May 1968 Mediterrainian sea bright lights appeared over the sea performed a number of manuevers and then disappeared.

While serving on board the USS Zellars DD777, while on NATO task force operations, a number of lights that looked like flares rose out of the water off of our port beam.  These lights appeared comming up from the sea, (distance indeterminate), rising up and disappearing into the sky. There were five of these objects. 
A few seconds later they dropped back into the sea.  We thought perhaps they were distress flares from a ship. A few minuetes later they rose out of the sea and performed synchronized  manuevers moving up and laterally in perfect formation.  
They then rose up into the sky and disapeared.  I think the whole episode lasted perhaps two to three minuetes.  
The USS Gearing one of our sister ships was initially dispatched when the objects were first sighted to see if they were flares from a ship in distress.  However they were no reports of may day calls or missing ships and our combat information center, (CIC), could not get a radar fix on the objects.
The whole incident, (as was par for the course), was never recorded as a UFO sighting but rather as an unsubstantiated ship distress signal.
With regards to the USS Scorpion who were a part of our manuevers, she was most likely sunk by accident by one of the two Soviet subs that followed her out through the Straights of Gibralter into the Atlantic - they were playing "cat and mouse games" and I personally think the incident was an accident.
Dear ((name deleted)), 
Thank you very much for the excellent, and interesting, report! 
Are you still in touch with members of the crew of the USS Zellars?  If so, I would like to invite you to have them submit reports of the incident, as well.  We know from experience that different witnesses to the same event often see, remember, and report different aspects of it. 
Have you considered the possibility that the Scorpion might have been sunk by the Israelis, or a force in sympathy with their interests?  The Israeli submarine, "Dakar," was lost on January 29, 1968, in a fashion which suggests to me that the U. S. might have had a hand in that sinking, given the Israeli attack on the USS Libery on June 08, 1967, an act of war against the U. S..  We might have sunk the Dakar as an act of quiet "quid pro quo." 
Thanks, again, for the fine report! 
Cordially, 
Peter Davenport, Director
NUFORC
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NUFORC RESPONSE TO SOURCE OF REPORT