‘Official’ Navy photographs of a UFO don’t hold water

A viral Facebook post appears to show photo evidence of an alien encounter in 1971. But the photos are a bit too out-of-this-world to be true. 

"Official pictures of the United States Navy," the July 4 Facebook post read. "UFO in the Arctic, USS Trepang, SSN 674, March 1971."

The Facebook post also included four photographs of a mysterious vessel hovering over the ocean, leading some social media users to believe the photos captured an extraterrestrial encounter aboard the naval ship.

"They are here they are real wake up people," one Facebook user commented. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) 

 (Screenshot from Facebook)

A Navy spokesperson told PolitiFact that the Navy was "unable to verify these as official Navy photographs."

Although the photos cannot be verified, the USS Trepang II, the ship to which the Facebook post refers, was indeed a nuclear attack submarine operating during the 1970s. In March 1971, the vessel carried out extensive tests in the Arctic Ocean to provide data for its weapons systems. 

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Rear Adml. Dean Sackett Jr. served as Trepang’s commanding officer. When contacted by PolitiFact, the 89-year-old veteran said that he was aboard the ship in 1971 and did not witness a UFO in the Arctic Ocean.

"There were no sightings," Sackett said of the purported UFO. "The story is not accurate." 

Sackett said he could not discuss the Trepang’s weapons testing or whether the Facebook post depicted objects used in its test exercises. 

But the claim this Facebook post makes — that official Navy photos from the Trepang show a UFO in the Arctic — doesn’t hold water. We rate that claim False. 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.