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Project Blue Book Mantell case file (92 pages)

USAF / NARA via The Black Vault · 93 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This 92-page Project Blue Book file, released through The Black Vault, covers the 7 January 1948 sighting at Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky. It holds control tower witness reports, a record of the P-51 pursuit led by Captain Thomas Mantell, AMC requests for theodolite readings and weather data, and astronomical tables for Venus and the Moon. One analysis concludes the object was not Venus and calls the sighting unexplained. The file also includes a 1964 letter to the Simpson County coroner about Mantell's death.

  • p. 14 Use this form for inter-office correspondence within headquarters. Number all comments consecutively. TERIEL CQMMAND Use…
  • p. 16 # HEADQUARTERS GODMAN AIR FORCE BASE Fort Knox, Kentucky 3 February 1949 SUBJECT: Unidentified Aerial Object TO…
  • p. 19 Use this form for inter-office correspondence within headquarters. Use authorized office symbols to designate addressor…
  • p. 21 …Rix, Commanding Officer, Headquarters, 315th Air Force Base Unit (Res Tng) Goodman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky…
  • p. 30 …to Wright Field, Chio, arrived at this headquarters, this date, and made a thorough investigation of…
  • p. 38 …a call came to this Headquarters from State Police, reporting a flying object near Elizabethtown. Another…
  • p. 41 # UNCLASSIFIED HEADQUARTERS IN REPLY ADDRESS BOTH COMMUNICATION AND ENVELOPE TO COMMANDING GENERAL, AIR MATERIEL COMMAND, ATTENTION…
  • p. 44 # HEADQUARTERS AIR MATERIEL COMMAND IN REPLY ADDRESS BOTH COMMUNICATION AND ENVELOPE TO COMMANDING GENERAL, AIR MATERIEL…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

1. Date 7 Jan 19

2. Time 1420 CST

3. Location Control Tower, Godman Tla

4. Name of observer Dept J. P. Dusaler, Jr.

5. Occupation of observer Capt. USnP

6. Address of observer Couman Flâ. Ky

7. Placo of observation Godnam Tla Control Tower

8. Number of objects 1 at 1420

9. Distance of object from observer N/S

10. Time in sight From 1420 to 1600 CST - Over an hour and a half

11. Altitude X/S

12. Speed 360MPH - according to statement of Mantell

13. Direction of flight Apparently from 234 $ ^{\circ} $ to 259 $ ^{\circ} $ South to West

14. Tactics N/3

15. Sound N/3

16. Size Belisved large

17. Color Silver - bright

18. Shape like tear drop - round; later, object seemed fluid

19. Odor detected N/S

20. Apparent construction X/S

21. Exhaust trails No tail -

22. Weather conditions X/3. - Scattered but clear

23. Effect on clouds N/S

24. Skotches or photographs None

25. Manner of disappearance Obscured by clouds

26. Romarks: (over)

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 93 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.