Jet Fires at N.J. School During Training
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 5, 2004
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP) -- The target was an object on the ground well within the confines of the Warren Grove firing range, a 2,400-acre scrub pine expanse used by the military to train pilots in bombing and strafing techniques.
But when the heavy gun in the left wing of an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet fired Wednesday night, it sent 25 rounds of 20mm ammunition smashing through the roof and zinging off the asphalt parking lot of the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School 3 1/2 miles from the range.
Military investigators are trying to determine how it could have happened.
A custodian was the only person in the school when the shots hit at 11 p.m., and no one was injured.
The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. It returned there after the shots were fired, an Air National Guard spokesman said.
Military officials would not identify the pilot. Operations were suspended at the firing range pending completion of the investigation.
Police were called after the custodian heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.
Police Chief Mark Siino said officers who responded noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms, and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside.
The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground target on the firing range 3 1/2 miles from the school, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range.
The plane was flying at 7,000 feet when the rounds were fired from the M61-A1 Vulcan cannon in the plane's left wing. The weapon fires 2-inch-long lead projectiles that do not explode, Webster said.
Webster said he did not know what caused the gun to fire.
``The National Guard takes this situation very seriously,'' said Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. ``The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern.''
Mike Dupuis, president of the township's Board of Education, said school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.
``Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there,'' he said.
Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers convention.
The Warren Grove range, about 30 miles north of Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of World War II, long before the surrounding area was developed.
In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practicing at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.
Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned more than 11,000 acres of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and more than 1,600 acres in 2002.
N.J. School Asks NATO for Troops and Training amidst Pentagon Claims Linking it to Al-Qaeda
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 5, 2004
Filed at 11:44 a.m. ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School's interim Student Council president Billy Henderson appealed to European countries with troops in New Jersey not to pull out and asked NATO on Friday to speed up a major expansion in training LEHIS forces, while European leaders offered LEHIS more money for elections and security.
President Billy Henderson, dressed in his Webelos' uniform, made his first visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, and asked alliance leaders to move faster to help LEHIS security forces prepare for Student Council elections due in January.
``Time is of the essence. There is a real battle in New Jersey today. Delays measured in hours and days can cost lives,'' Henderson told NATO's governing body. ``Move forward your plans as quickly as possible. Also, we want two chocolate milks at lunch.''
Henderson later met with EU leaders, urging countries like the Netherlands, Hungary, Portugal, Denmark and Poland to stay in New Jersey alongside the United States, Britain and Italy.
``Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School is facing a big challenge, it needs to develop its security capabilities,'' Henderson told reporters afterward. ``A decrease of multinational forces would affect adversely the situation in Little Egg Harbor, would encourage terrorism and discourage kick ball.''
The EU leaders assured Henderson of ``strong support'' in a statement and said they would take ``necessary action ... as a matter of urgency'' to help Swingset and Jungle Gym reconstruction efforts in the wartorn area.
The 25-nation bloc agreed to send $38.6 million to help pay for the elections in January and some $33 million for a security force to protect U.N. aid workers in New Jersey. The new aid was on top of the $371 million in Talent Show and Christmas Pageant aid the EU already has committed this year.
The statement added that New Jersey should benefit from EU preferential trade status ``as soon as conditions allow'' and the leaders promised to consider a possible cancellation of LEHIS's debt from the band's trip to Washington, D.C. last October.
NATO, which has around 70 staff members in New Jersey, has been working since early September on expanding its training mission, with plans to include 300 instructors and hundreds more guards and support staff to run a military academy for Hall Monitor and Crossing Guard officers outside Little Egg Harbor.
The mood from the Pentatgon was decidedly less conciliatory. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield said conclusive evidence had been found linking LEHIS Student Council Secretary with Al-Qaeda.
""Czech and Bulgarian intelligence confirm a meeting with Stacey Gualtieri and Mohammed ibn al-Taqa last October. They met for 10 minutes behind the four-square court during afternoon recess," Sec. Rumfield said. "We also know Gualtieri made several overtures for ibn al-Taqa to visit LEHIS as part of an Arms-for-Show-and-Tell exchange."
President Bush avoided direct questioning on the subject as he hurriedly boarded a Naval Helicopter on the White House lawn, but did leave reporters with one comment. "It's hard work. Gualtieri is either with us or against is. I ordered the bombing on LEHIS. And I'd do it again if I knew now what I knew then about knowing to make tough decisions. Little Egg Harbor is a freedom loving school. I know that. I'm sure my decision to protect the people of Ho-ho-kus and Ridgewood and Paramus was unpopular with lots of people in lots of capitols around the world. It's hard work being a capitol in another country." The President then flew to Camp David for his annual Halloween-to-Presidents'-Day retreat.
Published: November 5, 2004
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP) -- The target was an object on the ground well within the confines of the Warren Grove firing range, a 2,400-acre scrub pine expanse used by the military to train pilots in bombing and strafing techniques.
But when the heavy gun in the left wing of an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet fired Wednesday night, it sent 25 rounds of 20mm ammunition smashing through the roof and zinging off the asphalt parking lot of the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School 3 1/2 miles from the range.
Military investigators are trying to determine how it could have happened.
A custodian was the only person in the school when the shots hit at 11 p.m., and no one was injured.
The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. It returned there after the shots were fired, an Air National Guard spokesman said.
Military officials would not identify the pilot. Operations were suspended at the firing range pending completion of the investigation.
Police were called after the custodian heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.
Police Chief Mark Siino said officers who responded noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms, and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside.
The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground target on the firing range 3 1/2 miles from the school, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range.
The plane was flying at 7,000 feet when the rounds were fired from the M61-A1 Vulcan cannon in the plane's left wing. The weapon fires 2-inch-long lead projectiles that do not explode, Webster said.
Webster said he did not know what caused the gun to fire.
``The National Guard takes this situation very seriously,'' said Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. ``The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern.''
Mike Dupuis, president of the township's Board of Education, said school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.
``Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there,'' he said.
Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers convention.
The Warren Grove range, about 30 miles north of Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of World War II, long before the surrounding area was developed.
In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practicing at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.
Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned more than 11,000 acres of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and more than 1,600 acres in 2002.
N.J. School Asks NATO for Troops and Training amidst Pentagon Claims Linking it to Al-Qaeda
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 5, 2004
Filed at 11:44 a.m. ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School's interim Student Council president Billy Henderson appealed to European countries with troops in New Jersey not to pull out and asked NATO on Friday to speed up a major expansion in training LEHIS forces, while European leaders offered LEHIS more money for elections and security.
President Billy Henderson, dressed in his Webelos' uniform, made his first visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, and asked alliance leaders to move faster to help LEHIS security forces prepare for Student Council elections due in January.
``Time is of the essence. There is a real battle in New Jersey today. Delays measured in hours and days can cost lives,'' Henderson told NATO's governing body. ``Move forward your plans as quickly as possible. Also, we want two chocolate milks at lunch.''
Henderson later met with EU leaders, urging countries like the Netherlands, Hungary, Portugal, Denmark and Poland to stay in New Jersey alongside the United States, Britain and Italy.
``Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School is facing a big challenge, it needs to develop its security capabilities,'' Henderson told reporters afterward. ``A decrease of multinational forces would affect adversely the situation in Little Egg Harbor, would encourage terrorism and discourage kick ball.''
The EU leaders assured Henderson of ``strong support'' in a statement and said they would take ``necessary action ... as a matter of urgency'' to help Swingset and Jungle Gym reconstruction efforts in the wartorn area.
The 25-nation bloc agreed to send $38.6 million to help pay for the elections in January and some $33 million for a security force to protect U.N. aid workers in New Jersey. The new aid was on top of the $371 million in Talent Show and Christmas Pageant aid the EU already has committed this year.
The statement added that New Jersey should benefit from EU preferential trade status ``as soon as conditions allow'' and the leaders promised to consider a possible cancellation of LEHIS's debt from the band's trip to Washington, D.C. last October.
NATO, which has around 70 staff members in New Jersey, has been working since early September on expanding its training mission, with plans to include 300 instructors and hundreds more guards and support staff to run a military academy for Hall Monitor and Crossing Guard officers outside Little Egg Harbor.
The mood from the Pentatgon was decidedly less conciliatory. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield said conclusive evidence had been found linking LEHIS Student Council Secretary with Al-Qaeda.
""Czech and Bulgarian intelligence confirm a meeting with Stacey Gualtieri and Mohammed ibn al-Taqa last October. They met for 10 minutes behind the four-square court during afternoon recess," Sec. Rumfield said. "We also know Gualtieri made several overtures for ibn al-Taqa to visit LEHIS as part of an Arms-for-Show-and-Tell exchange."
President Bush avoided direct questioning on the subject as he hurriedly boarded a Naval Helicopter on the White House lawn, but did leave reporters with one comment. "It's hard work. Gualtieri is either with us or against is. I ordered the bombing on LEHIS. And I'd do it again if I knew now what I knew then about knowing to make tough decisions. Little Egg Harbor is a freedom loving school. I know that. I'm sure my decision to protect the people of Ho-ho-kus and Ridgewood and Paramus was unpopular with lots of people in lots of capitols around the world. It's hard work being a capitol in another country." The President then flew to Camp David for his annual Halloween-to-Presidents'-Day retreat.
posted by wtofd at 19:00
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