[Pappy]

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 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 he 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.

[MadDog]

[solefald]

lol. i live a mile away from Miramar Base.

Those guys do fly really fast, bur rarely that low, except for the Blue Angels. When they make U-turns over University City area, it looks like they are going to take the roofs off some houses and scrape the bottom of their planes!

[mrwma237]

sweet. source?

Edit: found a follow up story http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.asp

[Pappy]

mrwma237, you nailed it.

The key word is armed.....

Yup. The dead giveway was "Armed." American warplanes aren't armed during exercises over the continental US unless they're on a practice range. If they have to fly over any populated area, all weapons systems are turned off.

For those of us who have taken a radar hit...it was a nice vision, though.