Salute!
TNX for the update, "Guy".
I was under the mistaken impression that the pod was mainly for A2G stuff, but I have not been close to the community except for folks like you.
I can remember when the Eagle guys taped rifle scopes to one side of the HUD to get a long range I.D. 'course, we had TISEO and such for some planes back then but not on the early Eagles.
Something about the whole episode stinks. My fellow guys from the 80's talk about being "de-briefed" after seeing an unusual plane north of Nellis in late 70's. Ditto for other folks I flew with an emergency and saw a long runway in the desert and chose not to bail but land/glide. At Red Flag we were always briefed that if we had a serious emergency that would not get us back to Nellis or Tonopah, and we saw this nice runway, then land there!!! Work out the details later.
Gums sends...
P.S. I do not believe this incident was a UFO or foreign government demo. I might be able to be convinced it was a test of some sort, hence the Guard unit shutdown of responses.
Gums opines...