Thomas Mantell Jr.was born in Franklin, Kentucky, Jun. 30, 1922. He was a graduate of Male High School, in Louisville. On Jun. 16, 1942, he joined the Army Air Corps, graduating Flight School on Jun. 30, 1943. During World War II, Mantell was assigned to the 440th Troop Carrier Group, 96th Troop Carrier Squadron, 9th Air Force. He was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal w/3OLCs for heroism. Following the war he returned to Louisville, joining the newly organized Kentucky Air National Guard, as Flight Leader, "C" Flight, 165th Fighter Squadron, Kentucky Air National Guard on Feb. 16, 1947. Mantell is the first flight casualty of the Kentucky Air National Guard.
The story of how he lost his life is a bit more complicated...Capt. Mantell was piloting a P-51 Mustang fighter near Godman AFB in Kentucky en route to Standiford AFB along with three other Guard planes.
About 1:30 PM the Kentucky State Police began receiving calls from citizens regarding something in the sky over the town of Mansville. Calls soon started pouring in from Irvington and Owensboro Kentucky.
This object was then spotted by the control tower at Godman AFB.They contacted Capt. Mantell and the other planes are requested that they investage this object at about 2:40 PM. Which they did.
Mantell and two other planes reached 15,000 feet and intercepted the object. Mantell radioed, "The object is directly ahead of and above me now, moving at about half my speed...It appears to be a metallic object or possibly reflection of Sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size... I'm still climbing... I'm trying to close in for a better look."
Once they reached about 22,000 feet the other two planes turned back as the WW2 planes were not equipped with Oxygen. But Capt. Mantell kept going after the object. When he reached approximately 30,000 feet he leveled off the plane, but he may have passed out from a lack of oxygen and his plane crashed.
However, there is even more to the story. Capt. Mantell's watch was found to be stopped at 3:18 PM. The unidentified object was out of sight of Godman AFB by 3:50 PM, but reports continued to come in as far south as Tennessee.
A man by the name of Richard T. Miller claims he was in the Scott AFB operations room in Belleville, Illinois during the chase and he states that Capt. Mantell's last words were, "My God, I see people in this thing!"
Captain James F. Duesler was a crash scene investigator who says he saw the unidentified object that Capt. Mantell was pursuing. He describes that crash site as odd, because it appeared the Captain's plane had "pancaked" and landed flat on the ground, which would be unusual for an uncontrolled crash.
The military eventually explained away the cause for the crash, blaming alternately a weather baloon or the pilot "chasing Venus".
But a fellow pilot and friend summed it up with this statement:"The only thing I can think was that he was after something that he believed to be more important than his life or his family."
Information for this bio was found on various websites and in the book Alien Agenda by Jim Marrs.
The story of how he lost his life is a bit more complicated...Capt. Mantell was piloting a P-51 Mustang fighter near Godman AFB in Kentucky en route to Standiford AFB along with three other Guard planes.
About 1:30 PM the Kentucky State Police began receiving calls from citizens regarding something in the sky over the town of Mansville. Calls soon started pouring in from Irvington and Owensboro Kentucky.
This object was then spotted by the control tower at Godman AFB.They contacted Capt. Mantell and the other planes are requested that they investage this object at about 2:40 PM. Which they did.
Mantell and two other planes reached 15,000 feet and intercepted the object. Mantell radioed, "The object is directly ahead of and above me now, moving at about half my speed...It appears to be a metallic object or possibly reflection of Sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size... I'm still climbing... I'm trying to close in for a better look."
Once they reached about 22,000 feet the other two planes turned back as the WW2 planes were not equipped with Oxygen. But Capt. Mantell kept going after the object. When he reached approximately 30,000 feet he leveled off the plane, but he may have passed out from a lack of oxygen and his plane crashed.
However, there is even more to the story. Capt. Mantell's watch was found to be stopped at 3:18 PM. The unidentified object was out of sight of Godman AFB by 3:50 PM, but reports continued to come in as far south as Tennessee.
A man by the name of Richard T. Miller claims he was in the Scott AFB operations room in Belleville, Illinois during the chase and he states that Capt. Mantell's last words were, "My God, I see people in this thing!"
Captain James F. Duesler was a crash scene investigator who says he saw the unidentified object that Capt. Mantell was pursuing. He describes that crash site as odd, because it appeared the Captain's plane had "pancaked" and landed flat on the ground, which would be unusual for an uncontrolled crash.
The military eventually explained away the cause for the crash, blaming alternately a weather baloon or the pilot "chasing Venus".
But a fellow pilot and friend summed it up with this statement:"The only thing I can think was that he was after something that he believed to be more important than his life or his family."
Information for this bio was found on various websites and in the book Alien Agenda by Jim Marrs.
Thomas Mantell Jr.was born in Franklin, Kentucky, Jun. 30, 1922. He was a graduate of Male High School, in Louisville. On Jun. 16, 1942, he joined the Army Air Corps, graduating Flight School on Jun. 30, 1943. During World War II, Mantell was assigned to the 440th Troop Carrier Group, 96th Troop Carrier Squadron, 9th Air Force. He was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal w/3OLCs for heroism. Following the war he returned to Louisville, joining the newly organized Kentucky Air National Guard, as Flight Leader, "C" Flight, 165th Fighter Squadron, Kentucky Air National Guard on Feb. 16, 1947. Mantell is the first flight casualty of the Kentucky Air National Guard.
The story of how he lost his life is a bit more complicated...Capt. Mantell was piloting a P-51 Mustang fighter near Godman AFB in Kentucky en route to Standiford AFB along with three other Guard planes.
About 1:30 PM the Kentucky State Police began receiving calls from citizens regarding something in the sky over the town of Mansville. Calls soon started pouring in from Irvington and Owensboro Kentucky.
This object was then spotted by the control tower at Godman AFB.They contacted Capt. Mantell and the other planes are requested that they investage this object at about 2:40 PM. Which they did.
Mantell and two other planes reached 15,000 feet and intercepted the object. Mantell radioed, "The object is directly ahead of and above me now, moving at about half my speed...It appears to be a metallic object or possibly reflection of Sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size... I'm still climbing... I'm trying to close in for a better look."
Once they reached about 22,000 feet the other two planes turned back as the WW2 planes were not equipped with Oxygen. But Capt. Mantell kept going after the object. When he reached approximately 30,000 feet he leveled off the plane, but he may have passed out from a lack of oxygen and his plane crashed.
However, there is even more to the story. Capt. Mantell's watch was found to be stopped at 3:18 PM. The unidentified object was out of sight of Godman AFB by 3:50 PM, but reports continued to come in as far south as Tennessee.
A man by the name of Richard T. Miller claims he was in the Scott AFB operations room in Belleville, Illinois during the chase and he states that Capt. Mantell's last words were, "My God, I see people in this thing!"
Captain James F. Duesler was a crash scene investigator who says he saw the unidentified object that Capt. Mantell was pursuing. He describes that crash site as odd, because it appeared the Captain's plane had "pancaked" and landed flat on the ground, which would be unusual for an uncontrolled crash.
The military eventually explained away the cause for the crash, blaming alternately a weather baloon or the pilot "chasing Venus".
But a fellow pilot and friend summed it up with this statement:"The only thing I can think was that he was after something that he believed to be more important than his life or his family."
Information for this bio was found on various websites and in the book Alien Agenda by Jim Marrs.
The story of how he lost his life is a bit more complicated...Capt. Mantell was piloting a P-51 Mustang fighter near Godman AFB in Kentucky en route to Standiford AFB along with three other Guard planes.
About 1:30 PM the Kentucky State Police began receiving calls from citizens regarding something in the sky over the town of Mansville. Calls soon started pouring in from Irvington and Owensboro Kentucky.
This object was then spotted by the control tower at Godman AFB.They contacted Capt. Mantell and the other planes are requested that they investage this object at about 2:40 PM. Which they did.
Mantell and two other planes reached 15,000 feet and intercepted the object. Mantell radioed, "The object is directly ahead of and above me now, moving at about half my speed...It appears to be a metallic object or possibly reflection of Sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size... I'm still climbing... I'm trying to close in for a better look."
Once they reached about 22,000 feet the other two planes turned back as the WW2 planes were not equipped with Oxygen. But Capt. Mantell kept going after the object. When he reached approximately 30,000 feet he leveled off the plane, but he may have passed out from a lack of oxygen and his plane crashed.
However, there is even more to the story. Capt. Mantell's watch was found to be stopped at 3:18 PM. The unidentified object was out of sight of Godman AFB by 3:50 PM, but reports continued to come in as far south as Tennessee.
A man by the name of Richard T. Miller claims he was in the Scott AFB operations room in Belleville, Illinois during the chase and he states that Capt. Mantell's last words were, "My God, I see people in this thing!"
Captain James F. Duesler was a crash scene investigator who says he saw the unidentified object that Capt. Mantell was pursuing. He describes that crash site as odd, because it appeared the Captain's plane had "pancaked" and landed flat on the ground, which would be unusual for an uncontrolled crash.
The military eventually explained away the cause for the crash, blaming alternately a weather baloon or the pilot "chasing Venus".
But a fellow pilot and friend summed it up with this statement:"The only thing I can think was that he was after something that he believed to be more important than his life or his family."
Information for this bio was found on various websites and in the book Alien Agenda by Jim Marrs.
