I don't remember the caller, but when I was in the Air Force (long time ago) the front cockpit of an F-4 had to be disassembled to a great extent looking for a lost screw or a nut.
Also, the base test pilot put an aircraft into negative g's and then grounded it until "Foreign Objects (food stuff)" were removed.
I guess “FOD” is not just a problem related to engine intakes. In this case, the FOD originated on the flight deck and destroyed the aircraft and everyone on board.
WRT your F-4 experiences, one of my regrets in life is not having been able to hear two J-79s at idle at the same time. The coolest sounding engines ever made, in my opinion.
I know today’s engines are far more efficient, but those low-bypass pure jets made a sound that absolutely thrilled me, as a child.
We moved to Los Angeles in 1960, when I was six. We lived in Santa Monica, not too far from the airport. Fantastic sounds in the distance as I walked to and from school each day.
A Spangdahlem F4 had an overlooked socket bouncing around in the cockpit while detailed down to a bombing range in Spain.
My brother was glad it wasn’t his bird.