“Not long ago, nobody would dare mention a UFO encounter for fear of being tagged as crazy.”
Not in my experience. Became a USAF fighter pilot in 1980 and over my 20-plus years flying fighters, pilots would talk openly about their sightings. No one mocked or thought they were crazy, no way, since over a career most would see something they couldn’t explain and were not crazy.
The “Did-you-see-that-I’m-not-telling-anyone” approach never happened and is more of a hollywood invention than anything else.
(If we saw something that we couldn’t understand or match in flight performance, we would report because there might be technology we need to know about so we could defend against it).
I was stationed at an Air Force test range in the late 1970s and the civilian guards there would NEVER talk about what they’d seen because they were told it would be the end of their career. I was able to squeak a few stories out of them, but the Air Force never reimbursed me for the drinks used.