Sure, but the universe has a lot of very strange natural phenomena and astrophysicist spend a lot of time studying these and therefore can recognise when something is likely natural (or at least have the background knowledge to check before assuming its aliens -- as they say, its never aliens, until it is) where a fighter pilot might be more attuned to seeing things in the sky than the average person, they still don't have the same exposure and experience seeing, studying and working with strange sky and space phenomena. I'd rather an astrophysicist's opinion on aliens than a fighter pilot's, but I'd rather a fighter pilot's opinion than my local plumber.
