Warplane Strafes a School in New Jersey
November 5, 2004
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and ROBERT HANLEY
It sounded like somebody running across the roof of the
elementary school in a New Jersey township Wednesday night,
said the cleaning woman who called the police. No prowler
was found. But yesterday, what had seemed a minor item in a
police blotter touched off state and federal military
investigations after it was disclosed that an F-16 warplane
had strafed the school with cannon fire.
The Air National Guard warplane, flying a night training
mission out of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington,
fired a burst of 27 rounds from its 20-millimeter cannon
shortly before 10:15 p.m. as it streaked over Little Egg
Harbor Township, 20 miles north of Atlantic City, New
Jersey military officials said last night.
Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of
the New Jersey Air National Guard, said that the pilot, who
was not identified, fired the cannon inadvertently just as
he turned into a dive to strafe a target at the Warren
Grove firing range in Ocean County, a sprawling military
reservation in the Pine Barrens that has been used for
bombing and strafing practice since World War II.
The pilot was to have fired the half-second burst of shells
well into the dive, at about 5,000 feet, the colonel said,
but instead the cannon went off at an altitude of 7,000
feet, and at least eight of the bullets - non-explosive
lead slugs more than 2 inches long - crashed through the
roof of Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School, three miles
south of the target range. No one was hurt, and the damage
was minor.
It was unclear whether any other structures were hit. Five
slugs were found in the school parking lot, and 14 others
apparently came down harmlessly in the neighborhood, where
houses are set far apart and surrounded by woods. Fewer
than 16,000 people live in the 50-square-mile township.
"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously,"
Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey
Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said. "The
safety of our people and the surrounding communities are
our foremost concern."
At the time of the firing, the one-story school on Frog
Pond Road, two miles south of the Garden State Parkway, was
unoccupied except for four members of the night custodial
staff. One of them, a woman cleaning a third-grade
classroom who asked not to be identified, thought the shots
sounded like scurrying footsteps overhead. Concerned about
a possible prowler, she called the police.
"It sounded like someone was running across the roof to
her," Lt. John O'Brien, of the township police, recalled in
an interview yesterday. Officers were dispatched, but in
the darkness they found no one on the roof and no signs of
a prowler. The incident was duly recorded in the police
log.
Yesterday, however, custodians arriving at the school found
13 cannon slugs - 5 in a parking lot and 8 inside the
school in various classrooms and offices, said Fred
Zimmerman, the director of instructional services.
The police said there were holes in the roof and in the
ceilings and floors of several classrooms, a hallway and an
office. At least one desk was hit, ceiling tiles had fallen
in some classrooms, and there were scratch marks on the
building's brick exterior.
The school's 970 pupils, in grades three through six, had
no classes yesterday or today because the state's teachers
were at an annual convention in Atlantic City. They will
return on Monday, school officials said.
Michael Dupuis, the president of the township school board,
said that residents and school officials were concerned
over the incident, but not unduly so, and had no misgivings
about living near the firing range. "There will be
concerns, but I feel confident that the military has done
and is doing everything it can to safeguard against any
occurrences of this nature," he said.
Colonel Webster said the incident yesterday was under
investigation by the Pentagon and state officials. "We have
no idea why the gun went off," he said. "This is a very
unusual and unique thing." He said the range at Warren
Grove had been open for more than 40 years and that this
was the first time bullets fired from the air had struck
off the range. It was unclear who reported the incident to
military officials.
But there have been problems from time to time. In January
2002, a New Jersey Air National Guard jet crashed near the
Garden State Parkway, but the pilot parachuted safely, and
no one was injured. In June 2001, an F-16 on practice run
dropped a 25-pound smoke bomb that burned 1,600 acres of
pine forests in Ocean County. And in 1999, another bombing
run went awry and 11,000 acres of pine forests burned.
The planes, assigned to the 113th Wing of the District of
Columbia Air National Guard, had taken off earlier in the
evening from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The
20-millimeter cannon of an F-16, an M61-A1 Vulcan, normally
holds 540 rounds, but on training missions, the colonel
said, limiting devices allow only 110 bullets to be fired
on a flight.
Colonel Webster said the F-16 was north of the target range
and the school and was turning toward the southeast to
begin a 30-degree strafing dive when the cannon went off
prematurely some 2,000 feet above the normal level for
opening fire. "It was not an intentional release," the
colonel said. "We do not engage targets unless we're aimed
at them. He was aimed at space."
November 5, 2004
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and ROBERT HANLEY
It sounded like somebody running across the roof of the
elementary school in a New Jersey township Wednesday night,
said the cleaning woman who called the police. No prowler
was found. But yesterday, what had seemed a minor item in a
police blotter touched off state and federal military
investigations after it was disclosed that an F-16 warplane
had strafed the school with cannon fire.
The Air National Guard warplane, flying a night training
mission out of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington,
fired a burst of 27 rounds from its 20-millimeter cannon
shortly before 10:15 p.m. as it streaked over Little Egg
Harbor Township, 20 miles north of Atlantic City, New
Jersey military officials said last night.
Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of
the New Jersey Air National Guard, said that the pilot, who
was not identified, fired the cannon inadvertently just as
he turned into a dive to strafe a target at the Warren
Grove firing range in Ocean County, a sprawling military
reservation in the Pine Barrens that has been used for
bombing and strafing practice since World War II.
The pilot was to have fired the half-second burst of shells
well into the dive, at about 5,000 feet, the colonel said,
but instead the cannon went off at an altitude of 7,000
feet, and at least eight of the bullets - non-explosive
lead slugs more than 2 inches long - crashed through the
roof of Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School, three miles
south of the target range. No one was hurt, and the damage
was minor.
It was unclear whether any other structures were hit. Five
slugs were found in the school parking lot, and 14 others
apparently came down harmlessly in the neighborhood, where
houses are set far apart and surrounded by woods. Fewer
than 16,000 people live in the 50-square-mile township.
"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously,"
Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey
Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said. "The
safety of our people and the surrounding communities are
our foremost concern."
At the time of the firing, the one-story school on Frog
Pond Road, two miles south of the Garden State Parkway, was
unoccupied except for four members of the night custodial
staff. One of them, a woman cleaning a third-grade
classroom who asked not to be identified, thought the shots
sounded like scurrying footsteps overhead. Concerned about
a possible prowler, she called the police.
"It sounded like someone was running across the roof to
her," Lt. John O'Brien, of the township police, recalled in
an interview yesterday. Officers were dispatched, but in
the darkness they found no one on the roof and no signs of
a prowler. The incident was duly recorded in the police
log.
Yesterday, however, custodians arriving at the school found
13 cannon slugs - 5 in a parking lot and 8 inside the
school in various classrooms and offices, said Fred
Zimmerman, the director of instructional services.
The police said there were holes in the roof and in the
ceilings and floors of several classrooms, a hallway and an
office. At least one desk was hit, ceiling tiles had fallen
in some classrooms, and there were scratch marks on the
building's brick exterior.
The school's 970 pupils, in grades three through six, had
no classes yesterday or today because the state's teachers
were at an annual convention in Atlantic City. They will
return on Monday, school officials said.
Michael Dupuis, the president of the township school board,
said that residents and school officials were concerned
over the incident, but not unduly so, and had no misgivings
about living near the firing range. "There will be
concerns, but I feel confident that the military has done
and is doing everything it can to safeguard against any
occurrences of this nature," he said.
Colonel Webster said the incident yesterday was under
investigation by the Pentagon and state officials. "We have
no idea why the gun went off," he said. "This is a very
unusual and unique thing." He said the range at Warren
Grove had been open for more than 40 years and that this
was the first time bullets fired from the air had struck
off the range. It was unclear who reported the incident to
military officials.
But there have been problems from time to time. In January
2002, a New Jersey Air National Guard jet crashed near the
Garden State Parkway, but the pilot parachuted safely, and
no one was injured. In June 2001, an F-16 on practice run
dropped a 25-pound smoke bomb that burned 1,600 acres of
pine forests in Ocean County. And in 1999, another bombing
run went awry and 11,000 acres of pine forests burned.
The planes, assigned to the 113th Wing of the District of
Columbia Air National Guard, had taken off earlier in the
evening from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The
20-millimeter cannon of an F-16, an M61-A1 Vulcan, normally
holds 540 rounds, but on training missions, the colonel
said, limiting devices allow only 110 bullets to be fired
on a flight.
Colonel Webster said the F-16 was north of the target range
and the school and was turning toward the southeast to
begin a 30-degree strafing dive when the cannon went off
prematurely some 2,000 feet above the normal level for
opening fire. "It was not an intentional release," the
colonel said. "We do not engage targets unless we're aimed
at them. He was aimed at space."
