One of the nice things about being an instructor during my time under the flag was the evening drinks at the AFB's bar with officers. During the day we'd teach them English, and in the evening, they would buy us a drink and tell a few stories that were not necessarily all meant to be publicized. Here is one of them.
Although the US would probably never admit to it, a French Air Force officer who was then based in Spain claimed that during the 1986 Libyan episode he had seen a secret aircraft be unloaded from a Lockheed Galaxy and remain shrouded for possible use. Apparently, he heard that it was a secret aircraft being readied for a possible quick strike over Libya. Eventually only F-14s were used in the blitzkrieg. I do not claim that he was a 100% reliable source (not having seen the aircraft uncovered) but one can imagine that the F-117 could have been used as a means to raid command posts if the conflict turned sour. The said officer also claimed that the sortie didn't happen to preserve the secrecy of the F-117 for a little while longer. I'd venture the notion that, not being combat-proven yet, and knowing the connections between Libya and the Soviet Union, the risk of losing the F-117 and venting out the stealth technology must have been deemed too high a risk (IF, and only IF, the story is true of course).
