Appearance / Description of Object(s)

Size unknown due to distance and night cover. All were circular lights, like globes, orange in color except for one time where one changed color as noted above.

Size of Object(s)

At 10-12 miles away, the objects fit inbetween my fingers at approx 1/4 inch apart.

Distance to Object(s) & Altitude

Distance to objects approx 10-12 miles, height unknown but typical height of aircraft flight.

Description of Area / Surroundings

Atlantic ocean, viewed from an aircraft carrier.

Full Description & Details

During a training exercise in the Navy Jacksonville operating area, a night time evolution placed myself and a few others on the outboard side of the 09 level of our carrier's island. The group of 4 of us began to view bright orange lights/globes show up off in the distance, then dissapear. The lights would float for a while before dissapearing.

Multiple times the lights would split off into another equal sized light. The height would not be the same. More often than not, the new globe would be higher than the initial one. The distance of all the sightings were spread across and estimate of two miles. The total number viewed at a single time was 5. No movement was noted other than when a globe would split off, stop moving, then hover. When they would vanish, the multiple lights would vanish together. One of the lights changed from orange to purple before dissapearing.

The 010 watch reported these lights to the bridge.

A few gun mounts reported them into the gun liason officer, also on the bridge.

According to one of the watches we talked with, the bridge was not tracking anything, but they saw the lights too. They were simply calling them, by definition, UFO's.

The sightings went on and off for approx 30 min.

The height is unknown but approx normal flight height for airplanes.

The distance was 10-12 miles, unobstructed view towards the horizon. The immediate cloud cover was clear, with a lightening storm on the horizon. Some lights appeared near the lightening storm, some were 1-2 miles away from it.

Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?

No

Witness Background

Military, Navy.

Views on UFOs, before and after sighting

I had a hard time believing footage of similar sightings before. I had a neutral view on UFO's but was not sold on the whole idea.

Other Comments

This is something I would blow off if I saw a video of it. However, seeing with my own eyes raises a burning question as to what we actually saw that night.

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