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Glad It’s a Rental

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Seems a pair of soldiers were driving a rented SUV at a test and training range out west one night. Seems an F-16 pilot was getting some target practice at the time. Seems the SUV was in the target area. Seems the pilot was a good shot.

A local spokesman said the soldiers were not hit but suffered minor injuries "while exiting the vehicle in rough terrain." Personally, any minor injuries I suffered while bailing out of a vehicle and running away while being shot at with REALLY big bullets would be a welcome alternative.

The soldiers had been training to identify enemy targets and direct aircraft to fire on them. And to this, all we can say is, “Now you know what it feels like.”

Have you ever seen those little stick-on “bullet hole” decals you can get for your car? This is what the jumbo version would look like. I just wish we had a photo of the expression on the face of the car-rental employee when this one was towed back in.

Update: According to an Air Force news release, investigators determined that this mishap was due to pilot error. "The cause of the accident was the failure of the pilot to positively identify the intended target during the nighttime, close air support training sortie," the news release said. The F-16 pilot had been wearing night-vision goggles while firing the jet's 20 millimeter canon. He briefly lost sight of the target area as rolled and began the strafing run, then misidentified the SUV as the target, which was actually 1.5 miles away. The two soldiers in the SUV were part of a different training project on the range.