Before I go further, I should mention that I've lived long enough to sincerely respect your own accomplishments. Among other positions, I performed (at different times) as chief investigator, as Chief Master-at-Arms (the shipboard equivalent of a chief of police) and as an Assistant Legal Officer.
After I retired, I had to represent a family member against the state AAG (we couldn't afford a lawyer) over nearly a year of court proceedings. We lost, of course (there's a scene in one of the Addams Family movies that applies - Gomez Addams says only a fool represents himself and says, "I am that fool!" I guess I lived that scene). But I was able to see for myself that the demand for fact and accuracy is taken much more seriously in the military world than in the civilian world.
Please take no offense when I say this, but the above anecdote is not something you can truly appreciate unless you've experienced the legal process in both the military and civilian worlds. Here's another story about my experience with the military legal system...and how it provided justice that would likely not have been found in the civilian world:
https://medium.com/our-human-family/a-case-of-sexual-assault-in-the-navy-a98b7ca75930
The observations by those Navy pilots weren't just made with their Mark 1, Mod 0 government-issue eyeballs, but were also recorded on video, with the pilots describing what they were seeing in real time as the UAP's movements were being recorded.
You don't have to tell me the Navy's faults - I know them better than most. And I'll be the first to agree that every Navy enlisted or officer is - *gasp!* - human...with all the psychological faults that implies.
That being said, consider an aircraft carrier (I spent eight years out of my twenty on carriers). You've got a flight deck where a plane can be catapulted from 0-150 in two seconds on one end while another plane is about to land by catching an arresting wire on the other, all in almost any weather, with flight deck crew doing their jobs within feet of of those planes being launched or landed. This goes on day after day, night after night, with planes being refueled and rearmed on the flight deck, too. It's been compared to a 24/7 ballet, and for good reason...because it's also described as the most dangerous place on the planet to work.
Simultaneously, about ten decks below there's two nuclear reactors being mostly operated by kids with a high-school education - most enlisted nuc-qualified engineers do not have a college education.
And at the end of a six-month deployment, it's normal for everyone to return home safely.
Think about that for a moment. What these people are doing would be considered close to insane in the civilian world, but it is done, done well, and done safely. Why? Because of constant practice, strict regulation, sometimes-unfair discipline...and a *cultural* demand for a degree of fact and accuracy not seen in the civilian world.
