DEADLY CONFRONTATION.

By
David Calvert

CASE #1

Cpt. Thomas Mantell

At around 2.45pm on January 7 1948, Captain Thomas Mantell arrived at Godman Field,
near Fort Knox, Kentucky, on a ferrying flight. Accompanying him were five F-51s of the
US Air National Guard. Before they could land an order was given to intercept a UFO
which had been observed at around 1.20pm, hovering in the sky near the base. One
fighter, low on fuel, was forced to land whilst Mantell and the others went in pursuit of
the UFO.

Having reached an altitude of 15,000 ft (4,500m), two of Mantell’s wingmen peeled off
and returned to Godman because their aircraft lacked the necessary oxygen demanded by
USAF regulations when flying in excess of 14,000 ft (4,200m). Shortly after, Mantell
radioed the control tower confirming visual contact with the UFO, which he described as
“metallic and tremendous in size.” It appeared to be moving, he said, at about half his
speed.

At 22,000 ft (6,600m) Lt. B A Hammond informed Mantell that he and his remaining
pilot were abandoning the intercept, but he failed to respond and continued to climb. By
3.15pm he was lost to sight, and as there were no further calls from him a search was
initiated almost immediately. The wreckage of his P-51 Mustang was eventually located
shortly after 5.00 pm on a farm in Franklin, Kentucky. His body was still inside it and his
watch had stopped at 3.18pm, suggesting the time of impact.

Captain “Jim” F Duesler was a crash investigator stationed at Godman Field at the time
and was required to attend the crash scene. He did so in the company of two other men.
The trio were to make some strange discoveries concerning the crash, which had taken
place in a small clearing surrounded by tall trees.

When they arrived, Mantell’s body had already been taken away. Military personnel who
were present at the time were perplexed by the condition the body was in. The skin, they
told Duesler, showed no signs of having been punctured or penetrated, despite all the
bones in his body been completely crushed and pulverised. Duesler’s findings on
inspection of the wreckage were equally strange. It looked as if the Mustang had “belly
flopped” into the clearing. Because there was no damage to the surrounding trees it was
obvious there had been no forward or sideways motion when the plane had crashed.

Further investigations proved just as puzzling. The normally two foot wide fuselage,
which was virtually undamaged, was now only nine inches wide. The condition of the
propeller blades brought the investigators to the conclusion that they had not been
rotating at the time of impact. The impact itself mystified Duesler. Because of the
Mustang’s heavy front engine it should have nose-dived into the ground. This clearly was
not the case. He went on to state: “There was no indication of any mechanical fault with
the aircraft just prior to the crash. If there had been we would have expected Mantell to
report this over the intercom. No such report was received.”

The official Army Air Force’s verdict was pilot error and the case was officially stamped
‘closed’ and the true circumstances of what had occurred entered the Project Saucer files,
a secretive investigation group operating out of Wright-Patterson Army Air Field in 1948.
Mantell, the AAF (Army Air Force) concluded, had blacked out due to lack of oxygen
whilst trying to intercept a high altitude weather balloon.

Cultural Mood

In early 1948 the mood of the times was being reflected in films depicting aliens and their
craft as being hostile, and so it was hardly surprising that rumours began to surface that
one such invader had shot down Mantell.

In the 1950s the cultural mood had become distinctly bipolar. The movie, The Day the
Earth Stood Still portrayed humanity, and not the aliens as a threat to world peace.
Whereas in 1956, the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers showed aliens taking over
human bodies in their conquest of the Earth. Both films demonstrate the uncertain light in
which the UFO phenomenon was seen.

Venus or weather balloon?

At first the USAF seemed uncertain as to the cause of the Mantell crash, first explaining
the UFO as the planet Venus and then later as a weather balloon - or a combination of
both. It is now generally believed that what Mantell was chasing was a Skyhook balloon,
secretly launched by the US Navy at the time, a scenario often touted by the military to
explain away UFOs. The now famous Roswell Incident springs readily to mind.

To date, four possible scenarios have been given to account for Mantell’s death. The first
suggests that he succumbed to oxygen starvation whilst chasing the planet Venus. This is
unlikely, given that he was an experienced pilot and would not have mistaken the planet
other than for what it was. The second, that he succumbed to oxygen starvation whilst
chasing a Skyhook balloon. This is entirely possible. However,
independent witnesses of the Mantell UFO described it as an “inverted ice-cream cone”
which suggests the balloon was flying upside down! The third and fourth scenarios, put
forward by commentators of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH), suggests that Mantell
was fired upon by aliens out of self-defence, or that he fell foul of the “power field”
generated by their craft. The general consensus of opinion however is that Mantell’s
death was the result of an unfortunate accident.

Political Aspects

Following the Kenneth Arnold sighting of 1947, Americans and Europeans were ready to
assume that “flying saucers” were from outer space. The idea of space exploration had
already been mooted before WWII, and during the conflict German rocket technology
had advanced spectacularly. Little wonder then that the USSR and USA rushed to recruit
German scientists and technicians after the hostilities had ceased. The Americans feared
that the USSR would soon develop its own nuclear capabilities, thus making an invasion
of the US feasible. Its citizens and military were obsessed with the fear of communist
invasion, and so the political anxieties of the time concerning invasions of all kinds and
the idea of life in space came together in an odd sort of marriage. The ‘logic’ at the time
was that if UFOs were not of terrestrial origin then they had to come from outer space,
thus giving birth to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, which has remained popular ever
since.

A Place in History

Here, as in so many UFO cases, a clever disinformation programme was initiated to stifle
the truth behind the Mantell affair. The Department of Defence (DoD) issued an official
report that they claimed was made by Captain Duesler. Duesler has denied ever writing
such a report to any authority and claims the DoD report is a fake and full of flaws.

During an interview with UFO investigator Tony Dodd, Duesler said that the faked
statement included the words: ‘Certified A True Copy - James F. Duesler, Jr. Captain
USAF.’ This had to be false because Duesler did not serve in the United States Air Force,
but the US Army Air Corps before the inception of the USAF.

Even if we assume that Mantell died as a result of chasing a high altitude weather
balloon, it does not explain the bizarre state of the wreckage and its occupant at the crash
site.

To inject further mystery to this already unusual story, Duesler met a Dr. Loading, an
aeronautical engineer who came in from Wright Field, Ohio, on the day after his initial
investigation. Loading told Duesler that he was in charge of what he called the ‘Saucer
Project‘, and that they were aware of high saucer activity taking place in and around large
military exercises. Interestingly, just such an exercise had been taking place at Camp
Campbell some fifty miles away on the day Mantell crashed. Loading also went on to
indicate that they were aware of the extraterrestrial nature of these craft and said, “Thank
God they are not hostile, otherwise we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Military history records Mantell’s death as due to ‘pilot error’, and who could argue
otherwise? We can only speculate on what might have confronted him on that fateful day.
His last message that it was “metallic and tremendous in size” leaves us with some
intriguing possibilities.

CASE #2: The Cash/Landrum Affair.

Period in History: December 29 1980. (9 p.m. approx.)

Case Background:

On a lonely road near to Huffman, East Texas, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Colby
Landrum (Vickie’s grandson), who were making a journey to Dayton, Texas, USA, saw a
bright light in the sky ahead of them. When they drew nearer to the light, they saw that it
was an object of some kind. Vickie described it as “A diamond on fire.” The UFO had
flames shooting out from the bottom of it. Its centre was ringed with blue lights or spots.

When they were approximately 60 metres from the object, Betty stopped the car and all
three got out to take a closer look. When Colby became afraid, he and Vickie got back in
the car, followed a couple of minutes later by Betty, who had to use the sleeve of her
jacket to open the door. As they watched the UFO move away they all saw a large
number of single rotor and twin rotor helicopters come into view.

After resuming their journey they could see the UFO and helicopters from the main
highway, before turning off toward Dayton and home.

The case wasn’t to end here, however. Some time later all three witnesses suffered some
kind of after effects, which some have attributed to radiation exposure. Vickie and Betty
suffered from a considerable amount of hair loss and all three experienced skin burns,
headaches, vomiting, eye irritation and diarrhoea. Betty suffered the worse and was
hospitalised several times, eventually developing breast cancer.

Cultural Note.

Several ideas were put forward by the UFO community regarding the origins of the
Cash/Landrum UFO. In general they broadly reflect the spectrum of positions that
ufologists take regarding such craft. They are as follows:

• A top secret atomic powered military aircraft that bore no relation to extraterrestrial
UFOs. (Author’s note: If this was secret terrestrial technology why would the military choose to test
fly it over a populated area?)
• A top-secret military device piloted by ETs.
• UFO piloted by human pilots.

Political Aspects.
In 1986 an attempt was made to sue the US government for $30 million dollars damages
as a result of the encounter. Because the US army, navy or airforce denied owning or
operating such a craft the case was thrown out, with neither of the defendants or
witnesses uttering a word.

The question remains: who owned and who piloted the CH-47 twin-blade Chinook
helicopters that appeared to be escorting or pursuing the UFO? We may never know the
truth for sure.

Its place in history.

That Betty and her companions had come into contact with something physically real that
night, and was not an hallucination, is unassailably true. The symptoms they displayed
following their encounter were consistent with exposure to microwave, ultraviolet and X-
ray radiation -too severe to be self-inflicted. But what had caused their great suffering?

The principal investigator of the case, John Schuessler, interviewed airforce generals and
congressmen about the incident. There answers turned out to be contradictory or
downright lies. It seemed they were going to great lengths to deny the entire event,
despite further witnesses coming forward from the outskirts of Houston to say that they
too had see bright lights and helicopter activity that night.

Peter Gersten - a lawyer specialising in such cases - clearly believed a military cover-up
had taken place and that the craft that irradiated his client was of US origin and not
extraterrestrial. Though his attempt to sue the government failed, the case brought to the
fore the need for accountability. It was a brave stance that sent out an unequivocal
message to the powers that be and the shadowy, covert groups who do their bidding.

For Betty Cash that accountability will never be realised. Some years later, on the exact
same date as the encounter occurred, she died from cancer. Hers is a case worthy of a
place in UFO history or least because of her great suffering, but because she dared to
make answerable to the people the role the government and military played in the affair.

ENDS