The US Navy's engagement with UFO encounters is not a recent phenomenon. UFO sightings by the Navy can be traced back to the 1950s and 1960s. However, during that period, these sightings were shrouded in secrecy. Crew members were explicitly instructed to remain silent about the incidents, and when pressed, they were often provided with vague or nonsensical explanations regarding the nature of these mysterious objects.
Even with the latest official announcements of supposed UFO/USO encounters such as the
USS Nimitz UFO Incident (2004)
USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO Incident (2014-2015)
USS Kidd UFO Incident (2019)
USS Russell UFO Incident (2019)
USS Omaha UFO Incident (2021)
You can imagine that the US Navy has experienced many more UFO / USO encounters over the years but these events are kept secret.
Here are five UFO / USO incidents in which the US Navy has been involved during the 60's, 70's and 80's.
1. Azores Islands, Early fall 1965, USS Albany GC10
-Late at night, lights out, watch shift. Technician and air traffic controllers observed 3 unidentified objects on radar following the fleet at a distance of about 40-50 miles for over an hour.
-Three jets deployed to investigate. The pilots flying at speeds of around 1350 nots, but failed to make visual contact with the unknown objects. The technician, however, could spot the bogies on the height-finding radar, SP530.
-As the jets attempted to approach the UFOs, the objects moved away rapidly, maintaining their triangular formation.
-Then, within seven radar sweeps, the UFOs had completely disappeared from the radar, while the jets remained visible.
2. Azores Islands, May 23, 1968, USS Monrovia APA-31
-Witness was on board the USS Monrovia APA-31 and observed a large submerged object on the starboard side of the ship, just behind the stern.
-This USO had an elongated oval shape and emitted a luminescent orange glow. It appeared to have a translucent quality.
-The USO seemed to mimic several changes in the ship's compass, radar, and radio equipment to malfunction, rendering them inoperable.
-As suddenly as it had appeared, the USO vanished.
-The sighting lasted for about 90 minutes and was witnessed by around 1,100 members of the ship's crew, including a contingent of US Marines.
3. Mediterranean Sea, Summer 1974, USS Forrestal CV-59
-Signalman on duty during a regular night-watch spots an unusual reflection appearing as an underwater light, approximately 8 miles away and reports the sighting to the control tower.
-Despite sonar failing to confirm the contact, the visual sighting was strong enough to bring the captain, executive officer, flight boss, and several intelligence officers to the deck. Over the next 20 minutes, they watch the object moving at high speed across the ship's bow.
-The object zigzagged from 60 to over 100 miles per hour until it halted directly in the ship's path at one point within 4 miles of the Forrestal, before disappearing into the depths of the sea.
-In the aftermath, the witness was ordered by the executive officer to remain silent.
4. Bermuda Triangle, June 15, 1977, USS Glover AGFF-1
-Early morning of June 15, 1977 witness's watch duty above the bridge interrupted by a bright red-orange circular object that dropped from the sky and neared the ship and almost simultaneously, another watch also spotted the object.
-Within moments, two more similar objects appeared, compelling them to report 3 unidentified contacts to the bridge and the Combat Information Center (CIC).
-Suddenly, the ship lost all power, including radar and sonar, and came to a standstill in the water while the 3 objects conducted astonishing maneuvers across the sky before forming a triangle directly above the ship.
-The 3 objects then converged to form a single bright orange light circle about 200 yards directly above the ship. Then vanish and the ship regains full power, and all systems reboot.
-Later that night, ship encounters a surface contact that moved at an estimated speed of 70 mph and dove underwater without any slowdown, eventually, it plunged into depths of the Atlantic, disappearing both from the sonar and radar screens.
-The following morning, the crew was assembled and ordered to forget everything they had witnessed and told they had seen 'an experimental Russian helicopter.'
5. Caribbean Sea, Summer 1980 or 1981, USS W.S. Sims FF-1059
-An urgent dispatch was relayed to the USS W.S. Sims to head to Puerto Rico where there were reports of a Russian submarine exhibiting suspicious maneuvers in the area.
-Onboard were divers, scientists and other experts, all brought together to investigate the unusual underwater activity.
-The crew spent several intense weeks working to determine what exactly they were dealing with.
-Witness heard "whispers" from the divers who were part of the investigation. They referred to the incident as another "Shag Harbor."
-The final outcome of the mission remained elusive and the crew were told they had been studying a natural phenomenon of undetermined origin.
-The phenomenon had the uncanny ability to elude detection at will, only to reappear again, this pattern continued for about six weeks.
The Shag Harbor UFO incident was the reported impact of an unknown large object into waters near Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia, a fishing village on the Atlantic coast, on 4 October 1967.
At least eleven people saw a low-flying lit object head towards the harbor. Multiple witnesses reported hearing a whistling sound "like a bomb," then a "whoosh," and finally a loud bang.
Two days after the incident had been observed, a detachment of navy divers from Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic was assembled and for the next three days, they combed the seafloor of the Gulf of Maine off Shag Harbor looking for an object.
The final report said no trace of an object was found but it is suggested that they kept this UFO incident secret.