by John Leith

Case Number Three: The Mantell Incident And The Live Aliens

In UFO annals one of the most repeated stories is that of Captain Mantell who was shot down by a UFO over Godman Field, Kentucky, on January 7, 1948. The official version stops there except to add that his remains were recovered followed by an appropriate military funeral which ended the episode.

But the story of the 25-year-old World War II ace was far from finished by the recovery of his remains. At that point the real story begins. Just seconds prior to Mantell being shot down by the UFO, he had landed a lucky burst of machine gun fire into a vital section of the alien craft.

Simultaneously with Mantell’s P51 fighter plummeting to its hillside crash site, the UFO also fluttered to earth within three miles of the military airfield over which it had been intercepted.

The tower at Godman Field had reported initially an object which could not be identified on their radar. Meanwhile, flying a routine flight over the field was a group of Kentucky Air National Guard of which Captain Thomas J. Mantell, as flight leader, was requested to investigate, and if possible, challenge.

On reaching the 8,000 foot level, Captain Mantell radioed to the tower that a bright, circular object was hovering below him. He kept contact with the tower as the object moved fifty feet below his plane and began passing him. Next, the object hovered silently along side Mantell’s starboard wing. Inside the 30 foot craft Mantell saw three figures observing him through portholes.

The scrutinizing UFO then rose to 30,000 feet with Captain Mantell unable to close the distance in pursuit. After chasing the UFO in a futile attempt to overtake it, Mantell reported an about turn by the UFO as it turned down on him at a fantastic speed in what seemed a suicide course. At the last moment Mantell fired a burst at the object. It stopped abruptly in mid-air and a collision was barely avoided as the UFO fell toward earth. Hot in pursuit, Captain Mantell rolled and followed. The tower maintained radar contact and was able to observe the chase. As the UFO descended with the P51 on its tail, those below saw a blinding flash, as though perhaps a burst of explosive light had struck the P51. The aeroplane broke apart and crashed on the side of a mountain about five miles from Franklin, Kentucky.

The day was cloudy with a slight haze as trucks on the field rolled out after ground crews witnessed the flash of light that had struck the P51, after which it began to fall earthward in pieces. An Air Force Captain and Sergeant photographer rushed through the gates towards the falling UFO. As they sped to the site, the photographer, using a zoom lens, also caught the tragic scene of the P51 breaking apart within sight of the base.

Meanwhile, the unidentified flying object skipped and tumbled slowly to earth glowing like a ball of fire. It was this bright glow emitted by the UFO that enabled the emergency recovery crew and the photographer to spot exactly the alien crash landing site.

The foregoing is the story of the chase. Captain Mantell shot down the UFO. The UFO in turn, destroyed him. Before either craft had crashed, the air base had hurriedly dispatched two emergency crews. One rushed to the P51 wreckage and the other vehicle raced to the site of the unidentified flying object. The photographing team had orders to head for the UFO, but enroute was able to photograph the disintegrating P51.

Air Force intelligence reached Mantell’s crash first. The plane had disintegrated into thousands of pieces. There was no fire and no odor of burnt flesh or fabric. They found Captain Mantell still in helmet, suit and boots. As they removed the clothing the emergency crew recovered a clean skeleton, intact from head to foot.

The remains were taken to an Air Force laboratory for identification and autopsy. The skeleton of the deceased Captain Mantell was later placed in a sealed container and taken to a nearby undertaker where it was put in a coffin and sealed.

The story at the UFO crash site had a different ending. As the photographer continued to shoot pictures of the crash, they saw the glow of the craft cease as they arrived. A door opened and slowly three beings emerged with hands in air. The color of their complexions was light tan, they were tall in stature with high and narrow foreheads. The airmen rushed towards the UFO, guns drawn, as one of the beings in perfect English, said calmly, “We mean you no harm. We have come in peace.”

The photographer sergeant began snapping official pictures of the exterior and interior of the craft. (These pictures were to remain hidden in a Washington vault for almost 30 years.) The aliens were hustled back to the base as the confused gate guard was ordered to permit entry of the group without identification of the airmen or aliens.

Three days later, at the administration building, the aliens were still being interrogated by a battery of Air Force Intelligence Officers from the Pentagon.

Their alien story: They came from Venus, the capital planet of this solar empire. They said other alien craft in the air at the time had crews from Pluto, Saturn, Mars, etc. Earth military installations were being scrutinized carefully, they said, with no hostile intentions except to record earth progress for interplanetary travel and nuclear war, the earth stigma that had alerted our sister planets to keep up constant surveillance. They said that upon being disabled by the P51 they instituted no retaliatory action.

Rather, their craft was programmed to beam in by radar fix on any adversary who shot first. The human-like beings repeated that they were sorry and had not intended to take the life of an earthman.

The Air Force was undecided just what to do with their unexpected visitors, who, in fact, had entered American air space only to observe.

As base radar scanned the sky, it tracked additional space ships hovering high above. Therefore it was deduced that to try the aliens for murder would bring reprisals from above.

The three aliens were placed routinely in the guardhouse. It was while they were incarcerated the second night that the problem of earthly law and ethics was solved without earthly help. During the night, the military policeman in charge of detention left his guard duty and ran to the officer in charge. “They’re gone,” he shouted. “The prisoners are gone!” Quick examination by security revealed the cell door was locked, the barred windows still intact and no escape holes had been cut into the walls.

Less than an hour later the answer came. Without human action a message began to appear on the station’s telex. Simultaneously in the tower and communications room the same message was audible. In effect it said:

“We are a companion craft of the one shot down. We regret having killed your airman. The act was not intentional. In future, please instruct your pilots not to fire on our ships to prevent further loss of human life. Our spacemen kept in your prison were just rescued by a means totally unknown to you. At another time, after friendship is established between us, we will tell you how the secret escape was made. We are in your space to observe. We mean you no harm. Again, please forgive us for the unavoidable killing of your pilot. We are truly sorry.”

At the time of the alien disappearance some unusual and verified observations were made by several witnesses. Here is what is described as being seen. “A 100 foot unidentified craft dropped down from above and hovered over the guardhouse. From the craft there emerged a beam of white light, with a greenish tinge. On, or within this beam of light, the three aliens ascended or were taken up through the ceiling by unknown means to the presiding ship above the guardhouse.”

A non-earthling who has been seen in Washington for several years and has been a confidant of Presidents described the escape ray. He said it was a solid beam that disintegrated objects in its path by disassembling the atom structure while the ray shone and allowed reassembling of the atom particles when the ray was turned off. The Washington spaceman, whose name is Plateu, explained that the ray principle had been used in Venus long before the present earth civilization began (which he declared was 33,000 years ago). Plateu said the ray was also developed on earth’s sunken continent of Atlantis, but that its principle was lost when the continent sank 12,000 years ago.

As ethereal as the beings appeared to be at the time of their escape, they bore unmistakable human characteristics. Body shape was human; features occidental; hair blond; fingers long and slender; height 5′ 6″ to 5′ 10″; appearance youthful. Habits while in detention: they took water into which they dropped red or white pills at different times. They used the toilet facilities and the official reports say they passed nutrients and urinated as do human males. No wonder! They insisted they came from the ancestral planet of earth’s white races.

So ends the Mantell incident, except for over 2,000 pieces of official correspondence, between the base, the Pentagon and other agencies at Maxwell Air Force Base and Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the Venusian ship finally ended.

After the Mantell “incident” Air Force Intelligence privately wondered why, if the aliens were able to retrieve their people, why hadn’t they retrieved their ship.

But, publicly, the Air Force gave out this version of the Mantell incident: (1) Mantell lost consciousness due to oxygen starvation. (2) The object which Mantell was chasing may have been a “Sky Hook” Navy balloon which had been released in the area.

Case Number Four: United States Receives A Visit From Beyond Earth

Washington, February 18, 1975; Time – 10 P.M.

A hovering squadron of high altitude lights had just placed America’s capitol under a blanket of surveillance. Before departing, they would send shivers through the security surrounding U.S. President Gerald Ford, and their mission would also change the U.S.A. scientific thrust in outer space within 60 days.

On this winter’s night in question, the sky over Washington was clear and visibility was excellent. High above at 50,000 feet, twelve unidentified and stationary lights had appeared. The lights were not celestial bodies, mirages or balloons, nor were they conventional aircraft. They were, in fact, UFO’s, a name first applied in 1966 by the U.S. Air Force to describe growing numbers of unidentified flying objects sighted around the globe.

At the three major airports around Washington several monitor systems handle traffic and also act as an early warning vigilance for unidentified aircraft. There is the AACS, i.e., Aircraft and Airways Communication System, the sophisticated radar at Andrews Air Force Base and the GPR, Ground Position Radar, etc. Therefore, besides untrained street personnel who spotted the mysterious lights, there were also the competent operators of the AACS, Andrews Air Force Base Radar and GPR, who were continuously watching the activities of the unidentified flying objects.

At 10:16 one of the lights detached itself from the formation and, peeling off to the right, dropped toward the city. Its color changed from blue to white. In a park in Georgetown, the northwest section of the capitol, the light landed and as it went out, there appeared in its place a solid object. Standing where the light had been was a 30 foot, saucer-like object with dome, supported by tripod legs. Underneath the craft a door opened from which a stairs extended to the ground and an ordinary looking being with occidental features descended. The six foot tall man moved briskly away from the perimeter of the craft and evaporated before his viewers.

As he did so, curious onlookers who had seen the craft’s landing in their neighborhood ran toward the machine. But ten feet away from the craft an invisible force field kept the sightseers away. The hatch closed, and the machine stood isolated and alone.

About 10:20, after the being had departed from the craft, there simultaneously appeared a stranger before the security guard at the street entrance to the White House. In perfect English he asked to see President Ford. The being’s request was refused.

At approximately 10:21, a being in a flight suit was seen walking down the hallway to the Oval Room. A secret service man challenged the figure from behind. It continued on. A bullet from the gun of the President’s guard apparently passed through the being without drawing blood.

At the next instant, the stranger disappeared from the view of the secret service pursuer and silently passed through the locked and closed door to the Oval Room. Thereupon it stopped in front of President Ford working alone at his desk. The startled President looked up at the figure of a tall, slim man with black hair, dressed in what appeared to be a trim flight suit of silver colored jacket and pants tucked into calf length boots.

The being spoke calmly: “President Ford – I am sorry to intrude in such an unearthly way, but I have a message of great importance which must be told.” He continued, “I am a scientist from Earth’s sister planet Venus, which, regardless of Earth’s scientific postulations, is inhabited by a people identical to those like yourself on Earth. But my mission in being here tonight concerns special knowledge which others in this solar system have elected to give the United States as our chosen custodian for planet Earth.”

Much of the alien’s conversation remains classified but some of the subject matter has been verified from executive sources. In general, the visitor spoke of the dawning of a new age for Earth in science, medicine, and other wonders – but hinged his remarks with a single admonition: “Earth must first denounce nuclear war.” This pronouncement of the outer-terrestrial stemmed from an inerrant moral law of the universe, which Earth nations had broken by splitting the atom to destroy their fellow men.

Almost an hour later the outer-terrestrial departed. Upon leaving, he placed on the President’s desk a dull, silvery object of elliptical shape with rounded edges. The stranger called it a Venusian book – a gift from his planet to America.

Simultaneously, several miles away, the being re-entered the vehicle in which he came. It took off and joined the lights above, at which time the formation disappeared off the radar screens of the nation’s capitol.

This meeting between an outer-terrestrial being and a world leader is only one of the hundreds recorded since Earth’s first nuclear explosion took place in 1945. American Presidents alone have had a minimum of 60 visits.

Earth has been watched by outsiders for at least 45 millennia, and throughout the pre-Adamite civilizations. According to their spokesmen they have witnessed this latest civilization’s advent of the railroad, the discovery of electricity, the aeroplane and auto, the rocket, the smashing of the atom and lately, the fearful number of nuclear test explosions. And finally, the uncontrolled aggressions of nations to make their own atomic bombs – with intentions to deploy them.

As the President picked up the object, and examined it that night of February 18, 1975, he called for secret service personnel. He also asked for the Secretary of State and scheduled a meeting of the General Staff to be held at the Pentagon as soon as possible to evaluate the disk.

During the Presidential dialogue with the extra-terrestrial being, he had declared the U.S. Air Force should learn the formula encased in the disk. Mr. Ford had gingerly examined the object, but laid it down, perplexed as to why the alien should leave such an indecipherable thing as a parting gesture. Was it really a goodwill gift of science from another world, or was it some diabolical, destructive force that might enslave onlookers or destroy a city?

Like his predecessors going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Ford must have asked himself some startling questions about this peaceful outer-terrestrial invasion, whose spokesmen looked human and acted like friends, notwithstanding their arrivals were always without warning or prior signal.

And, in a broader sense, U.S. officialdom was also asking, “Why all the sudden attention, which Earth was now receiving, after years of comparative isolation?” Even more perplexing questions were being asked by the suspicious military and science worlds. If these outer-terrestrials were so advanced scientifically and metaphysically, what did they know about the future destiny of mankind that made them suddenly want to share their knowledge with a single nation, the U.S.A.?

Aside from these basic quandaries, other sobering judgments had already been established – which authorities had long hesitated to pass on – and for an understandable reason. Those claiming to come from our solar system and even beyond were often nearly identical to certain Earth races in appearance and in biological, functional and mental ways. Obviously, there existed a correlation between Earth beings and inhabitants from certain other planets.

As President Ford may have pondered these revelations that historic night, he was well aware that alien ships of countless origins were now bridging the time and distance barrier between various planets in the universe, the knowledge of which leading nations of the world had denied the public. Furthermore, appraisal of the combined world-wide UFO phenomena by military consultants was singularly conclusive.

They concluded that all of planet Earth was under systematic surveillance by three distinct classifications of alien intruders. Those were labeled: (1) friendly, (2) presumed hostile and (3) unknown.

Category (1) friendly were usually round wing in shape, originating within our solar system, whose human occupants have openly made themselves known to certain earth governments and their leaders from time to time (such as the foregoing visit to President Ford).

The same outer-terrestrials had also occasionally appeared by accident, for example the Captain Mantell incident over Godman Field, Kentucky, in 1948.

Category (2) presumed hostile. These aliens generally came in round wing planes and were of human resemblance from diminutive sizes to over six feet in height. They had, on occasion, attempted to infiltrate Earth by establishing hidden bases in remote areas, and their spacecraft were also engaged in mapping Earth and other questionable activities. It is believed they originated from one planet or constellation. Example: the Farmington affair of 1955.

Category (3) unknowns who were patrolling Earth skies and watching our people and military installations increasingly in the late 1970’s. They arrived in space craft of various dimensions and shapes up to 1,000 feet long. Occupants were observed to be of a variety of physiological descriptions, some of which, by Earth’s standards, bordered on the ridiculous or grotesque according to their own admissions which are delivered telepathically to Air Force pilots and airport controllers, etc. Observations of their space craft by competent observers suggested that their space technology may be more advanced than that of this solar system.

But one repetitious warning had been delivered by all the friendly outer-terrestrials with whom physical and voice contact had been made. According to informed Air Force sources, that constant warning stated a nuclear holocaust on Earth was possible within a generation unless immediate plans were made now to prevent it.

As President Ford may have reflected on the promise of sudden increased knowledge for this world in exchange for abandoning the international nuclear race, 2,700 scientists, engineers, physicists, astronomers, geophysicists, mathematicians, geologists and radio engineers were occupied 24 hours a day at the Goddard Center in Maryland, keeping watch on a more disturbing phenomena.

A magnetically weak but inhabited alien planet, over twice the size of Earth, had wandered into our solar system and attached itself to the force field between the sun and Earth. By the year 2000 this oncoming intruder could possibly regress the climate, where a third of the world’s people are located, towards another ice age. Its effects were particularly being felt in the northern latitudes where teams of American, Canadian, Japanese and Russian meteorologists and weather men daily gathered the evidence of an abrupt change in world weather patterns.

But, underlying these hidden discoveries and new knowledge of outer space, the real question being asked by the world’s leaders was how to tell the public without creating panic. Collective scientific minds working on the secret already were aware of these explosive truths and the problems they presented. But how much of the biased viewpoints of our history, religion, philosophy, and science would have to be discarded in order to make way for the new 20th century revelations? These revelations clearly indicate: Earthlings are not isolated, but in fact are part of an interplanetary league of intelligent creatures. Our counterparts from planets nearby and other destinations light years away are trying to give warring Earth nations a message. The aliens are telling us to stop the nuclear race and destroy our stockpiles before we destroy our planet and its civilizations. In return for heeding this advice, they would provide earthmen with the advanced technological, scientific. and medical secrets of the Universe.

Excerpt from Genesis For The New Space Age (1980)

See Part I here.

Part III coming soon.