The context that 'got' me about the LA incident was in connecting two pieces of information that I never realized fit together. There is a parallel with studying history, and I am a bit of a history junkie.
When we hear a UFO report very often the credibility of the eyewitness is reinforced in some way by citing credentials, professional standing, whatever. Rightly so too. Even when you filter out the obvious fakery and BS you're still left with an awful lot of people who want to sincerely give their version of an extraordinary incident.
Take something as huge and recent and well documented as the second world war. Historians love first hand accounts from participants, memoirs, etc. They are all part of the big picture. But decades of writing about it revealed all sorts of flaws in the 'official history' because a new generation of authors, new research tools and the dissolution of various cultural interpretations allowed them to be seen. Self-serving or just inaccurate accounts aren't discounted, they are still valuable records from participants, just put into perspective. Cut to the chase: eyewitness testimony alone is unreliable as a matter of historical record. One of the problems historians have with ancient accounts is the scarcity of sources. If the history of WW2 is a still a 'work in progress' then how accurate do you think a single source account of a single incident might be?
Herodotus: Father of History or Father of Lies?
Consider this: my skepticism is rooted in the mindf**k my older brother played upon me. I love him sincerely, but older brothers are genetically compelled to mess around with the heads of their younger siblings. Shortly after my first UFO encounter with him and his girlfriend - which was very startling and frightening at the time even if it turned out to be a blimp - he moved away. Then sent me a letter detailing a further CE2K encounter he claimed to have had
with the same object a thousand miles away. Well, a story like that today would light a number of people's pants on fire. Did then too. That's why I contacted Ted Bloecher and why they had their field investigator in WI calling my brother for an interview. Years later he admitted he made it up to screw with me and hadn't counted on me being quite so resourceful with my typewriter and rotary phone.
Fast forward to now. As a witness to the famed Hudson Valley Lights and a person who regularly sees the same weird crap they think are spacecraft right over
there in Pine Bush imagine how convincing I could make my eyewitness account if I really wanted to. But I don't. I just told the literal truth because at the time I recognized what I was looking at. If I wanted attention, recognition, maybe draw attention to a UFO book I was writing .... you get the idea.
.. I have lived all of these old cases for most of my life and am still halted in my tracks when they are presented, simply because they are eternally fascinating! 
