VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A weeklong saga that had much of the country watching the skies for the small white speck — that federal officials believe was a Chinese spy balloon — ended with a “bang” delivered by a fighter jet stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton.

The F-22 from Langley’s 1st Fighter Wing fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon. The large white orb — with what looked like a satellite-esque structure on the bottom — was destroyed about six miles off the South Carolina coast Saturday afternoon, according to the Department of Defense.

No one was injured in the operation and the balloon never posed a military or physical threat, defense officials said. Navy and Coast Guard vessels are engaged in a recovery effort, which is expected to be “fairly easy” because the water where the balloon was shot down was only about 47 feet deep, according to the DOD.

Three Hampton Roads-based ships are involved: the USS Oscar Austin and USS Philippine Sea from Norfolk, and the USS Carter Hall from Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach.

“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the (People’s Republic of China’s) unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said in a news release Saturday.

Chinese officials over the last week described it as a “weather balloon” that entered U.S. airspace by accident, but military officials said that it changed course during its time over the center of the country undermines that claim, Reuters reported.

Hundreds of soldiers in the Army might need to re-enroll in Tricare after yet another technical blunder caused them to be removed from the service's health care system.

Some 600 active-duty officers and warrant officers were booted from Tricare, Lt. Col. Joseph Payton, a service spokesperson, told Military.com, adding the service noticed the problem Thursday. The disruption was likely caused by an error while work was being conducted on the Army's internal tools that track health care.

It's unclear when the issue will be resolved, but Payton said those impacted would likely need to re-enroll. Any out-of-pocket costs accrued during the care blackout could possibly be reimbursed. Those affected should have been notified by an email from the Army, according to Payton.

It's the latest in a series of information technology blunders after the service launched its new $600 million human resources platform, the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, or IPPS-A. When the platform went live servicewide last month, 25,000 Tricare beneficiaries were accidentally removed from the health insurance system.

SEATTLE — A stolen yacht. A dramatic Coast Guard rescue. A dead fish. And the famed home featured in the classic 1985 film “The Goonies.”

Combined, Oregon police called it a series of “really odd” events along the Pacific Northwest coast spanning 48 hours that concluded Friday night with the arrest of a Canadian man.

Jericho Wolf Labonte, 35, of Victoria, British Columbia, was taken into custody in the northwestern Oregon resort town of Seaside, police said in a news release.

He'd been pulled from the ocean hours earlier by a Coast Guard swimmer, just after the yacht he was piloting capsized amid high waves. He was briefly hospitalized for mild hypothermia.

Labonte was discharged before authorities in nearby Astoria, Oregon, saw the rescue video and said they recognized him as the same person who covered over security cameras at the “Goonies” house and left the fish on the porch.

Police in Seaside, about 17 miles south of Astoria, said they found Labonte on Friday evening at a homeless shelter where he was staying “under an alias,” and arrested him on charges of theft, criminal mischief, endangering another person and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

He's also wanted in Canada for “other cases,” Seaside police said.

It wasn’t immediately clear Sunday whether Labonte had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

“It’s been a really odd 48 hours,” Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly said Friday.