A short declassified entry titled "CASE (DELETED) – PHOTOGRAPHS AND BACKGROUND ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT SEEN", archived as DOC_0000015398, confirms the CIA’s receipt and handling of a case involving both visual sightings and photographic evidence of a UFO.
While the document is heavily redacted and contains no visible photographic attachments in the scanned copy, the title alone affirms that imagery was captured and submitted for review-making it more than just anecdotal.
🖼️ A Rare Photo-Backed Report
Most UFO-related memos from the early Cold War era describe vague lights, shapes, or radar contacts.
This document differs in one major way: it formally mentions the inclusion of photographic evidence.
The use of the phrase "background on unidentified flying object seen" implies that some context was also provided-possibly witness accounts, environmental data, or corroborating information from other sources.
The redaction of identifying case numbers and names suggests the individuals or sources involved were deemed sensitive or still classified at the time of release.
📁 Case Filed, Content Withheld
There’s no additional commentary in the visible document.
It serves as a registration of evidence rather than an analysis.
The lack of judgment or conclusion is standard for CIA intake documents of the era-where verification or debunking would occur later, often outside the scope of the memo itself.
But what this record does show is that the agency accepted and catalogued photographic UFO cases-and treated them with procedural seriousness.
