There isn't much else to be said about the case. The Air Force eventually removed the possible from in front of hoax and listed it as "Other (Hoax)." They had no other explanation for it and too often, when they could find no plausible explanation, especially in cases of physical evidence such as this, they labeled it as a hoax. As we've seen, there simply is no justification for the label.
It does supply some insights into the workings of the official projects. And it does show that they were very interested in learning the truth but that as time passed, they convinced themselves that the case was a hoax. Rhodes just fit no easy profiles so it was easy to label him an eccentric and his case as a hoax.
But the real fact that remains is that no one ever showed that the Rhodes tale of seeing the craft was not as he described it. Analysis of the photographs left a great deal to be desired but there was nothing in the photos that suggested hoax.
While such a case does not prove that UFOs are extraterrestrial in nature, it does provide some of the physical evidence demanded by the skeptical community. As I have said, we have photographs that have not been explained. That, in and of itself, is the important fact here.
January 7, 1948: The Case of Thomas Mantell
Captain Thomas Mantell, of the Kentucky National Guard, has the distinction of being the first man killed during an attempted intercept of a flying saucer. Controversy arose when Air Force explanations failed to explain anything and when they began to contradict one another. The Air Force wanted an explanation for the sighting and, by examining the case, we can see that they didn't care if they were right about their conclusion or not. In the end, the driving factor was being able to slap a label on the case and close the file.
It was just after one o'clock in the afternoon (1:20 p.m.) that the tower crew at Godman Army Air Field at Fort Knox, Kentucky, spotted a bright, disc-shaped object which they failed to easily identify. Others have suggested that the Kentucky Highway Patrol first saw the object and alerted the men in the tower. That doesn't really matter today. What is important is that object was brought to the attention of the base operations officer, the intelligence officer and finally, the base commander, Colonel Guy F. Hix. None of them were able to identify it.
For about an hour and twenty-five minutes, dozens of people including Colonel Hix, watched as the UFO seemed to hang motionless in the southwestern sky. In the towns of southern Kentucky, people watched the UFO, some claiming it drifted silently and slowly to the south. Others thought that it hovered for a few minutes and then resumed its slow flight. The witnesses were clearly describing something that was moving very slowly.
At 2:45 p.m., the situation suddenly changed. A flight of F-51 Mustang fighters (it should be noted here that the designation of the Mustang had recently been changed from a "P" for pursuit, to an "F" for fighter) flew over Godman Army Air Field. With the UFO still visible, the flight leader, Captain Thomas Mantell, was asked if he would investigate. Mantell replied that he was merely ferrying the aircraft but that he would attempt to intercept. He began a spiraling, climbing turn to 220 degrees and 15,000 feet.
As he reached 15,000 feet, Mantell radioed the tower. Records of that transmission are in dispute. Mantell did say that the object was "above me and appears to be moving about half my speed." Later he would report that it was "metallic and it is tremendous in size." With the UFO still above him, he reported he would continue to climb.
At 22,000 feet, the two wingmen who had stayed with him, Lieutenant A.W. Clements and Lieutenant B.A. Hammond, turned back. The oxygen equipment of one of the fighters had failed and military regulations required that oxygen be used above 14,000 feet. Hammond radioed that they were abandoning the intercept, but Mantell, who had no oxygen equipment on his aircraft, continued to climb. He did not acknowledge the message from Hammond.
For thirty minutes, as the flight chased the huge object, each of the wingmen broke off the intercept. Now, at 3:10 p.m., Mantell was the only pilot left chasing the object and he was alone at 23,000 feet. He was still climbing toward the UFO but made no more radio calls to either his wingmen or the control tower at Godman. By 3:15 everyone had lost both radio and visual contact with him.
Fearing the worst, a search was launched and just after 5:00 p.m., on a farm near Franklin, Kentucky, the remains of Mantell's F-51 were found scattered over about a half a mile. Mantell's body was inside the broken cockpit. His watch had stopped at 3:18 p.m. From the evidence it seems that Mantell was killed in the crash of his aircraft.
An investigation was begun immediately. It was a two pronged attack. One was to determine what happened to Mantell and why he had crashed. The second was to identify the object, or objects, that he had chased.
According to the Army Air Forces Report of Major Accident, aircraft number 44-65869, which was built on December 15, 1944, crashed 3.5 miles from Franklin, Kentucky. The narrative section contains a description of the accident. It stated, "On 7 January 1948 at approximately 1450–1455, Captain Mantell was leading a flight of four (4) P-51 aircraft on a flight from Marietta Air Base, Marietta, Georgia to Standiford Field at Louisville, Kentucky. Nearing Godman Field, Kentucky, the flight was contacted by Godman Field Control Tower and requested to identify an object in the sky if the mission would permit. Captain Mantell replied that his mission was ferrying aircraft and that he would attempt to identify the object in the sky. Captain Mantell began a maximum climb in left spirals until about 14000 feet and from there a straight climb at maximum, on a compass heading of approximately 220 degrees. No conversation between Captain Mantell and any member of his flight revealed a clue as to his intentions. One pilot left the flight as the climb began, the remaining two discontinued the climb at approximately 22000 feet. When last observed by the wing man Lt. Clements, Captain Mantell was in a maximum climb at 22500 feet, the aircraft in perfect control. Captain Mantell was heard to say in ship to ship conversation that he would go to 25000 feet for about ten minutes and then come down. Transmission was garbled and attempts to contact Captain Mantell by his flight were unanswered. Lt. Clements was the only pilot equipped with an oxygen mask. This flight had been planned and scheduled as a ferry and navigational trip at low level."
It continued, "Consensus is that Captain Mantell lost consciousness at approximately 25000 feet, the P-51 being trimmed for a maximum climb continued to climb, gradually leveling out as increasing altitude caused decrease in power. The aircraft began to fly in reasonably level attitude at about 30000 feet. It then began a gradual turn to the left because of torque, slowly increasing degree of bank as the nose depressed, finally began a spiraling dive which resulted in excessive speeds causing gradual disintegration of aircraft which probably began between 10000 and 20000 feet."
The report pointed out, "Since canopy lock was in place after the crash, it is assumed that Captain Mantell made no attempt to abandon the aircraft, and was unconscious at moment of crash or had died from lack of oxygen before aircraft began spiraling dive from about 30000 feet.