Godman Field，Fort Knox，Kentucky（ケンタッキー州フォートノックス，ゴッドマン空軍基地）の副司令官である、James F．Duesler大尉は宣誓書の中で目撃した物体をこう述べている。
1948年1/7の14時20分頃、最初は銀色の明るい物体を目撃、マンテルは15,000Ftにあり上昇中との連絡あり、物体は彼のスピードの半分180MPHとのこと。
Dueslerが見た物体は、宣誓書のチェックリストでは、”サイズ：Believed to be Large、色：Silver-Bright、形状：Like Tear Drop（涙）-Round（円形）；後に流体に見える”と記述がある。
注目すべきは、その日の暗くなった頃、別の又は同じ物体が６°の標高でゴッドマンから西234°に現れたことである。物体は259°に移動してから下方へ移動した。それは流体だが尾の無い円形で、色は白から青へ、赤から黄へ変化し、中央は常に黒い斑点が見られた。
ブラックウェル軍曹が管制塔から双眼鏡で目撃した物体を再現
赤いラインの元はゴッドマンの管制塔、マンテルの墜落したクラッシュサイトもある。
ゴッドマンから物体を見た方向
マンテル機の墜落後：垂直に立っているプロペラ・ブレードに注目⇒損傷していない⇒通常まだプロペラは回転していると考えられるが、停止していたのか？
マンテル機の残骸
マンテルの墓碑
P-51戦闘機
マンテル機の墜落後の機体の回りの情況
●以下はDueslerのマンテル事件に関する宣誓書である。（ブルーブックの公開された資料より）
●Dueslerは軍を引退後英国に移住しているが、１９９７年雑誌のインタビューで次のように語っている。
”ゴッドマン管制塔で目撃した物体は巨大なUFOで、何人かの将校と一緒に目撃し、UFOは奇妙な灰色に見える物体で、回転する逆向きのアイスクリームコーンの様に見え、物体の広い底部は赤い色であった。”
”その日の深夜午前１時頃、起こされて管制塔から大きな弧を描いて旋回している、シガー状の物体、鈍いオレンジ色の物体を目撃した。
St．LouisとWright-Pattersonの管制塔のｵﾍﾟﾚｰﾀｰは、同じ物体の連絡を受けていた。”
＜マンテル事件のタイムライン：＞
| Time: | Place: | Event: |
|---|---|---|
| January 7, 1948 1:15pm CST | Fort Knox, Kentucky | Several hundred people observed an unusual aircraft or object over Kentucky that was circular and 250 to 300 feet in diameter. The State Police reported it to The Fort Knox Military Police. The MPs, in turn, reported the object to nearby Godman Air Force Base. The object was then sighted over Irvington and then Owensboro, Kentucky, as it slowly moved south. |
| 1:45 p.m. CST | Godman AFB control tower | T/Sgt. Quinton A. Blackwell, chief operator at the Godman AFB control tower, saw the object and pointed it out to PFC Stanley Oliver. Oliver said: "...to me it had the resemblance of an ice cream cone topped with red." |
| 2:07 p.m. CST | Godman AFB control tower | Tower personnel call the operations officer, Captain Gary W. Carter, who wrote later: "Lt. Orner pointed out the object to the southwest, which was easily discernable with the naked eye. The object appeared round and white and could be seen through cirrus clouds." Carter watched the object for a few minutes through field glasses. |
| 2:20 p.m. CST | Godman AFB control tower | Captain Carter called commanding officer Colonel Guy F. Hix, who came to the control tower. |
| 2:40 p.m. CST | Godman AFB control tower | Four F-51D aircraft belonging to the 165th Fighter Squadron of the Kentucky Air National Guard and en route from Marietta AFB at Marietta, Georgia to Standiford AFB, Kentucky, approached from the south. The leader of the low-altitude navigational training flight was Captain Thomas F. Mantell, a pilot with 2867 hours of flight time. Godman tower asked Captain Mantell if he would investigate the object. Mantell said he would, and began a spiraling climb to 15,000 feet. He was joined by Lt. Clements and Lt. Hammond. The fourth pilot, Lt. Hendricks, continued on to Standiford AFB. |
| 2:45 p.m. CST | Mantell's P- 51 | At about 14,000 feet, Mantell radioed that he had the object in sight. At 15,000 feet, Mantell reported: "The object is directly ahead of me and above me now, moving at about half my speed." |
| 3:15 p.m. CST | Mantell's P- 51 | Mantell radioed: "It appears to be a metallic object or possible reflections of sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size. I'm still climbing, the object is above and ahead of me moving at my speed or faster. I'm trying to close in for a better look." As the three planes reached 22,000 feet, Clements and Hammond broke off pursuit due to lack of oxygen. The planes had not been serviced with oxygen at Marietta AFB. Mantell kept going, saying he would continue to 25,000 feet for 10 minutes. Subsequent transmissions were garbled and Mantell failed to respond to attempts to contact him. Colonel Hix sent two other pursuit planes after him, but they did not locate him. |
| 3:40pm | P-51s | The two other pilots, Clements and Hammond, had gone on to Standiford AFB, refueled and gotten their oxygen tanks filled, and taken off again. As they neared Godman AFB, Lieutenant Clements said the object: "...appears like the reflection of sunlight on an airplane canopy." |
| 3:50 p.m. CST | Godman AFB control tower | Godman Tower lost sight of the object and reports began coming in from southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee. |
| 4:00 p.m. CST | Madisonville, Elizabethtown, Lexington | The object was seen at Madisonville, Elizabethtown, and Lexington, Kentucky. |
| 4:30 p.m. CST | Nashville, Tennessee | An astronomer at Vanderbilt University watched an object in the sky south-southeast of Nashville. |
| 5:00 p.m. CST | Franklin, Kentucky | The debris of Mantell's plane was found on a farm near Franklin. The seatbelt that held his shattered body was shredded. His watch had stopped at 3:18 p.m. The positions of the controls indicated that he had probably passed out from lack of oxygen at about 25,000 feet, the plane had continued to climb to 30,000 feet, then leveled out before going into a high-speed dive. The throttle position indicated that Mantell had regained consciousness when the plane reached a lower altitude and had unsuccessfully tried to slow the plane down and pull out of the dive. |
| Hours later, around sunset | Midwest airfields | A flaming object was seen just above the southwest horizon by towers at a dozen airfields in the Midwest. |
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