Fort Knox Sits on the 37th Parallel

Sitting on latitude 37° 52′ 58.74″ N, Fort Knox Bullion Depository is estimated to hold 147 million troy ounces of gold worth over $425 billion today. Although this is just an estimate, some say there’s over a trillion dollars worth of gold there, yet others say there’s no gold there at all. Because of the lack of assurance, President Trump and Elon Musk want to make sure. Let’s see what happens.

Fort Knox isn’t just a gold depository, but also a military installation which is around 109,000 acres. Nestled in three Kentucky counties, Bullitt, Hardin, and Mead, it’s located 35 miles south from Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. With a daytime population of over 26,000 soldiers, family members and civilian employees, it’s also the home of the General George Patton Museum. The security system at Fort Knox is very advanced with virtual trip wires, biometric IDs, flooding tunnels, land mines and even satellite surveillance. But Fort Knox is not just known for its gold, but also known for a very famous UFO incident which occurred near there.

Enter, the Mantell Incident.

On January 7th, 1948, Capt. Thomas Mantell was flying his F-51D Mustang heading north from Marietta Air Force Base in Georgia back to Louisvilles’s Standiford Field. As a flight leader he and three other pilots from the Kentucky Air National Guard’s Flight C, 165th Fighter Squadron were flying in formation. They had been running low-altitude navigational training exercises when a call from Godman Base Commander Colonel Guy Hix came through requesting them to investigate a strange object they picked up on radar.

Captain Mantell and two other pilots immediately climbed to 15,000 feet to intercept the object. The other pilot, Lieutenant Hendricks, continued flying to Standiford Field. While this was going on, several hundred people in central Kentucky had already witnessed a strange object flying in the sky according to a later article in 2005 by Turret editor Larry Barnes. That particular day was partly cloudy with high-altitude cirrus clouds with calm winds and mild temperatures. With a high of 49 degrees and zero precipitation, that day had a 10 mile visibility range.

Before the Godman Base Commander had contacted Mantell, phone calls had been coming in throughout the morning and into early afternoon to Kentucky state police offices from people at different locations. They all reported seeing a strange object flying in the sky. So many calls had been received that officers decided to alert the Fort Knox military police which then notified personnel at Godman Base. The object slowly traveled south from Irvington to Owensboro before reaching the Godman Base. Some observers from Godman had observed the object by 1:45pm as it traveled right over Fort Knox!

The object was described by Tech. Sgt. Quinton Blackwell and Pfc. Stanley Oliver as something resembling an ice cream cone or parachute. The object was white and round on top with a conical shape underneath. Another officer who spotted the object was Captain Gary Carter who said the object was round and white and could be easily seen in the afternoon sky.

Later that day at 2:45pm, Captain Mantell who was intercepting the object finally was able to spot it at 14,000 feet and continued to pursue it. Climbing another 1000 feet to 15,000 feet, he called in an update.

“The object is directly ahead of me and above me now, moving at about half my speed.”

Around 3:15pm, Mantell called in another update.

“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.”

According to a January 6th, 2005 article by Turret editor Larry Barnes, the other two pilots, Clements and Hammond turned back at 22,000 feet while following Mantell due to a lack of oxygen. Their planes were not equipped with high altitude flying that day. They returned to Standiford Airfield and some time after 3:15pm Mantell radioed in stating he would fly about 10 more minutes at 25,000 feet in pursuit.

Captain Mantell’s who was a very experienced pilot was in a plane equipped to fly at high altitudes, and having high altitude flying experience it was not an issue why he continued to follow the object. After a couple more distorted radio transmissions from Mantel, there was no further contact.

By 5:00pm his plane was discovered crashed in Shelby County, on Lake Spring road, southeast of Louisville which is north of Fort Knox by about 50 miles. Investigators noticed his seatbelt had been shredded and his watch had stopped at 3:18pm.

This picture of Mantell’s plane crash reminded me of a plane crash I guarded as a deputy sheriff in Colorado. While NTSB was running their investigation I was guarding the crash site and some of the remains of the two pilots. The Colorado plane appeared to have just dropped straight down from the sky with no evidence of trying to land. Just straight down. The only evidence was that it bounced about 4-6 feet in a circular way when it impacted the ground. Both pilots experienced extreme trauma and died instantly.

But what about Captain Mantell? Did he catch up to the object? Did he run out of oxygen then pass out? Or did the plane’s engine die?

The Air Force Investigators over time concluded, based on the position of the throttle and the crash debris, that Captain Mantell most likely suffered from oxygen deprivation and passed out. They believe his plane kept climbing to around 30,000 feet, leveled off, then eventually fell back to the Earth.

So, what did Captain Mantell and the others see?

Some say it was a high altitude Navy Skyhook balloon which was also used as an excuse for the Roswell incident a year before, but others say he was chasing a real UFO. We’ll never know exactly what Captain Mantel saw or experienced, but he did say;

“It appears to be a metallic object or possible reflections of sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size.“

I do know the object Mantell and others saw fall on the 37th Parallel and this area is and has always been a hotbed for UFO activity. Along that corridor people report seeing many strange things. Just the other day I received a report from that area about an unknown object. So I give Captain Mantell my greatest respect for going the extra mile, putting his life at risk and ultimately paying the price trying to solve a mystery we’re still trying to solve today.

UFO sightings are not going away, but we’re getting close to understanding the phenomenon. I for one believe in extraterrestrials because after running investigations for over 30 years, you see and experience some very interesting things. I won’t go on a field investigation without carrying a weapon.

Many thanks to the US Army website’s article on the Mantell incident for keeping this story alive.

Chuck Zukowski

Blog Links:
Fort Knox
https://installations.militaryonesource.mil/in-depth-overview/fort-knox
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident
US Army https://www.army.mil/article/263119/questions_remain_75_years_after_mysterious_fort_knox_ufo_incident_downed_pilot

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