Dartblog

I failed to report in this column that I recently was given and subsequently triumphed over a traffic ticket in my hometown of Lambertville, New Jersey. Traffic tickets in the aggregate are the cause of much of my charitable heart’s ache; the waste they cause is immense. I rather think that if all the people involved in the traffic racket ceased to exist, the human race would emit such volume less of carbon dioxide as might placate Al Gore, finally.

To the good fortune of the bottom ten percent of police academy graduates everywhere, I am not likely to have my druthers on this issue. But instead, there is this wonderful report, which comes from one of my oldest friends, a military aviation engineer for Lockheed Martin (and a fast—but safe—driver). The story is a bit old but, I believe, entirely accurate.

Gentlemen –

Two California Highway Patrol Officers were recently conducting speeding enforcement on I-15, North of MCAS Miramar [in San Diego, Calif.]. One of the officers was using a hand held radar device to check speeding vehicles approaching near 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 turned off.

Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact locked onto 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.

Back came a reply in true USMC style:

Thank you for the message, which allows us to 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 onto your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it.

Furthermore, an air to ground missile aboard the fully armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment. 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 and your hostile radar was destroyed.

Thank you for your concerns.