The 113th Wing of the D.C. Air National Guard has about 1,050 people and includes the 121st Fighter Squadron and the 201st Airlift Squadron, which transports members of Congress and other dignitaries.
Bossard, the Little Egg Harbor school principal, said the custodian, one of four in the one-story building Wednesday night, thought that children might have been on the roof or in the building when she heard sounds above her.
Little Egg Harbor Township police returned to the school yesterday after employees found projectiles on the roof and inside the building.
(Tony Kurdzuk -- The Star-ledger)
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"She went into a room and saw a ceiling tile that looked like it had been poked with a stick, because there was a hole in it," he said.
Bossard expressed thankfulness that no students were at the school when the rounds were discharged. "At least the timing was good," he said. The school had been scheduled to be closed yesterday and today because of a teachers convention. Classes are to resume Monday.
Robert Brown, whose twin daughters attend the school, about a quarter-mile from their home, said he first learned of the incident while watching television yesterday.
"Twenty five rounds? Wow! That can be dangerous," Brown said. "That kind of scares me."
Neighbors said low-flying jets are common. The range is in the Pygmy Forest, named for its five-foot-tall pine trees. Brown said planes sometimes fly so low while approaching the range that he can see the pilots' heads.
"It's kind of like an air show when they're out there," he said.
Elinor Bell, 50, who takes her Great Dane, Axle, on a daily walk to the school, said she is not too worried by the incident, calling it a "freak accident."
"I just think this guy hit the button by accident," she said. "It was scary, but it's like, what are you going to do? Thank God no one got hurt."
Staff writers Maureen Fan, Spencer S. Hsu, Mary Beth Sheridan and Clarence Williams and researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
