USS Forrestal Atlantic Encounter 1965

In July 1965, USS Forrestal (CVA-59) was conducting Atlantic Fleet operations when Combat Information Center radar operators detected multiple unidentified contacts performing non-standard maneuvers near the carrier. F-8 Crusader pilots from VF-62 were vectored to the contacts and made visual observations of luminous spherical objects that descended to 500 feet above the ocean surface before ascending and performing high-speed transits. The encounter lasted 30 minutes with continuous CIC tracking. The timing was sensitive as Forrestal was operating with nuclear-armed aircraft in the Atlantic. The ship's Captain filed a classified OPREP report and the incident was incorporated into a running file of naval UAP encounters maintained by the Office of Naval Intelligence. The Forrestal's 1965 Atlantic deployment produced multiple classified UAP reports — the carrier would gain tragic notoriety two years later in the 1967 flight deck fire — and the UAP incidents were part of a pattern of naval encounters that ONI analysts were studying during this period.