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United States. no better. Those were Mantell's last words. His wingmen saw him disappear into the stratospheric clouds. A few moments later, Mantell crashed to the earth and was killed. The Air Force issued an official explanation of the incident, which would have been ludicrous had the death of a brave man not been involved. The experienced pilot, they claimed, had "unfortunately been killed while trying to reach the planet Venus." That was what the officers in the control tower had been watching for all that time - the planet Venus. And that pesky planet was what had lured Captain Mantell to his death. The pilot had thought that he was pursuing something "metallic and tremendous in size" directly above him when, in reality, he was aiming his F-51 at Venus. As far-fetched as the Air Force's official explanation sounded, it was not without its precedent. During World War II, the battleship New York, while headed for the Iwo Jima campaign, sighted a strange object overhead. Officers on the bridge studied it and couldn't make out what it was. It was round, silver- colored, and about the size of a two-story house. The commander, Rear Admiral Kemp C. Christian, focused his binoculars on the UFO, which seemed to be following the ship. The consensus on the bridge was that it was one of the gigantic balloons that the Japanese had set afloat for the purpose of starting forest fires and bombing cities in the northwestern The commander called for his gunners to give him the range of the object. "Seventeen hundred yards," was the answer. The same order was issued to radar, and the same answer was returned. "Open fire!" ordered Commander Christian. The three-inch guns were brought into action, but they couldn't seem to touch the great silver balloon. The New York's destroyer escort opened fire with their five-inch guns. Their marksmanship proved to be