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[ocuyler]

F-16 shooting of school leads to suspension of operations

Saturday, November 6, 2004

By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC
Courier-Post Staff
LITTLE EGG HARBOR TWP.

Operations at the Warren Grove firing range were temporarily suspended Friday after an F-16 fighter jet with the District of Columbia Air National Guard accidentally fired about 25 training rounds of 20mm ammunition at an Ocean County school on Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., called for the 113th Wing to halt all operations in New Jersey until it determines how and why the plane discharged the ammunition on the Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School about 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Lautenberg called the actions of the pilot "totally incomprehensible" and demanded a "guarantee that nothing like this can ever happen again."

New Jersey National Guard officials referred all inquiries to the 113th Wing, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, which is where the jet came from.

A spokesman for the District of Columbia National Guard, which includes the 113th, Army Maj. Sheldon Smith, responded to Lautenberg's request by saying, "I think we have suspended flying over there until this investigation is complete."

Smith could not say how long that would take. "They're going to be looking at the gun and anything else they can to determine why the weapon fired, as well as interviewing the pilot," he said. "We want to make sure that if there is a problem we correct it right away."

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