Page:Ruppelt - The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.djvu/58

 sighting had gotten around to key personnel on the base, and several officers, besides the base operations officer and the base intelligence officer, were in the tower. All of them looked at the UFO through the tower’s 6 x 30 binoculars and decided they couldn’t identify it. About this time Colonel Hix, the base com¬ mander, arrived. He looked and he was baffled. At two-thirty, they reported, they were discussing what should be done when four F-51’s came into view, approaching the base from the south.

The tower called the flight leader, Captain Mantell, and asked him to take a look at the object and try to identify it. One F-51 in the flight was running low on fuel, so he asked permission to go on to his base. Mantell took his two remaining wing men, made a turn, and started after the UFO. The people in Godman Tower were directing him as none of the pilots could see the object at this time. They gave Mantell an initial heading toward the south and the flight was last seen heading in the general direction of the UFO.

By the time the F-51’s had climbed to 10,000 feet, the two wing men later reported, Mantell had pulled out ahead of them and they could just barely see him. At two forty-five Mantell called the tower and said, “I see something above and ahead of me and I’m still climbing.” All the people in the tower heard Mantell say this and they heard one of the wing men call back and ask, “What the hell are we looking for?” The tower immediately called Mantell and asked him for a description of what he saw. Odd as it may seem, no one can remember exactly what he answered. Saucer historians have credited him with saying, “I’ve sighted the thing. It looks metallic and it’s tremendous in size... Now it’s starting to climb.” Then in a few seconds he is supposed to have called and said, “It’s above me and I’m gaining on it. I’m going to 20,000 feet.” Everyone in the tower agreed on this one last bit of the transmission, “I’m going to 20,000 feet,” but didn’t agree on the first part, about the UFO’s being metallic and tremendous.

The two wing men were now at 15,000 feet and trying frantically to call Mantell. He had climbed far above them by this time and was out of sight. Since none of them had any oxygen they were worried about Mantell. Their calls were not answered. Mantell never talked to anyone again. The two wing men leveled