Pacific Ocean: Navy shoots down teardrop UFO
A US Navy destroyer tracked and shot down a UFO with a missile in the Pacific between Hawaii and the mainland in June 1973. The teardrop-shaped object was recovered and guarded by a naval instructor.
Background
Incident
In June 1973, an informant of Leonard H. Stringfield reported that a US Navy destroyer in the Pacific Ocean had tracked an unidentified object on radar. It passed close to the ship three times, whereupon a ground-launched air-to-air missile was fired. The object crashed into water about 107 metres deep and was recovered.
Recovery and Transport
Specialists raised the wreck from the sea with the ship Glomar Explorer, took it to Hawaii, then to the mainland, and finally to Chicago. In September 1973, an instructor at the Gunnery School at Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois guarded it in a corrugated iron hut. He had strict orders to let no one closer than 91 metres.
Observation
The guard saw the object once, briefly: a metallic, teardrop-shaped craft about 9 metres long and 3 metres high, with a flange along the top from one end to the other.
Significance
This account from Stringfield's Status Report III of 1982 is among the claims of crashes and recoveries, but rests on a single anonymous witness, without official confirmation.