Two military aviators enshrined at Patriots Peace Memorial

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WAVE News)

Veterans and their families will join with the community at an annual Memorial Day Ceremony to honor and remember those who have died while serving in the nation’s armed forces.

In 2025, two military aviators, First Lieutenant Russell H. Griffith, who served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1931-36 and Captain Thomas F. Mantell, Jr. who served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1942-47 and the Kentucky Air National Guard in 1947 and 1948, will be enshrined.

Griffith died while serving as a flight instructor at Hensley Field in Grand Prairie, Texas on Oct. 12, 1936, just one day after turning 29, alongside an aviation student. On their final approach to the airfield, the aircraft went into a steep dive at around 2,000 feet in the air, and it never recovered. Both were killed instantly.

Griffith followed in the footsteps of his father, Colonel Frederick D. Griffith, Jr. and his grandfather, General George K. Hunter.

Mantell lost his life when his P-51 Mustang fighter plane crashed near Franklin, Ky after being dispatched to the area to investigate reports from the public about an unidentified flying object, which later proved to be a stray, high-altitude military balloon launched from a base in Ohio.

Although serving with the Kentucky Air National Guard at the time of his death, Captain Mantell served during World War II piloting C-47 aircraft at Normandy, France, transporting parachutists and gliders in support of Operation Overload.

See video and full article: https://www.wave3.com/2025/05/26/two-military-aviators-enshrined-patriots-peace-memorial/