F-16 Fighter Fires At School In New Jersey

www.nbc10.com ^ | 3:56 pm EST November 4, 2004 | www.nbc10.com

[crushelits]

F-16 Fighter Fires At School In New Jersey

Incident Happened On Training Mission

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. -- A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission Wednesday fired 25 rounds of ammunition that tore through an intermediate school. No one was injured.

The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School shortly after 11 p.m. Police were called to the area when a custodian heard what sounded like someone running across the roof of the school. The custodian was the only person in the school at the time. Police Chief Mark Siino on Thursday said police officers noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside the building. The 2-inch long bullets are made of lead and do not explode, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard.
 It was unclear why the shots were fired, Webster said.

[fightu4it]

"did the school return fire..."

The article said "Little Egg Harbor, N.J.", not Philly.

[broadsword]

Good thing for the folks who pull building maintenance on that school it wasn't a Warthawg.

LOL! That's for sure!

[F.J. Mitchell]

You are right, there are many possibilities as to how this could have happened. 7,000 feet is definately about 6,900 above where these guys would normally strafe from.

It could be that with the Presidential race being portrayed as being so close, that our guard and reserves had began practicing the strategy used in the Clinton era of firing from the stratosphere, anticipating a President Kerry to carry on that liberal democrat tradition.

[Radioactive]

Maybe he knows that they are teaching COMMUNISM at the school and he just was upholding his constitutional oath to protect the constitution from enemies both foreign & domestic.

[Barnstormer]

If lots of those little towns in the northern Great Plains knew how many times they were practice bombed by B-52s out of those "northern tier" SAC bases, they'd never slept well at night?

[Mat_Helm]

In all probability after he came off target he most likely did not go weapons safe and turn off the master arm switch and than hit the trigger accidently with a hot pickle. There is remote chance it was an electrical malfunction or mission computer failure but that is why the master arm switch is always placed back into the safe position immediately after coming off of target. At that altitude he may have accidently hit the trigger thinking the master arm was still safe and the master arm switch was faulty.

In any case he did not treat his F-16 control stick like a weapon an did not follow the cardinal rule of all firearms: Never point your gun muzzle or the nose of your F-16 at anything with your finger on the trigger unless you are intending to shoot and even with the safety on always point your weapon in a safe direction and never with your finger on the trigger.

[F.J. Mitchell]

LOL! Ain't that the truth?

[Professional Engineer]

?

[Tacos]

Definitely unacceptable, and very fortunate it was at night. Good grief...

The military can investigate this thoroughly, but are other parties automatically involved?

[bushisdamanin04]

Career, meet toilet.

[archy]

So ya missed an entire PLANET???

LOL!!!!!

25 million miles away, so I needed a somewhat bigger bullet. Hmmm, one of these days I'll have to figure out what minute-of-angle on that one would have been.

From a standstill, a 6-foot-by-6-foot target 2000 meters off was pretty easy, one 3KM out was usually do-able. When we wanted to show off, we'd nail a pop bottle or a watermelon out at 800m. or so. The guys watching needed binoculars or spotting scopes to appreciate it.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

LOL!!!

[isom35]

maybe the school ignored orders to stand down.

[archy]

USAF shooting up a school ....

What are the chances Robert Fisk (a journalist who Osama considers "fair") is all over this like white on rice?

Had it occurred during the hours of darkness, could it reasonably be classified as a *fly-by-night* shooting?

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

Actually who care N.J. is a blue state.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

This is not a good thing....unless of course this was a public school.

I heard his son recieved a 'C' for science.

[rdl6989]

Thank God this happened at 11:00 P.M.!

[Gunrunner2]

Yeah. . .flying and shooting the A-10 was the most fun you could have with your pants on.

Shook the heck outta you, but, man, beautiful to see the bullets impact. In Gulf War I, I called in A-10's and they did hi-angle strafe and it was the "Fist of Gawd" pounding the bad guys.

Something that brought tears to your eyes it was such a wonderful sight.