United States Marine Corps Coordinating Council of Greater Rochester, Inc. Forum

[artwheat]

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 tempted to reset the radar gun, but it would
not reset and then turned itself off. Just then a deafening roar
over the tree tops revealed that the radar had in fact locked on to
a SMC 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 suggests you cover your mouths when cussing at them,
since the video systems on these jets are very high tech. Also,
Sergeant Johnson, the officer holding the radar gun, should get
his dentist to check his left rear molar. It appears the filling is
loose. And, the snap is broken on his holster.

Thank you for your concern.
Semper Fi.