The Death of Capt. Thomas Mantell

The Death of Capt. Thomas Mantell

On the afternoon of 7 January 1948 the control tower at Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky, watched an object in the south-western sky after reports of it passed on from the state police. To Lt. Paul I. Orner it “partially appeared as a parachute does with bright sun shining on the top of the silk” (NAID 28930550, image 43); to PFC Stanley Oliver it “had the resemblance of an ice cream cone topped with red” (image 36). The tower asked a flight of four National Guard P-51s passing overhead to try to identify it, and three climbed toward it. By the statement of T/Sgt Quinton A. Blackwell, the flight leader reported it “ahead and above, I'm still climbing” and then: “It appears metallic object of tremendous size” (image 38). The leader was Capt. Thomas F. Mantell (image 40). The last contact was at about 15:15 (image 38), and Mantell’s P-51 “crashed 5 miles SW Franklin, Kentucky” (image 31). The record card has “BALLOON” written by hand (image 1).

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