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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.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
At approximately 1420, 7 Jan 48, I accompanied Lt. Col. E.G. Good to the Codman Field Control Tower to observe "an object hang- ing high in the sky south of Codman". Shortly after reaching the tower, Col. Cuy F. Hix, Commanding Officer, was summoned; it was at that time that I first sighted the bright silver object. Approximately five minutes after Col. Hix came into the tower, a flight of four F-51's flew over Godman. An officer in the tower requested that the Tower Operator call this flight and ask the Flight Leader to investigate this object if he had sufficient fuel. The Flight Leader (Capt. Thomas P. Vantell) answered that he would, and requested a bearing to this object. At that time one member of the flight informed the leader that it was time for him to land and broke off from the formation. This A/C was heard requesting landing instructions from his home field, Standiford, in Louisville, In the menatime the remaining three P-51's were climbing on the course given to them by Godman Tower towards this object that still appeared stationary. The Tower then advised the Flight Leader to correct his course 5 degrees to the 1ft; the Flight Leader acknowledged this correction and also reported his position at 7,500 feet and climbing. Immediately following the Flight Leader's transmission, another member of the Flight asked "Where in the hell are we going?" In a few minutes the Flight Leader called out an object "twelve o'clock high". Asked to describe this object, he said that it was bright and that it was climbing away from him. When asked about its speed, the Flight Leader stated it was going about half his speed, approximately 180 M.P.H. Those of us in the Tower lost sight of the flight, but could still see this object. Shortly after the last transmission, the Flight Leader said he was at 15,000 ft, and still climbing after "it", but that he judged its speed to be the same as his. At that time a member of the flight called to the leader and requested that he "level off", but we heard no reply from the leader. That was the last message received from any member of the flight by Godman Tower. DOWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS: DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. DOD DIR 5200.10 CERTIFIED A TRUE COPY /3/ James F. Duesler, Jr. JAMES F. DUESLER, JR. Captain, USA JAMES P. DUESSLER, JR CAPTAIN, USA
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.