[According to the USS Nimitz F-18 Super Hornet pilots]
And one of those, amazingly, just happened to be David Fravor, who played a significant role in the “Carrier” series on PBS. I find it rather interesting that one of them just happens to be a guy who’s already had wide-exposure on PBS.
Not impossible, of course, but 60-120 pilots (claimed) across 11 carrier battle groups.
60 x 11 = 660 pilots.
120 x 11 = 1320 pilots.
“Tic Tac” encounter was 2004.
“Carrier” series was 2008.
The “encounter” was made public some time later (2020) shows DOD releasing 3 videos.