Is it a coincidence or some sinister repercussion that contributes to the untimely deaths of astronauts, pilots, and even high ranking officers in our armed forces once that have made contact with UFO’s or interacted with the phenomenon? Even the Soviet Union lost a number of their pilots and cosmonauts once they had ventured into that forbidden zone. Why? There is obviously more to this rabbit hole than simply mistaken conventional aircraft or optical illusions.

First Blood?

The year is 1948 and over Godman Airfield near Ft. Knox the air traffic controller requests a visual identification of a glowing unknown aerial object. Captain Mantell, a seasoned World War II combat pilot and his flight of three other F-51 Mustangs respond but one pilot is low on fuel and departs, another experiences an overheating manifold and is forced to land, and his wingman loses his flight leader in a steep climb. But, there’s a problem. These aircraft are not fitted with oxygen masks for high altitude flight. Mantell is so fixated by what he sees that he supposedly passes out from anoxia from too high of an altitude and his plane plunges to earth from 30 thousand feet. Yet, rumors that his plane was seen orbiting when it exploded, that his aircraft is perforated with holes, that his Mustang is surprisingly intact for having dived into the ground from 30 thousand feet, or that Geiger counter readings show the F-51 Fighter is radioactive, all point to a serious problem with the official report. Captain Mantell is memorialized as the first casualty of the UFO mystery.

No one’s safe?

Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestall, had a long and distinguished career in the military as well in the federal government but in 1948 he apparently had a nervous breakdown. Involved in the secret investigation by General Douglas MacArthur’s Interplanetary Phenomenon Group over the “Foo Fighter” sightings of World War II and then the flying saucer crash at Roswell in 1947 had apparently made a stressful impact upon the Navy Secretary. According to paranormal author, John A. Keel Forestall ran through the White House screaming “We’re being invaded by Flying Saucers!” While being treated at Bethesda Naval Hospital James Forestall plunged to his death from a window several stories up from the ground floor. Officially announced as a suicide, further investigation shows that two men, probably federal agents, entered his room prior to his death. There was an air conditioning window unit installed in the only exit to the hospital room besides the door. The report showed that it would have been impossible for a patient, especially in his condition to have been able to dive through the window. To this day Forrestal’s own son, prompted by new probes into the incident believes his father was murdered. Had Forrestal became a security risk in the realm of the UFO cover-up?

Russian casualty?

The year is 1949, a seasoned Soviet fighter pilot turned test pilot is flying an early version of the Yak fighter jet. Like so many Russian fighter pilots after the end of WWII, he is out of work and desperate for an income. The Stalin government was not too sentimental about fighter pilots they were a dime a dozen so losing them in poor test conditions or poorly checked out aircraft was no big deal there was always another pilot waiting. The Russian pilot encounters what he says looks like a revolving fan blade in the air giving off intermittent flashes of light. He is dramatically affected physically and mentally. He can hardly land his aircraft after the encounter and is hospitalized. Upon being debriefed officials are suspicious of his story. After weeks of recovery he is ordered back into the air. The same things happens again, and it is doubtful that this poor aviator lived much longer under harsh Communist doctrine of results or else.

The year is 1953, Novermber 23, in harsh weather Pilot Eugene Felix Montcla and his "WIzzo" rear co-pilot Lieutenant Wilson are scrambled from Kinross AFB to intercept an unknown airborne object over Soperior Lake near Soo Locks. Radar oerators watch in astonishment as the radar blip of Montcla's F89-C Scorpion merges with the "Bogey" and all contact is lost. 

The largest sea and air rescue effort since World War II will last for days, but the two man aircrew simply vanishes into the pages of the unknown UFO category never to be seen again. To date metal detecting scans of Lake Superior have failed to find a clue to the presumed crash of Montclas's F89 all weather interceptor.

Bad luck?

X-15 test pilot, Joe Walker, an experienced supersonic aviator, reported UFO’s flying alongside his rocket plane during an experimental flight. NASA attempted to explain the sighting away as ice crystals off the fuselage of the X-15 sucked along by the speed of the plane, but Walker again reported them on his next flight. This happened in 1960. In 1966 during a promotional shot Walker, flying his F-104 alongside the mighty Rockwell International Valkyrie supersonic bomber was sucked into the jet wash of the bomber’s thrust and died as his plane burst into burning fragments. Is it bad luck that follows these unfortunate pilots who encounter the unknown? John a. Keel noted in his book “Operation Trojan Horse” that most of those who got involved in the phenomenon ended up in tragic outcomes!

Deadly association?

12, April 27, 1961 Yuri Gagarin in his Vostok I blasts into earth orbit and becomes the first human ever to enter space. The Russians have beaten the US in the race to space! Yet, tragically in 1968 during a routine training flight in a MIG-15 outfitted with external fuel tanks his plane crashes and he along with another pilot perish on a cold day with deteriorating weather conditions. The controversial crash sparks rumors of a conspiracy as well as a government cover-up! A former fellow aviator says on that day he heard to explosions-one of a sonic boom given off by an SU-15 who had missed Gagarin’s MIG by only 20 meters causing Gagarin and his co-pilot to lose control, and the second boom which was the crash of the ill-fated former cosmonaut’s jet fighter. The Russian space program admitted that during several launches of the Vostok series space craft that these vessels were rocked by laser like beams during launches from an unknown source leading many to come to an extraterrestrial conclusion. Did fate strike again?

Fate of a whistleblower?

The year is 1960. Former Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book and author of the 1956 release of “The Report on UFO’s” an embarrassing admission that the US Air Force was over its head in the affairs of the flying saucers and could not solve the mystery much less combat it in the skies. However, Ruppelt now holding a civilian defense contractor job is ordered by the US Air Force to retract the statements he made previously in a new book that now contradicts just about everything he originally stated, even though former press officer for the US Air Force at the time and now acting NASA spokesman Albert Chop corroborates everything Ruppelt had stated in his first book.

Against all odds

Edward J. Ruppelt at the age of 50 dies suddenly of a massive heart attack. Actuarial Tables predict medical outcomes for their insurance customers to ascertain risk factors and a fit male at 50 years of age had a great statistical likelihood of two more decades of life expectancy so Ruppelt’s death was suspect. According to UFOlogist and former USMC Major, Donald Keyhoe, he claimed that Edward passed away deeply hurt by the US Air Force’s betrayal. Once again, those in proximity of the UFO mystery passed away conspicuously before his time. Some theorists think that an assassination took place as the CIA and KGB had experimented with a number of methods to exterminate a subject and make it look like a death from natural causes. How should we categorize these unfortunate circumstances? Death by UFO or association with?