In the early eighties, I was assigned to USAF Space Division at Los Angeles Air Force Station. One occasional responsibility of extremely junior officers like me was to serve as Staff Duty Officer. That entailed spending the night in an underground command post and dealing with such issues as came up. Personnel getting arrested, stranded without funds, notifying Command of major events, etc. You served the shift with an NCO who managed the communication systems and generally knew what they were doing. The lieutenant was there essentially to take the blame for screwup and submit a report for Command to read over coffee the next morning.

Every so often the smirking sergeant would “elevate” a caller wanting to report a UFO sighting. There was no set policy on how to handle them, so I would get all the details I could and write them up for my report. People seemed to appreciate being taken seriously, although a few would demand I scramble interceptors. It may have led some to believe we were acting on their information.