Thomas F. Mantell, Jr., was born in Franklin, Kentucky, on June 30, 1922, graduated from Male High School in Louisville, joined the Army Air Corps on June 16, 1942, and graduated from flight school on June 30, 1943. During World War II, he served with the 440th Troop Carrier Group, 96th Troop Carrier Squadron, 9th Air Force, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with 3 OLCs for heroism. After the war he returned to Louisville and joined the newly organized Kentucky Air National Guard as flight leader of "C" Flight, 165th Fighter Squadron, on February 16, 1947. On January 7, 1948, while on a training flight with three other P-51Ds (Mustang), he was directed by the flight tower at Godman Field to pursue an unidentified flying object, and while pursuing it he died in a plane crash near this site. His death while chasing a UFO made headlines across the country, and the military's intense investigation of the incident became part of Project SIGN, later BLUEBOOK, its investigations into UFOs. Although much speculation and conjecture has been written about the incident, it remains uncertain what he was pursuing at the time of the crash. Mantell was the first flight casualty of the Kentucky Air National Guard and was buried in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.