Strafing of the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School

The Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School Bombing was an incident in Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, United States, in which a military aircraft on a training mission fired dozens of cannon rounds while well outside the training range, several of which struck the unoccupied Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School, which is part of the Little Egg Harbor Township School District.

On November 4, 2004, at around 9pm, an F-16 Fighting Falcon jet from the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on a training mission at the Fort Dix United States Army installation in Warren Grove was climbing upward at 8,000 feet. The test was going pretty well, until the pilot fired the internal M61 Vulcan cannon. 25 rounds of 20mm ammunition were discharged which then fell to the ground with eight striking the school's roof and the rest hitting the parking lot and the side of the building.

A janitor, who saw holes in the ceiling and had heard something on the roof, contacted the police.

Reaction

Meanwhile, in Little Egg Harbor, students had off from school for the New Jersey Teachers' Convention. The school was repaired over the break, and there was an investigation that took over 30 days, sometimes during class times. The day the students returned to the school, there was live coverage from all the news networks. That whole week, the town was crowded with news vans, causing major congestion along Route 9, the township's main thoroughfare.

The Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School has over 1,100 students in grades 3 - 6.

Aftermath

On November 1, 2006, the district and the United States Air Force announced that a settlement had been reached, whereby the district would be paid $519,070.70 to cover damage to the roof of the school caused in the incident. This is less than the $900,000 that the superintendent had indicated would be needed to cover the costs of replacing the roof damaged in the incident and in the process of evaluating the roof's condition after the incident. [ [http://www.districtadministration.com/newssummary.aspx?news=yes&postid=17670 Little Egg school shot by jet to get $519,000] , "Press of Atlantic City", November 2, 2006.]

References

* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15519398/ MSNBC,Wed., Nov. 1, 2006 – N.J. school strafed by F-16 to get $519,070. Jet hit elementary school during nighttime training exercise in 2004â
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26557-2004Nov4.html By D'Vera Cohn and Allan Lengel. Washington Post. Friday, November 5, 2004; Page B01. D.C. Guard Jet Fires, Hitting N.J. School]

External links

* [http://www.lehsd.k12.nj.us/inter/lehinthome.htm Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School]
* [http://www.lehsd.k12.nj.us/ Little Egg Harbor School District]