “The evidence given in this incident fits the hypothesis that the object observed was the planet Venus, and, considered with incidents #30, 33, and 48, it is incredible that it could have been anything else. See report on #33 for detailed discussion of sightings of 7 January 1948.” (NAID 28930193, image 2) The evaluations of incidents 30 and 48 also refer to that report (images 3–4); it is not in either unit.
• January 1951, Look. An article filed by the FBI: “‘Our studies show,’ said Dr. Liddel, ‘that Captain Mantell and the other pilots were pursuing a balloon of the Skyhook type. Captain Mantell could never have reached the height at which the balloon was traveling.’” (FBI file 62-HQ-83894, Section 6, p. 115)
• March 1952 by the publisher’s date, Ruppelt. “what he was chasing is still open to discussion. It was either, probably either Venus or one of these great big Skyhook balloons that General Mills puts up, because there was one lost in the area at the time, although they were never able to say where it was, except that it was either over Kentucky or Tennessee.” (DOW-UAP-D154, p. 17)
• 21 May 1956, a memorandum on a film previewed at ATIC. “Conclusions of the Air Firce [sic] are that Capt. Mantell was apparently trying to intercept a fast riding ‘Sky Hook’ balloon.” The memorandum argues from size, “Unlike weather balloons ‘Sky Hook’ balloons were huge (100 feet in diameter), coinciding with Capt. Mantell’s statement that ‘it’s tremendous in size!’”, and cites Ruppelt’s book (DOW-UAP-D102, p. 65). The words it quotes are not those of the statements from the tower (images 4 and 38).

No document derives the answer from a record of a balloon’s flight. The papers call the same sighting possibly Venus, not Venus and unexplained, astronomical, and a balloon, so the case is disputed. The file holds no measurement of the object: the theodolite readings would be angles and are missing, and the speeds and sizes are estimates relayed from the air or judged from the ground, so the mark ◆ does not apply.

The study of December 1948 and Markham’s letter

The Air Intelligence Division’s study of 10 December 1948, prepared with the Office of Naval Intelligence, describes a sighting at Godman on 19 August 1948 and ends: “The object was determined to be the planet Venus by Mr. Moore, the head astronomer at the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. It is believed that earlier incidents at Godman Field (reference paragraph 2k, page 12, Appendix ‘C’) may also have been observations of the planet Venus.” Its paragraph 2k is the event of 7 January 1948: “a National Guard pilot was killed while attempting to chase an unidentified object up to 30,000 feet.” The study does not name Mantell.

In a letter of 14 March 1948, filed with the incident summaries forwarded from Wright Field in 1949, Norman G. Markham, setting out by his own account “a speculation”, wrote that “Something like a ‘flying disc’ was pursued by one Lt. Mantell and two other pilots” and, “in this connection”, mentioned “the deaths of two military officers” said to have been bringing back material evidence from flying discs, one of which “was said to have met with some kind of accident over Maury Island”; this is Markham’s speculation, and nothing in the files connects the two cases (see The Maury Island Fragments).

Where it was

The statements come from people in the control tower at Godman Field, Fort Knox; the object lay to the south and south-west, at about 215° by Hix’s account (image 42). The P-51 crashed “5 miles SW Franklin, Kentucky” (image 31); a letter of 1964 gives the place as “the yard of Mrs Carrie Phillips, Route 3, Lake Spring Road, 5 miles Southwest of Franklin, Kentucky (W J Phillips farm)” (image 29). No document gives coordinates, and we did not compute a point for the crash. The pin is OpenStreetMap’s point for Godman Army Airfield (node 368383540, 37.9068° N, 85.9723° W), rounded to 37.91° N, 85.97° W. It marks the place of the observers, not a position of the object.

Why this scores where it does

Witnesses: 4. Six signed statements from the control tower, made two days later, and the air inspector’s report. Not 5: the leader’s words reach the file only through four differing accounts from the tower, the other pilots’ own accounts are missing, the statements disagree on times and on the number of aircraft, and the descriptions range from a parachute to an ice cream cone.

Radar: 0. None.

Optics: 0. No photograph of the object; the photographs in the file are of the wreckage.

Physical trace: 0. The wreckage is not a trace of the object.

Multi-channel: 2. The tower by sight and through binoculars, the pilots by radio, a theodolite whose readings are missing, and police reports from other towns whose link to the same object the files do not establish.

Documentation: 4. The card, the check-lists, six statements, the air inspector’s report, the flight service centre’s report, the Venus analysis and the later evaluations can all be opened. Not 5: the accident report, the theodolite readings, the radio recording and the other pilots’ accounts are missing.

Anomaly: 1. A white object that seemed to stand still for an hour and a half; the descriptions in the files, such as a parachute lit from above, and the Air Materiel Command’s list of 1949 point toward a balloon, but no document checks it against a balloon’s flight.

Data today: 2. The statements give times and bearings; the readings, the radio recording and the accident report cannot be opened.

The overall is 1.5: class D, testimony only.

What would settle it

• The accident report, AF Form 14 for accident 48-1-7-1, which the Air Inspector transmitted on 21 May 1948 (image 46).
• The theodolite readings, of which the Air Materiel Command had three on file in 1949 (image 21).
• The recording of the radio conversation between the tower and the flight, which could not be found in January 1948 (image 25).
• The accounts of the other pilots of the flight.
• The report on incident 33 among Hynek’s evaluations, to which the evaluations of incidents 30, 32 and 48 refer (NAID 28930193, images 2–4).
• A record of a balloon’s flight over Kentucky or Tennessee on 7 January 1948, including the Air Weather Service’s answer to the letter of 5 January 1949 (NAID 28930193, image 5).