Part 22 of a series reassessing the documentary record behind the 1933 Magenta narrative. TL;DR On January 7, 1948, Captain Thomas Mantell died after climbing toward an unidentified object over Kentucky. The accident investigation attributed the crash to oxygen deprivation, loss of control and an airborne breakup. Godman Field observers described a bright white object, sometimes cone-shaped or parachute-like. Accounts of Mantell’s radio transmissions differ; no authenticated recording has bee...

Part 21 of a series reassessing the documentary record behind the 1933 Magenta narrative. TL;DR Project Sign seriously considered interplanetary explanations, but its surviving reports remained inconclusive and described missing physical evidence. Edward Ruppelt and Dewey Fournet later said they had read an interplanetary “Estimate of the Situation.” No identified copy is available. Its contents, rejection and destruction rest on later accounts and remain unverified. A surviving Top Secret st...

Part 22 of a series reassessing the documentary record behind the 1933 Magenta narrative. TL;DR The crash: On January 7, 1948, Captain Thomas Mantell of the Kentucky Air National Guard died after climbing toward an unidentified object over Kentucky. The accident investigation attributed the crash to loss of consciousness from oxygen deprivation, followed by loss of control and an airborne breakup. The observations: Godman Field personnel described a bright white object, sometimes cone-shaped...

Part 21 of a series reassessing the documentary record behind the 1933 Magenta narrative. TL;DR Sign investigated UFO reports and considered interplanetary explanations; McCoy’s March 1948 briefing wished for a recoverable crash. Sneider’s Chiles–Whitted analysis left the object unidentified; its aircraft calculations described possibilities. Ruppelt and Fournet claimed to have read an interplanetary “Estimate of the Situation.” No identified copy has been located; a 2025 transfer list’s “Est...

If you’re familiar with the January 1948 Captain Thomas Mantell case involving the death of Mantell as a result of “flying too high” while chasing an anomalous flying object over Fort Knox, KY, then you know that that’s probably the redacted version of the story. What might have really happened is outlined in the document that @richgel999 has uncovered. It’s from an alleged eyewitness who was told not to speak up about the reality of what was seen. Some key bits from the document, especially...

:In January 1948, National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell died chasing an unidentified object over Kentucky. His final recorded words are now part of the White House's fourth UAP file release: "It appears to be a metallic object of tremendous size directly ahead and slightly above. I am trying to close for a better look."

In January 1948, National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell died chasing an unidentified object over Kentucky. His final recorded words are now part of the White House's fourth UAP file release: "It appears to be a metallic object of tremendous size directly ahead and slightly above. I am trying to close for a better look." https://t.co/xDAlrTJNor

My grandpa is bottom right. He is sitting with Tommy to his left. This is the story. ... They were wingmen for each other. My grandpa (Everett moss Hargan, mom’s side, I am a Reynolds) said the ufo was shaped like a ball and sent a laser out of it zapping Tommy out the sky. And as a kid I remember all the news articles on his walls and he would tell us that wasn't true he was s down by an alien. Because all the news articles were flipped the next day, you can find a few of them where it origi...

PURSUE Release 01 dropped 162 files. Most of the coverage went to the orb videos and the Apollo 17 photo. Buried in Section 4 of FBI case file 62-HQ-83894 (serial 62-83894-169) is a Dayton Journal-Herald clipping from April 27, 1948, preserved by the Bureau as an enclosure to a civilian letter forwarded to Hoover. It contains Captain Thomas F. Mantell's last radio transmission verbatim: "I'm closing in to take a good look. It looks metallic and of tremendous size. It's going up now as fast as...