Closed to rec fishers but not US bombs?

[Glug]

In Mr Howards latest proposed agreements US aircraft carriers will be firering missiles into Australia, naturaly rec fishing will not be allowed any where near the flight paths of these smart bombs. How convenient that closures are already worked out.

The moving of bases from Japan where objections to the bases grow daily were talked about last year in Japanese news papers. It was then suggest that the bases be moved to Australia and Howards reply was that he would welcome them. Well it looks like it is back on Howards agenda so when fishing don't forget to give way, in more ways than one.

[Kerry]

So to start with, where might this be occuring?

Cheers, Kerry.

[megafish71]

So to start with, where might this be occuring?

Cheers, Kerry.

I've heard that bases may be built in the NT and Cape York.

Ron

[Dug]

Shoalwater Bay! A top spot and a beautiful environmental gem.
I really have no problem with the Australian Army using it and joint exercises with defense partners but US bases are a bit over the top for my liking.


On the radio news this morning, an American F16 shot up an American school with 23, 20-mm canon rounds because it thought it was the target range.

Maybe the education minister Brendan Nelson has a deal with George Bush to bring the education Unions into line? And sort out the funding rows once and for all????

[Glug]

They are already trying to back pedal on this one, first of I heard South Australia, Shoalwater Bay and NT. BUT nothing being settled other options were being held open that would show Australia had the backing of the U.S. in Asia. (the article I read has already dissapeared or I can't find it)

If the Australian Navy can manage to torpeado the beach in Jervis Bay just think what the U.S. can do with smart missiles. They have already got them smart enough to go where they want to instead of where they are told to go.

In Japan the US Militery even managed to crash a helicopter into the grounds of a local university and then the US military closed the grounds off to the Japanese police and air authorities so they could not investigate it. ???

If half the dopes are on dope, whos the dope thats doppy enough to let them loose?

[Dug]

Jet Strafes N.J. School With Ammunition

By WAYNE PARRY
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP) - A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition, authorities said Thursday. No one was injured.

The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School in southern New Jersey shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday. The school is a few miles from a military firing range.

Police were called when a custodian who was the only person in the school heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.

Police Chief Mark Siino said officers noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms, and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside.


The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground target on the firing range three and half miles from the school, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range. He did not know what led to the school getting shot up.





The plane was 7,000 feet in the air when the shots were fired. The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing. It fires 2-inch-long bullets that are made of lead and do not explode, said Webster.





``The National Guard takes this situation very seriously,'' said Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. ``The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern.''





The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The plane returned there after firing the shots, Webster said.





He would not identify the pilot or detail possible disciplinary measures.





Mike Dupuis, president of the township's Board of Education, said school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.





``Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there,'' he said.





Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers convention.





The 2,400-acre Warren Grove range, about 30 miles north of Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of World War II, long before the surrounding area was developed.





In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practicing attacks at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.





Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned more than 11,000 acres of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and more than 1,600 acres in 2002.

[Derek Bullock]

....... naturaly rec fishing will not be allowed any where near the flight paths of these smart bombs ........

Uuuum ..... Glug. What has this to do with your original comment or am I missing something.


Derek

[Glug]

Derek when ordanance is being fired over sea, as in this case between aircraft carriers and coastal or inland targets. All vessels are order from the area including rec fishers and that area can be big and some time permant closures may result. We are talking about long range testing here as well as coastal. Hope this explains

[Derek Bullock]

Hasn't this always happened with exercises around Shoalwater Bay. What's new ???

From my reading of the news this is all in relation to a joint exercise between Australia and the US scheduled for 2007.


Derek

[webby]

Might be a quick and easy way to go fishing, sit on the boundaries till their finished their straffing runs, then rip in and pick up all the fish floating on the surface

[Glug]

Might be right there Webby, it may the future way to rec fish ,

Yes Derek, this has always been the case BUT this is about long term testing and US testing bases in Australia, not just one joint exercise.

[Derek Bullock]

Glug

Can you give me some information on where you got that from. I cant find it anywhere.

All the information I have relates to the 2007 exercise.


Derek

[Kerry]

....Uuuum ..... Glug. What has this to do with your original comment or am I missing something....

Actually Derek has a valid point here as really some have totally lost the point.

Now with regards Shoalwater if rec fishers are anywhere near the live firing range then they obviously don't know what green zones are but then for the past 40 years live firing there really hasn't been much of a drama.

Like if this is something that is actually new

Really some should actually check the FACTS before making tree hugging green sensationalist statements as for 1) the area for miles and miles and miles around the range is now green 2) they've been bombing the crap out of Townsend for the past 40 years 3) there's very few "rec" boats that even have the capacity to actually get that far in the first place, even when it wasn't green 4) and the the worst incident in this area over the past 40 years was one of out own F1-11's that crashed on Mt Flinders some time ago with all the ongoing radio active issues.

On the brighter side if this area wasn't under the control of the commonwealth (army, navy and airforce) then it would be a developers dream, thank heavens the developers sit on the other side of the fence [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Quite frankly I'd rather see the military control this place than it being stuffed up by arseholes.

Cheers, Kerry.

[mackmauler]

and the the worst incident in this area over the past 40 years was one of out own F1-11's that crashed on Mt Flinders some time ago with all the ongoing radio active issues.

And I drank the water running off that hill for a few days[smiley=speechless.gif]

[Tezza985]

If they were rearly smart bombs!

Wouldn't they just find their way to Parliament House