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Labels: 1949, Air Force, Atomic Plant, Chronicle, Document, Hanford, Nukes, Project Sign

     FRANKLIN, Ky. - Nobody knows what Capt. Thomas F. Mantell Jr. was chasing through the winter sky on Jan. 7, 1948.

His pursuit of the "flying saucer" cost him his life. The 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot from Louisville died in the crash of his P-51 "Mustang" fighter plane near Franklin, the Simpson County seat.

A county historical marker just off Interstate 65 in Franklin commemorates the aviator's death. "Because he was killed trying to catch an unidentified flying object, the story made headlines around the world," said John Trowbridge, manager of the Kentucky Military History Museum in Frankfort. "There is a real X-Files twist to this, too. Mantell lived almost his entire life in Louisville. But he was born in a hospital in Franklin, only a few miles from where he was killed."

A World War II hero, Mantell is buried in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville. The Louisville Male High School graduate is probably all but forgotten except to family members and friends, Trowbridge said.

"But the investigation of Mantell's crash became part of Project Sign," Trowbridge added. "Project Sign later became Project Blue Book, the Air Force's official investigation into UFOs."

Mantell and three other pilots, also in single-seat P-51s, were flying near Fort Knox when their radios crackled with a strange request from the control tower at nearby Godman Field. "They were asked to investigate an unidentified flying object which had been seen in the area," Trowbridge said. Col. Guy F. Hicks, Godman Field commander, "said he observed the flying saucer for some time," according to an Associated Press story at the time.

One of the warplanes, evidently low on fuel, flew on to Louisville. Hicks said in the news account that the air base lost contact with the other three fighters "in about 20 minutes. Two of the planes later called back and reported no success."

The other P-51 was Mantell's. His fighter was not equipped with oxygen for high-altitude flight, Trowbridge said, adding, "He apparently flew too high, blacked out and crashed."

Glenn Mayes, who lived near Franklin, claimed "he saw Mantell's plane flying at an extremely high altitude shortly before it apparently exploded in the air," the AP story said. "The plane circled three times like the pilot didn't know where he was going, and then started into a dive from about 20,000 feet," Mayes said. "About halfway down there was a terrific explosion."

The wreckage of Mantell's doomed plane was "scattered over an area two miles wide," according to Mayes. "None of the craft burned," he said.

Many aviation historians say the speedy, machine gun-armed Mustang was the best propeller-driven fighter of World War II. Mantell, who joined the Army Air Force in 1942, piloted troop transport planes in the global conflict.

"He participated in the Normandy invasion and many other European operations," according to the AP account. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals for bravery, according to the Kentucky Air Guard.

Many people apparently saw the "saucer," including "several other pilots" who flew after it, the story at the time of the crash said. Two of the aviators, James Garret and William Crenshaw, both from Hopkinsville, thought the UFO was a balloon. "Astronomers at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., reported they saw some object in the sky...which they believed to be a balloon but the Nashville Weather Bureau said it knew of no balloons in that vicinity," the AP story said.

In Ohio, "a flaming red cone" was reportedly spotted close to the air base at Wilmington. "Army spokesman said they had no information on the object or its origin," the AP story said.

It was suggested that the "UFO" was a huge Navy "Skyhook" balloon. "Whatever it was, it gave Capt. Tom Mantell his 15 minutes of fame," said Trowbridge, who helped get the marker for Mantell in Franklin. The blue and gold plaque stands outside the Simpson County Tourist office.

Labels: Capt. Thomas Mantell, Crash, Death, Flying Saucer, Kentucky, P-51 Mustang, Skyhook, UFO

Labels: Interview, Radio, Scott Colburn, scott Ramsey, Vidcast

Labels: 1947, Capt. William L. Davidson, Chronicle, Lt. Frank M. Brown, Maury Island

     De Void tends to ignore personality-spattered UFO food fights because a) they’re boring, like real life and b) nobody outside the small circles of what the MSM describes as “believers” gives a damn anyway. But lately, the longest-running private UFO research group in the country is having a PR problem that’s getting a little too loud to ignore — and its new leader is using the C word.

“I’m not trying to be conspiracy minded,” says Clifford Clift, the international director for the Mutual UFO Network. “But there always seems to be somebody out there, when we start going in the right direction, who starts putting us through detours.”

OK, wait. MUFON’s been around since 1969, no mean feat considering how it relies on an all-volunteer staff to conduct its thankless mission of sifting through UFO reports, most of which turn out to be rubbish. Yet, despite its limitations, the 501(c)3 manages to do pretty good work, and its “UFO Stalker” sightings map continues to update its cool interactive database in real time.

So maybe a better story here should be how infrequently management-level ego eruptions actually spill into the public domain, given the inherent lack of recognition or material perks in this wretched field. And especially given the number of paranoid, delusional and grandiose wack jobs who routinely inject themselves into diligent UFO investigations.

But that’s exactly what happened at a MUFON meeting on May 2, when Ken Cherry, the Texas MUFON director, went sideways and tore into everyone from witnesses to the national leadership. Evidently, two years of frustration emanating from the 1/8/08 Stephenville incident — the most well-documented UFO event of the modern era — blew like a BP wellhead.

No one escaped Cherry’s spray, which showered “outsiders” who had the audacity to enter his fiefdom without personal invitations. Cherry said one investigator was so stupid he “didn’t know how to use a computer”; another “one of these so-called experts” came with “multiple degrees and a smart ass.” He accused then-international director James Carrion of doing “a lot to discredit MUFON” with a pattern of “incompetence” suggesting “evidence of a conspiracy.”

After charging MUFON with conducting “an unwarranted and unauthorized investigation behind our backs” and for “discrediting witnesses,” the dude went on to repeat the offense himself. Singling out one eyewitness by name for his “psychological problems,” Cherry chided other “nutcase” greedheads for peddling bogus UFO footage in 2008 to the media. Then he pitched his own DVDs and videos, recorded from an earlier lecture in San Jose, for only $10.

If only he’d stopped there. But then, the guy blasted MUFON’s exhaustively detailed radar analysis of the Stephenville phenomenon — a study in which Cherry had no role — for having “so many holes and errors in it as to cast doubt upon the analysts and MUFON.”

Now, if you’re really curious about what passes for holes and errors in Ken Cherry’s book, you can find the rant on YouTube. And that’s what also yanks Clift’s bobber, the fact that someone not only recorded this Lone Star malcontent, but hung the sheets out on the line. “There’s someone who’s putting this information out there, but we don’t know who he is,” says Clift. “The perception they’re trying to create is that we are not competent, which we are.”

That’s probably still true. Clift says Cherry violated several of MUFON’s conduct codes, such as naming and ridiculing witnesses (“We say some are not credible,” asserts Clift, “and that’s all that needs to be said”), and that new chain-of-command rules have been enacted since the Stephenville incident. He also hints that MUFON’s board of directors is on the verge of taking additional corrective measures. “If I were to disparage MUFON, I would expect to be gone,” he adds.

For those who monitor MUFON storylines, the Ken Cherry flameout follows the contentious departure earlier this year of Clift’s predecessor, James Carrion, who’d run the group since 2006. No reason to rehash all that here. It’s involved.

Here’s the bottom line: When it comes to investigating UFOs — publicly, at least — MUFON is the only game in town. And Clifford Clift is amazed at the media response to this rip in the fabric. “You’re the only one to contact me about it,” he says. For once, that’s probably good news.

More . . .

See Also:

BREAKING UFO NEWS:
MUFON Director James Carrion Stepping Down and New Replacement Has Been Chosen!

MUFON Gets Major Stimulus Package From Billionaire Entrepeneur Robert Bigelow

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Labels: Article, By Billy Cox, Clifford Clift, De Void, James Carrion, Ken Cherry, MUFON, Texas MUFON

Recent Sightings in California & Arizona

     Good Evening -

I just saw a UFO...the horses spooked and my dog was running at something and kept barking. I went outside and looked and then ran back in for my gun...there was something white around the horses stall. I came back out and it was gone...I went to the back of the house and saw a saucer like object with red lights running around the middle - it was yellowish and seemed to descend into what the Navajo call Devil's Mesa - It took place this evening between 9:46 and 9:50...I tried to take pictures of the descent but nothing on the digital camera - sorry -

with respect

Xeee Xxxx
Greasewood, Arizona


Reader Submitted Report
[Unedited]
5-27-10

     5/27/2010 around 9 pm PDT Malibu Canyon/Calabasas Los Angeles ,
California USA

Tonight-- bright star like object but at least 5x the size of any star
that I have ever seen. and brighter than any star ever. My husband
pointed it out to me. It pulsated and twinkled (scintillated) . We
looked at it both with naked eye and binoculars and it was not moving
it was for sure not a plane or helicopter or satellite. It was so
bright even with the full moon out tonight. We went down 45 minutes
after watching it and it was GONE.

Anyone else see this?

Thanks so much!

Xxxxxxx Xxxxx

Labels: Arizona, California, Flying Saucer, My UFO Experience, Red Light, Yellow

An Extraordinary Account:

     The source of this report, who I shall refer to as ML, told me an extraordinary story about how one morning, around 6.30 am, he and his wife were returning home after babysitting at their daughter’s house when they saw a huge object hovering over a field, to the right of the road that they were driving on. At the time of the sighting, it was a bright dawn with a clear, blue sky. ML had spotted the object first through the trees and, whilst trying to keep it in sight, nearly drove into the ditch on the left-hand side of the road. His wife exclaimed to him to be careful, wondering why he was driving in such an erratic manner. He stopped the van and told his wife to look out through his window. He asked, “What do you see?” She said, “What is it?!” He asked, “What does it look like?” She said, “It’s a spaceship!”

ML informed me that the object was, in his estimation, many hundreds of feet in length, with pastel lights all around it that appeared to pulsate softly. ML further described it as “cloud-like”, saying that the colours around the object were like “moving clouds”. It is possible the object was surrounded by a cloudy mist, perhaps a camouflage, or its colour was a cloudy grey.

The couple observed the object for a short while, which ML estimated to be a few minutes. He had gotten out of the van and climbed up on the bonnet (hood) to get a better look. I asked ML to sketch the object. He was able to do this in a matter of a minute or so. I took him outside to look at the sky and asked him to give me an approximation of the angle subtended by the object. That is, it’s length as it appeared to the naked eye. The figure below is the first sketch made by ML. It shows a classic “flying saucer” shape.


When ML told me where he had stopped the van, I realized that they had been very close to a sensitive Ministry of Defence (MOD) property! The couple were just past Church Lane, located on Burghfield Road, as it approached the M4 motorway, near the city of Reading. The massive object was hovering over a field adjacent to AWE—the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. (The facility was previously known as AWRE, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.)

The website for AWE states, “AWE plays a crucial role in the defence of the United Kingdom, by providing and maintaining the warheads for the country’s nuclear deterrent. We are a centre of scientific and technological excellence, with some of the most advanced research, design and production facilities in the world.”

So ML and his wife had spotted what they called a “spaceship” next door to the Atomic Weapons Establishment. Suddenly, from a hovering position, the UFO started to move directly over the MOD site, then rapidly towards the M4 motorway. At that point, it was out of sight.

ML is convinced that there must have been many other witnesses because of the sheer size of the Unidentified Flying Object and its proximity to AWE. He is certain that the object must have been captured on the innumerable security cameras surrounding the site. He is also certain that the object must have been sighted by drivers on the M4 motorway and possibly even picked up by the cameras that monitor traffic on that busy link between South Wales and London.

It was later established that the sighting had taken place on the 11th of September 2004. Whilst ML appreciates that this case is not “news” after so many years, he would like some kind of official confirmation of his sighting. He feels that the UFO must have been tracked on radar, been seen by satellite, and visually observed by many other people.

His wife is equally mystified by the appearance of this object. Her first reaction was that it was a ‘spaceship’ and she has not changed her opinion since. What was it doing hovering over a highly sensitive MOD site? Did the armed guards at AWE spot it? Where did it come from? Where did it go? These are questions we have no answers to at the moment.

Ananda Sirisena may be contacted at: awesome931@gmail.com

AFTERWORD by Robert Hastings: According to declassified FBI and U.S. Air Force documents, the U.S. equivalent of the AWE facility—the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico—was repeatedly monitored by UFOs, as early as December 1948. Other U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories under apparent surveillance in the early 1950s included Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Sandia Laboratory, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

As noted above, AWE also stores nuclear missile warheads. Another nukes-related UFO incident in the U.K. occurred at the RAF Bentwaters airbase, in December 1980, when a hovering disc-shaped craft was sighted sending down beams of light into the USAF nuclear bomb storage depot on the base. Details about all of these cases may be found in my book UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, which is available only at http://www.ufohastings.com/.

See Also:

UFO Sightings at ICBM Sites and Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas
- part I -

UFOs & Nukes: Robert Hastings Sets The Record Straight!


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Labels: Article, Atomic Weapons Establishment, AWE, By Ananda Sirisena, Los Alamos Laboratory, Ministry of Defence, MoD, Nukes, Oak Ridge, RAF Bentwaters, Robert Hastings, Sandia Laboratory, UK

Astronomers Unable To Agree As To Cause of Its Presence

Labels: 1901, Article, Chronicle, Strange Light