Fran Ridge:
Robert Ginna, in the April 7, 1952 "LIFE" article,
"Have We Visitors From
Outer Space",
had mentioned that the Mantell case was still unexplained: "Buried in
the heap of hysterical reports were
some sobering cases. One was the calamity that befell Air Force Captain
Thomas F. Mantell on Jan. 7, 1948.......It now seems possible that
Mantell was one of the very few sighters who actually were deceived by
a Skyhook balloon, but the incident is still listed as unsolved by the
Air Force files."
There is no doubt that Ginna was told about the case, even the alleged
skyhook, and that 5 years after the incident occurred the case was
still unexplained. In
1960, when I set up the NICAP team at Vincennes, Indiana, one of my
special advisers from Universal Scientific, was Lewis Blevins. Blevins
had been one of the many scientists who had worked for Project SIGN. He
was emphatic: The Mantell case was NOT explained and the incident had
shaken a lot of people up.
The documents below were found by researcher, Dan Wilson. Page three of
this restricted routing slip had something we all had missed. Venus, we
knew, had been ruled out a long time ago. But Brad Sparks brought to
the attention of the UFO community, the statement by A. Deyarmond, made
in November of 1948 (11 months after the incident), that the case was
considered unexplained.
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: Godman Field Air Force Base
Sightings - 7 Jan
1948 and 19 Aug 1948
From MCIAXO-3 TO MCIAO
1. Re Sighting of 7 Jan 1948 : Reference is
made to your
conversation with Capt. Sneider on 19 October 1948 concerning your
desire for a check on the position and visibility of Venus on 7 Jan
1948 between the hours 1330 and 1350 as compared to the position
of an unidentified aerial object.
4. The evidence obtained from MCREXE44
conclusively proves that
this object was not the planet Venus.
Page ID (PID)
|
USAF-SIGN7-26 |
Collection |
Project Sign |
Roll Description |
Project Sign Roll 7
|
Document Code |
|
Frames 26 - 28
http://www.nicap.org/bb/USAF-SIGN7-26.jpg

http://www.nicap.org/bb/USAF-SIGN7-27.jpg

http://www.nicap.org/bb/USAF-SIGN7-28.jpg

Mantell Directory