This may be true, it may be false, I don't know - but I thought it was funny......


Two California Highway Patrol Officers were conducting speeding enforcement on I-15, just north of the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar.

One of the officers was using a hand held radar device to check speeding vehicles approaching the crest of a hill.

The officers were suddenly surprised when the radar gun began reading 300 miles per hour.

The officer attempted to reset the radar gun, but it would not reset and then turned off.

Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact locked on to a USMC F/A-18 Hornet which was engaged in a low flying exercise near the location.

Back at the CHP Headquarters the Patrol Captain fired off a complaint to the USMC Base Commander.

The reply came back in true USMC style:

Thank you for your letter.
We can now complete the file on this incident.
You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Hornet had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked on to, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it, which is why it shut down.

Furthermore, an Air-to-Ground missile aboard the fully armed aircraft had also automatically locked on to your equipment location.

Fortunately, the Marine Pilot flying the Hornet recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile system alert status and was able to override the automated defense system before the missile was launched to destroy the hostile radar position.

The pilot also suggests you cover your mouths when cussing at them, since the video systems on these jets are very high tech.

Sergeant Johnson, the officer holding the radar gun, should get his dentist to check his left rear molar.

It appears the filling is loose. Also, the snap is broken on his holster.

Thank you for your concern.
Semper Fi.

True or not pretty funny...

Equipment like that makes me feel pretty safe and proud to be American....

Gary

A friend of mine with decades of military experience sent me the same funny.

He didn't know if this particular incident was true, but said that in his many years of experience of flying, he has seen similar incidents where something on the ground would automatically trigger the aircraft to lock on to targets or the pilots (particularly fresh ones) would freak out from something (innocent) they see on the ground that looks like they are being targeted. Numerous conversations would have to take place between the base and locals to ensure no bad accidents happened.

Yeah sounds like B.S. There are no hills in that area to hide a plane, and I'm sure they don't fly armed during training. But the low flying aircraft there do trip my radar detector sometimes.

I can be very exciting driving down that freeway though! Makes you want to put the hammer down when you see one of those figher jets cruising over.