The commander of the Marine unit identifies it as HMLA-167 which is a real unit stationed at Air Station New River, North Carolina and they fly the AH-1W SuperCobra and UH-1N Huey.
This is the third episode of NCIS to include dialogue with a reference to the Stockholm syndrome, which is the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond, identify, empathize, or sympathize with a captor, as in this story.
The script mentions BOLs (balls of light): Ball Lightning is a real and unexplained (as of 2019) phenomenon which may produce the observed effects.
Don Swayze is another cast member from NCIS (2003) that later appears in an episode of Hawaii Five-0 (2010) along with Terry O'Quinn and Keith David.