The tragic Captain Mantell UFO encounter

Kentucky, USA | 1948

Four P-51s of the Kentucky National Guard had been grounded at Marietta Army Air Base in Georgia on December 30, 1947. A week later some Kentucky Guardsmen volunteered to fly the four fighters back to their home base at Standiford Air Field in northern Kentucky. The leader of this ferry mission was a Captain Mantell who filed a visual flight plan for the trip north and about midday January 7, 1948, took off from Marietta in his Mustang warplane leading three other similar fighters. The flight of four P-51s formed up into two pairs and took up a northern course. The flight planned to maintain a low 4,000-foot altitude for the entire trip so nothing was done about the oxygen supply aboard the aircraft. Captain Mantell’s wingman was a Lt. Hendricks. Close by were the other two P-51s piloted by a Lt. Clements and a Lt. Hammond. Support personnel returning to Standiford left Marietta Army Air Base shortly thereafter in a slow C-47 transport that had airlifted all the Guardsmen to Georgia the previous afternoon.

At 4:15 CST the support personnel arrived at Standiford Field and were startled to learn that three of the P-51s in the ferry mission had not yet landed. Instead the aircraft were engaged in a chase of a strange object in the sky above the southwest horizon. That’s all the airmen knew until 5:00 p.m. when Major Doyle of the Air National Guard unit received a phone call from Standiford Operations. The Major was stunned to find out that Captain Mantell was dead!

Just before Captain Mantell’s flight crossed the Kentucky/ Tennessee State line, a UFO alert had electrified the Blue Grass State. The Indianapolis News described the commotion thusly:

“Dozens of persons on the ground in the area of Madisonville, Ky., had been telephoning police to report seeing a circular object hovering overhead and giving off a brilliant red glow.” Civilians had notified the Kentucky State Police at 1:00 CST to report something odd soaring over Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Some ten minutes later phone calls from more excited witnesses came in from places like Lexington which suggested a high altitude for the UFO due to the widely scattered points reporting sightings at approximately the same time.

State police contacted military police at Fort Knox to tell them an “unusual aircraft or object, circular in appearance and over 250 feet in diameter,” was speeding through the air on a westward course at a “pretty good clip” just south of the military installation. The MPs dialed the orderly room of Godman Field, Fort Knox’s airstrip, to inform the commanding officer there, Colonel Hix. The clock on the wall showed 1:20 p.m. when the phone rang in Godman Tower. Chief Control Tower operator T/Sgt. Blackwell answered. A Sgt. Cook of Colonel Hix’s office was on the line and he told Sgt. Blackwell about the UFO and requested a check with Flight Test Operations at Wright Field, Ohio to determine if there was anything experimental in the air that might correlate with the reported aerial object. When contacted, a Captain Hooper at Flight Test Operations replied in the negative, saying that the only thing in the region they had was a conventional aircraft on photo missions, however Flight Service did provide Sgt. Blackwell with more UFO reports from cities west of Fort Knox, Irvington and Owensboro, that matched the previously mentioned, sightings in regards to size and appearance.

About 15 minutes to two o’clock, Sgt. Blackwell caught sight of something in the Southern heavens and turned to the other man on in the tower, PFC S. Oliver, to ask for confirmation. Private Oliver saw it, whatever it was, but could not believe his eyes. Sgt. Blackwell urged a closer look. The Private did and became convinced he wasn’t imagining things. The two enlisted men then summoned their Detachment Commander, 1st. Lt. Orner, who was working in a ground level office. Lt. Orner was just finishing discussing the UFO in question with Kentucky State Police when Sgt. Blackwell called, so the Lieutenant didn’t have to be asked twice to go and take a peek at the sky enigma. Lt. Orner went quickly to the tower and peered to the southwest where there was a “small white object” apparently stationary in the sky. Using field glasses, Lt. Orner was still unable to tell if the object was generating its own light or reflecting it. Of the image, he said: “…it partially appeared as a parachute does with the bright sun shining on the top of the silk, but there also seemed to be red light around the lower portion of it.”

Downstairs at the traffic desk was the Operations Officer, a Captain Carter, who heard Lt. Orner excitedly announce over the teletalk box at 2:07 p.m. that more observers were needed in the tower. Captain Carter rushed upstairs and took his turn with the field glasses. The commotion also attracted a Mr. Duesler and a Lt. Col. E. G. Wood. The two joined the others already in the tower. This was at about 2:20 p.m. Captain Carter said of the object: “…it appeared round and whiter than the clouds that passed in front of it and it could be seen thru circus clouds.” PFC Oliver remembered that there was speculation over what the sky object could be. To him the thing appeared like: “…an ice cream cone topped with red.” Since no one could come up with an adequate explanation, it was finally decided that the Commanding Officer of the Air Base should be summoned. The CO, Colonel Hix, quickly arrived and took a look for himself. He would say: “It was very white and looked like an umbrella. I thought it was a celestial body. I can’t account for the fact it didn’t move. I just don’t know what it was. It appeared about ¼ the size of the full moon and white in color. Thru the binoculars it appeared to have a red border at the bottom at times, a red border at the top at times. It remained stationary, seemingly for 1 ½ hours.”

At this time those in the tower heard Captain Mantell’s four plane flight roar pass Godman Field on its way to nearby Standiford. Captain Mantell had switched from the radio channel his wingmates were using, which was “C” channel, over to “B” channel, so he could contact Standiford Tower for landing instructions. At that moment Godman Tower’s radio was open to “B” channel and Mantell’s voice boomed out of the loudspeaker. Colonel Hix and the others stopped their scanning of the southern horizon to listen. Captain Carter suggested that the passing P-51s be asked to investigate the UFO. No one offered any objections, so Sgt. Blackwell grabbed the radio mike and began to talk to Mantell, telling the National Guard aviator about the strange target to the south and requesting an aerial check on it if the P-51s had the fuel. Mantell replied: “Roger I have the gas and I will take a look if you give me the correct heading and any information you have on locating it.”