Captain Thomas F. Mantell, Jr., was born in Franklin, Kentucky, on 30 June 1922, graduated from Male High School in Louisville, joined the Army Air Corps on 16 June 1942, and graduated from flight school on 30 June 1943. During World War II, he served with the 440th Troop Carrier Group, 96th Troop Carrier Squadron, 9th Air Force, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the 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 7 January 1948, while on a training flight with three other P-51Ds from Godman Field, he was directed by the flight tower to pursue an unidentified flying object and died in a plane crash near this site while in pursuit. His death while chasing a UFO made headlines across the country, and the military investigation of the incident became part of Project SIGN, later BLUEBOOK, the military's investigations into UFOs. Although much speculation and conjecture has surrounded 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.