What did the declassified documents reveal?

Cold open. This is a reading of Spot Intelligence Report number nine, dated twenty‑fifth of November, nineteen‑sixty, concerning an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed over Meridian, Mississippi. The document is catalogued as file number one‑nine‑five‑zero‑dash‑one‑one‑nine‑six‑one‑eight‑two‑nine‑two‑dash‑Meridian‑Miss, and it appears in the public‑domain archive of The Black Vault. Provenance. The record was released to the public through the online repository The Black Vault, under the archive entry titled “1950‑11‑9618292‑Meridian‑Miss.” The full text is available at archive dot org slash download slash 1950‑11‑9618292‑Meridian‑Miss slash 1950‑11‑9618292‑Meridian‑Missdjvu.txt. No specific Freedom of Information Act case number is listed; the declassification authority is noted as the United States Air Force, in accordance with standard Air Force declassification procedures for historical intelligence reports. The document. Spot Intelligence Report, DO number nine, twenty‑fifth of November, nineteen‑sixty. Subject: Report of Unconventional Aircraft. “MoComb Radio reported object north of MoComb on a westerly course. Monroe Radio reported object south of Monroe at one six five zero hours. The CLARION‑LEDCER of Jackson, Mississippi, of sixteenth of November, nineteen‑sixty, carried the following account of a ‘flying saucer,’ reportedly sighted by several persons: Polk’s Brookhaven—Flying Object. Several persons have reported to the Leader‑Times seeing another ‘flying saucer’ moving across Brookhaven at six p.m. Monday afternoon. Some described it as resembling an ‘air sock’ or ‘air sleeve’ towed by pilots in target practice. Other persons speculated that it was merely a vapor trail made visible by the setting sun in the late afternoon skies or left by a trail of smoke from a passing plane. The mayor of Meridian said he and a companion drove out to U.S. Highway sixty‑one and watched the object for about fifteen minutes. The companion thought it was a blimp or an airplane. J. A. Smith reported seeing what he described as a ‘flying saucer’ at about six fifteen p.m. on Monday afternoon on North Jackson Street. Several persons observed the strange object moving across the sky in a north‑westerly direction. He said it left a light pink fire in its path. The Vicksburg Evening Post of Mississippi carried the account of a mystery object sighted in the sky by an unidentified observer: ‘An unidentified object was sighted over Mississippi at an altitude of about eighty‑six thousand feet, according to B. D. Stephens, a guard pilot who said he chased it for sixty‑six miles.’ The report notes that the object was observed in Jackson, MoComb and Meridian. Stephens, of the one‑fifty‑eighth Fighter Squadron of the Mississippi Air National Guard, said the object traveled at three hundred miles per hour and reached an altitude of twenty‑one thousand feet. He described the object as resembling the edge of a bright tilted plate and suggested it could have been…

Why was this case declassified?

This material was released by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. The originating source document is linked on this page so the citation chain is auditable.

Declassified NRO File

◆ BLUF — The short version

Cold open. This is a reading of Spot Intelligence Report number nine, dated twenty‑fifth of November, nineteen‑sixty, concerning an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed over Meridian, Mississippi. The document is catalogued as file number one‑nine‑five‑zero‑dash‑one‑one‑nine‑six‑one‑eight‑two‑nine‑two‑dash‑Meridian‑Miss, and it appears in the public‑domain archive of The Black Vault.

Agency: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Date: JUL 18 · 2026
Release: Declassified · U.S. public record (FOIA)
Source document: View the primary source document

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What was Declassified NRO File about?: Cold open. This is a reading of Spot Intelligence Report number nine, dated twenty‑fifth of November, nineteen‑sixty, concerning an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed over Meridian, Mississippi. The document is catalogued as file number one‑nine‑five‑zero‑dash‑one‑one‑nine‑six‑one‑eight‑two‑nine‑two‑dash‑Meridian‑Miss, and it appears in the public‑domain archive of The Black Vault.
Why was this case declassified?: This material was released by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. The originating source document is linked in the case notes above so the citation chain is fully auditable.

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