My unit, 2 Battalion 2nd Marines was conducting a month long CAX (Combined Arm Exercise) at 29 Palms that 7 Feb. of '87. I recall that crash vividly still. Half my platoon had some down time so we were engaged in "Rack-Ops" when we heard the jet start to take off. Suddenly the noise was off, like the engines had been shut down. A coupe of seconds later we heard what sounded like 10,000 aluminum cans being crushed. One of the other Sgts. casually commented; "Sounds like he crashed." We ran out, saw a huge plume of smoke and the pilot drifting down under his canopy. We ran to the top of a small rise where we saw the burning remains of the F-18. A loud hailer on the first fire truck warned us to take cover since the 20mm cannon was loaded and pointing our way. I took some pictures, but sadly have no clue where they went.
