WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Battle Los Angeles 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:16.079 Thinking Sideways. I don't think you never know stories of 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.880 things we simply don't know the answer too. Well. Hi there, 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:26.720 and welcome to Thinking Sideways. I'm Steve, I'm Joe, I'm Devin. 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:28.920 Did you forget what we're doing? A? Yeah, I guess 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.040 I always forget. I always eat. Everybody does it differently. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.040 Joe is always like, I'm joined as always by blah 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:36.839 blah blah blah blah, and then when I'm doing it, 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:38.320 I don't have to think about it at all. So well, 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.040 you guys shamed me out of doing on my left 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.239 on my right because I didn't. You always make fun 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.360 of me, so I stopped doing that. But anyway, this 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.000 is Thinking Sideways the podcast, and this week we're going 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.240 to talk about a story that probably a lot of 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.080 people haven't heard about, which is the Battle over Los Angeles, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.120 Ang Angeles. You're talking about the movie, right, Have you 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:05.920 seen that movie? It looks action packed. Well, anybody who's 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.160 seen the movie will probably agree with me. As a 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.319 feature length film, it was garbage. It was really bad. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.120 But the great thing about that movie is if you've 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.760 seen it, you actually know about the story that we're 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.959 going to talk about today because in that movie, at 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.759 the beginning, they put up some fake newspaper clippings or headings, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.679 headlines that talk about the Battle of Los Angeles. They 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.400 do I don't know if this is intentional or accidental, 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.119 but they sort of got the year in the date wrong, 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.160 but they talk about the event. Yeah, well, so, so 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.839 the event was a precursor, like a scouting mission according 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.680 to the movie. Yes, yeah, that's where they're going. Yeah, 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.760 that's why whenever I see anything in the skyt I 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:54.279 don't know what it is, I get at my fifty 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.720 cow and start blazing away up because I know they're 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.880 a scouting mission. Lane. Well, let's let's move to the story, 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.440 all right. If anybody who knows their World War two 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:10.280 history will remember that the attack on Pearl Harbor happened 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:15.959 on the seventh of December, and immediately after that, the 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.880 United States jumped into World War two and the population 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.839 was all behind it. Everybody was gung ho. But there 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:30.679 were also a lot of fears that the Axis would attack. 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.600 I believe it was mostly the Japanese people were worried 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.480 about We're gonna attack our native soil, and then they 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.440 actually actually did. They sent those balloon bombs. Over there 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.240 were balloon bombs, and there were a lot of scares, 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.360 and like the balloon bombs, there were a couple of 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:50.000 things that did actually happen which didn't cause any damage 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.200 at all. Yeah, and and actually one of those attacks 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.880 is the precursor to the Battle of Los Angeles or 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.800 over Los Angeles, depending on where you read. It's said 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.160 in a number of different ways, but that having been said, 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:10.760 on the February, a Japanese submarine surfaced outside of Galena, California, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.480 which is on the coast, and it fired fifteen shells 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.360 at an oil refinery. Thankfully, their aim is really bad, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.480 so they didn't damage make any serious damage to anything 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.480 like the movies. Actually kind of kind of, but they did. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.440 They did scare the crap out of a lot of people, 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.920 and then they they you know, descended and disappeared. Nobody 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:40.640 knew where they were. The US Naval Intelligence Service put 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.560 out a warning. And remember this first attack was on 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.080 the twenty three. They put out a warning that said 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.360 that on the four there was likely to be another 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:56.280 Japanese attack on the coast to California, presumably in Los Angeles. 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.080 So so they were like at the red level of 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.120 the Terriller. Yeah, they blacked out. I think they had 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.560 a citywide blackout. Or you were supposed to keep your lights, 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.280 you know, you draw the curtains, you keep it dark. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.680 Ye with hooded headlights and all that stuff. Yeah, I'm 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.119 so glad that we have better targeting technology these days, 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:15.960 so we don't need to put the blackout because it 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.920 wouldn't do us any good. Yeah, so we don't need 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:20.719 to go to all that. No, we don't have to 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:22.240 go through all that. It must have been a great 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:27.919 time for stargazing, probably was. Yeah, No, what is light pollution? Right? 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.160 No light pollution? That has been kind of nice, that 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.880 would be kind Yeah. Well this, uh, this warning goes 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:40.320 into effect and it went into effect at seven eighteen 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.760 pm and it was turned off or went out of 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.719 effect at ten twenty three pm because nothing had happened. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.520 There was nothing going on, so the naval intelligence said, well, nope, 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.359 everything's fine, Like, well, if it was gonna happen, at 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.240 would have happened already. There's no way that they could 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.800 be running a little late exactly exactly three hour window 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.440 and they didn't arrive. So the reservation is canceled five 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.840 minutes in the extra five minutes. That really doesn't that's 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.240 kind of mystifying it and of itself. It's really yeah, 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.240 they get they're out there. They can pretty much pop 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.960 up and shout shoot at anytime they feel like yeah, yeah, 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.760 Usually that's kind of what happens, well sometime after midnight. 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:28.159 So now we're at the twenty five February unidentified objects 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.839 or a object we're not really sure, which was picked 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.120 up about a hundred miles off of the California coast. 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:38.920 As a side note, when I was doing the reading, 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.960 I couldn't figure out how they knew that this thing 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.240 was a hundred or a hundred and twenty miles out 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.960 because radar technology at that time had a range of 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.120 twenty two miles. Could it have been like a warship? 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.800 Could there is such thing as radar picket ships were there? Yeah, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.440 it could have been. It could have been a warship. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.400 Ooomed that it was ground based radar. That's why I 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:04.760 wasn't sure, but that that would explain it. If they 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.640 were expecting something from Japan, they likely would have had 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.039 a lot of Obviously had the more notice the better, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.400 So having having a line of ships out there off 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.440 shore probably would be a good idea. Okay, So so 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.360 that explains that piece. So it's it's about a hundred 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.080 hundred twenty miles out they pick up an object or objects. 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.680 The reports are unclear. At two twenty a m. The 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.200 city of Los Angeles was pushed into another blackout because 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.080 these objects are single object again, I don't know which 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:37.279 it is, had made their way to the coast, and 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.200 we they figured that it was over the city or 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.240 approaching the city, So let's black it out so they 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:43.800 don't know where the city is at so they can't 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:49.400 bomb the city. Yeah, exactly. Logic is super sound. But okay, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.159 well when you if you think about the technology that 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.120 day and age just not not that advance. So I'm 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.200 going to bomb a target that I can see, that's true. Yeah, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:00.920 if it's not lit up, I don't know exactly where 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:02.800 it is, so I don't know where it is. Let 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.200 this is pretty obvious to everybody now, but the residents 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.520 of Los Angeles are freaking out because the city has 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.360 just been forced into a blackout. Did they just like 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.520 cut the generators? They just cut the power? Yeah, there's 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.360 reports of people who were at diners or at places 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.360 and all of a sudden boom, power is gone. They 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.360 just shut I know the sound effect that goes along 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:34.040 with that, Yeah, yeah, you know, oh yeah, and the 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:39.920 light exactly like that. What's that that sound? What do 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:45.640 you lose that, pac Man? Yeah, that's the one. We're 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:49.520 really off topic, all right. So, like I said, the 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:54.160 people are freaking out. There were reports that varied, and 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:58.520 I mean varied all over the map, from twenty five 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.560 planes at twelve thousand feet into the air to a 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.920 balloon with a flare on it. So I mean people 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.600 are kind of kind of everybody's calling in saying I 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.400 saw this, I saw that. They're just hysteria, I guess 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:14.920 is the best way to say it, which, when you 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.080 think about it is it's kind of silly because Los 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.240 Angeles is a big place, and five planes, even if 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:23.120 they've got bombs on them, the chances of one of 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.400 those bombs hitting you is about the same chances as 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.600 you winning the lottery. I don't think you have much 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.600 to worry about it. I think that people who live 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.720 in Los Angeles have higher expectations of winning the lottery. 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.319 That's good point. And they probably think that those planes 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.000 are coming precisely for them. Yeah, because hey, I live 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:49.240 in Los Angeles. No offense. Oh yeah, but that reminds 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.000 me of a joke. But I'll tell you later. Yeah, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.800 tell us that later. At three thirty am on February, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:03.040 something is detected and the anti aircraft installations that were 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.520 spread around the city start going off. What what did? 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:12.440 What are those that is fifty caliber guns that are hidden? No, 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.520 they were, They were there installations because the war effort. 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.760 They were prepared for a coastal attacks and they had 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.480 I believe it was six different locations around the Los 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.559 Angeles area. They had these fifty caliber guns. And these 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:31.080 guns are shooting twelve point eight pound rounds. That's what 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.440 they shoot into the air. I think that I don't 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.240 think there are fifty cows. I mean because let me, 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.600 the project on the fifty cows just weighs a lot 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.880 less than that. But a lot of anti aircraft guns 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.000 are like kind of like cannons and shoot these shells 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.160 that explode in mid air. Rights the bullets. Yeah, no, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:51.480 they're not bullets, they're they're frag fragmenting rounds is what 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.040 that is. And uh, my dad was in the in 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.400 the bomb squad when I was a kid and so 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.400 I've kind of it took me a while as I 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.800 was reading about this, and people may not understand this, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.800 but how an anti aircraft gun works, especially in those days, 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.160 is it's not a guided rocket. It's just it's a 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.960 grenade that you pump into the air and it gets 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.840 a certain set height and then it explodes based on 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.360 its fuse, and it just fragments and just throws all 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.320 this shrapnel around, just on the hope that it'll like 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.000 tear up as much as it possibly can whatever's in 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:27.199 its range of fire. He's gonna get blasted's if you've 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.600 ever watched those are old, old World War two movies 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.760 and there's things going off, and there's all this rending 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.600 metal in the plane of what whoever's flying. That's what 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.560 it is. It's all this fragment material, I'm learning. And 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.880 by the way, of course, there's always the inevitability of 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.560 gravity which pulls her back down. All those metal fragments 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:48.880 you're putting into the air, dudes, yeah, they come back 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.200 up back down to earth. You know. A funny a 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.800 side story is, like I said, my dad was in 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.720 the military and he dealt with the bomb squad. I 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.440 remember when I was a teenager. He was on some 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:04.240 exers eyes and they were using fragmenting rounds. He actually 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.240 got one stuck in his finger. Yeah, a round went 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.760 off and it was a stray piece and hit his 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.640 hand and hit his I think it's his his trigger finger, 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:16.040 and he had to go to the hospital and have 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:18.120 a pulled out. This day, he's got a pretty hefty 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.400 scar on that finger, a purple heart. I hope no, 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.679 because it was a training exercise. But we did call 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.079 him frag Finger for a while. That was just kind 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.480 of a family joke. But anyway, so they they're shooting 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.760 these rounds into the air. The shooting happens for half 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:40.199 an hour, just like blindly, where they just like there 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.160 their searchlights going on there, trying to focus there, trying 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.680 to find whatever enemy craft is in the air, and 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.480 they're just they're going after it. During this half hour, 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.200 they shot one thousand, four hundred forty rounds into the air. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.400 That must have been fun. That's a lot it was. 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.959 According to accounts I've read, it was like watching a 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:07.840 fireworks show. Just explosions all over in the video, right, 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.200 and you can kind of it's just like old film 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.760 and you're like looking and you're just like, like, it 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.320 just looks like explosion, explosion. You can't hardly see anything. 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.560 I'm sure we're going to talk about this with like 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.000 theories and stuff, but it's just like explosions, explosions, Everything 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:27.320 is just happening all over. The sad thing is is 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:29.560 that you really don't want to be outside Washington because 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.320 all that all that metal is going to rain down 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.000 like you got your neck crane back, and that is 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.200 one of the things. There was a lot of property 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.880 damage all those fragments coming back down. There's pictures of 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.080 houses with holes in them, cars with holes in them, 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.760 duds that came down and punched through driveways and streets 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.400 and stuff. It's seven damage. Several people were killed just 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.360 from metal fragments coming down to No, actually people didn't 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.880 die from fragments. The deaths that were reported from what 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.960 I can piece together in the less sensationalized versions, is 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.480 there was at least one, if not too heart attacks 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.320 from all of the commotion, and a couple of deaths 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.160 in traffic accidents because what's going on and you're seeing 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.079 all this stuff and you're looking up as you're driving 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:18.840 and you're not paying attention to where you're going and 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.839 you hit something, and as the heart, people were probably 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.600 gonna have heart attacks anyway, sooner or later they'll have 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.640 heart attacks. That was probably yeah, probably not even related. Yeah. Well, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.319 during the time this half hour that we're putting all 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:37.080 this ordinance into the air, more crazy accounts are happening. 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.240 So the so the accounting from when the firing stopped 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:46.800 to when it finished start to finish completely unreliable because 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.640 it was there were there were reports that there was 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.000 a craft in the air that was moving between quote 0:13:54.040 --> 0:14:00.000 unquote very slow to two. There were multiples at least 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.160 these four enemy craft were shot down and one of 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.360 them crashed onto one of the major roads in Los Angeles, 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:14.920 which but the wreckage mysteriously disappeared exactly nothing. Nothing was found, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.600 Nothing was found on the ground in terms of enemy craft. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.280 So there's a big issue. But the other thing is 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.440 that after they had done all this firing, so the 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.120 searchlights are going on, there were pumping all these rounds 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:29.720 in the air. We're trying to find an enemy and 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.480 just hose him with it and cut them down. They 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:38.840 stopped the firing and then forty p thirty eight fighters 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:42.040 are launched from one of the local military installations to 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.440 go into the air find these enemy craft and track 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.280 them down. Didn't find anything. Nobody else was up there, 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.320 no other enemy craft. Like I said, there was nothing 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:59.760 that was on the ground, no dead, no wreckage, nothing. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.480 There's a I'm just gonna do a little aside here. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:07.760 There's a episode of Futurama where there's kill bots and 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.120 you know, you know the kill bots rights like just 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:15.080 machine guns that are robots. What a great idea. And there, 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.160 you know, there's so many jokes scenes about this, right 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.040 where like somebody will be like, oh, I don't know, 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:21.680 it seems like there was a fire and they'd be 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:23.920 like fire and they'd start to fire and be like 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.240 and you'd just be like every you know, just like chaos. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.080 And I a little bit feel like that happened. Like 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.680 somebody was like, oh, there's something the sky fire. Everyone 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.400 was like, fire, we're gonna fire, We're just expect. The 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.440 first battery opens up and then all the other batteries. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.520 There's something going on and they got a little trigger happy, 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:43.960 and then everybody was like, oh, we better join in. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.800 Yeah that's a little bit, but that's exactly and I'm sorry, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.360 I don't mean to tread on because that's that's kind 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:51.920 of the way I was thinking of it is it's 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.440 the old movie trope of one guy fires and suddenly 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:58.800 we'll know we're firing up. We were just shooting he 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.840 started it. Oh yeah. And then thinking about it is 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.960 too it's a flat grounds. When they go off, they 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.040 actually makes they leave a trace of smoke, makes smokes. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.600 I'm sure the air was pretty smoky up there, exactly, 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.240 and when and then and then searchlights are moving across 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.440 all that layer of smoke. And we're going to talk 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.320 about some of that when we get into the theories. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.680 But it is there is a lot of smoke in 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.120 the air because of all this, plus rounds that are 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.640 up there exploding, you know, it just turned into a 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.200 murky mess. Yeah, it was. It's Los Angeles that already 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:36.040 was not probably not as bad. But so did the 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.120 military say anything about this, Yeah, yeah, yeah, they put 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:44.720 out some reports. Okay, the next day, one military official 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.800 said that the entire thing happened due to a false 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:53.440 alarm fire exactly. There was another guy who swore that 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.680 he had seen an aircraft and it was most certainly 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.800 some kind of craft in the air. Now, remember At 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:04.320 this point, the term UFO isn't in circulation, so they 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.399 weren't saying it was a UFO, but he said, I 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:11.320 definitely saw something in the air. He was shortly thereafter. Mothball. 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.080 I'm sorry, mothball means he was retired. I think that 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.720 what you're thinking of is like Cashiered, that's another one, 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.800 basically put him out to farm. Yeah, yeah, mothball. This 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.040 one he like takes something to put it in storage 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.919 for for the possibility of future usage. Oh yeah, all right, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:34.359 well Cashiered mean same thing. Yeah, because he was he 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.640 was canned. He was caned, he was, he was done. 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:38.920 They put him on pension. Thank you very much for 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.800 your service. Actually put him on pension because like he 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.639 just kept talking. Now he was, as I understanding, the guy, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.159 the guy had been in for Yeah, he was, he was. 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.000 He was a high ranking official. He was very decorated. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.560 Wasn't like some private who just thank you private, You're done, 0:17:55.640 --> 0:18:00.280 get out of here. Let's see. There was a show 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.760 War Department statement, and I love the official War Department 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.960 statement by R. I really like the fact that it 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.439 was called the War Department Department of Defense. I like 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.840 war better. Yeah, it's just got a better ring to it. Yea. 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.040 So the War Department said, and I quote, either they 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:23.640 were commercial planes operated by an enemy from secret fields 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:28.160 in California or Mexico, or they were light planes launched 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.840 from Japanese submarines. In either case, the enemy's purpose must 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.280 have been to locate anti aircraft defenses in the area 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:42.800 or to deliver a blow at civilian morale. Mission mission accomplished. Yeah, 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.159 I mean, you're definitely going to locate the anti anti 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.600 aircraft batteries in the area by sacrificing yourself. Of course, 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.400 of course there's no reason to do that because I mean, 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.240 as we all know from from the decryptions of the 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.720 Venona have you heard of Vanona? This it sounds sort 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.240 of there, but I'm it's not ringing a bell. Well, 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.080 none of us. This big project basically, so we intercepted 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:11.960 and decrypted all the communications between Japan and basically all 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.760 of their allies and their spies in the US. So 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.080 essentially we were aware of the fact that there were 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.720 Japanese spies in America, you know, So we were well 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:23.800 aware of this. That's and that's why the Japanese were 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:25.640 in turn, and what was by the way, let me stay. 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.200 It's like was not fair because it was a really 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.600 bad movie. And then I'm sure we're not spies, but 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.200 there were a good number of spies in that community 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.439 and so um, and that all came out, you know, 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.800 decades afterwards when they finally classified this stuff. So you've 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:43.560 got all these spies on the ground, and there's really 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:45.879 no need to sacrifice planes and pilots to try to 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.280 find out where the anti aircraft batteries are. It's a 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.840 little extremely Yeah, it's a kind of a hard way 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:52.760 to go about. Tough to get somebody to volunteer for 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:57.119 that task, especially when you know. The thing about it 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:58.720 is you send a couple of planes in there and 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.480 they get shot down and killed. How's it going to 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:02.480 like report back to the positions to the end. But 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:05.399 that's what the spies are for, right, Like the spies 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.560 can't figure it out because they're just like hidden in 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.760 like towers or whatever, and then sitting on the top 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.639 of ridges, obviously with a big gun on it, so 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.680 it was hidden. It had a ribbon on it, probably 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.439 like a tree maybe like around it, so they couldn't 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.159 tell where it was. So they were like all right, 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.800 send a couple of jets in or not jets, I'm sorry, 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.960 planes in, and the things will go off and we'll 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:30.360 be like, okay, we can mark them on the map 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:31.920 and then we'll send the map back to you guys, 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.040 and then we'll know where they are, which I don't 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.120 know why that would be helpful, yeah, to just know 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.200 where they are, but sure, yeah, exactly, Yeah, the whole 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:43.160 and the other purpose, of course is if you plan 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.160 a massive area to Los Angeles, don't you have better 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.199 things to do with your military assets, like you know, 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.520 like you know, destroying military assets rather than just bombing 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.800 civilian city. Yeah, yeah, I mean the whole. The whole 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.119 statement by the War Department was a little weird to me, 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:04.080 and I kind of equated to saving face. Yeah. I 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.760 think that they didn't want to admit that they had 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:11.280 screwed up. That somebody yelled fire, that somebody yeah well yeah, 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:14.240 I mean, although you know, for the guy's way up higher, 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:16.760 it's not that embarrassing because there's just some yokels down 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:21.159 their men in the anti anti aircraft battery. So yeah, sorry, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:26.479 sorry built this trigger. Sorry sorry, Well that's the story. 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:31.040 So now let's get into some theories about what happened. Okay, 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:36.480 and right off the bat, the easiest theory is, well, duh, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:41.920 it was us. Yeah, well, okay, let's be honest here, right, 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:47.320 let's be very honest. Technically, it was an unidentified flying object. 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:53.680 The unidentified flying object you mean that class of UFO 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.560 that we call flying saucers, Well, that is one of them. 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:02.280 And actually there's multiple UFO theory's on this one. I 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:04.800 really I think I kind of sold your thunder today, Evan, 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.679 because I know you love the UFO style story and 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.840 this I believe has three, if not for components. I 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.080 can't believe you stole this story from me. Then yeah 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:19.720 you can. You're right fine selling me out. Okay, theory 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.920 number one, it was a friendly flying saucer that just 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:28.920 happened have super awesome shields. Okay, here's the theory. You 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.480 remember we were talking about the news footage earlier and 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:33.600 the floodlights that were in the air where there's also 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.399 a very iconic photo that was run in the l 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:41.800 A Times that is multiple search lights all shining on 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:46.199 one location. Now that photo we're going to talk about that, 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:50.040 but that photo is what a lot of UFO enthusiasts 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:57.440 are drawn to in this storyogists those people too, And 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.160 what they do is that everybody says, well, obviously they 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:05.160 were focusing on something and it must have been a UFO. Uh. 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.320 They say that, you know, it must have had fantastic shields, 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:12.040 and so it was. It didn't get hurt by all 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:14.560 of it, the flat and I was able to go 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:16.639 into warp drive and get out of there right. And 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:19.840 they had to be benevolent because they didn't shoot back, 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:22.840 so they must have been friendly absolutely out of that 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:24.680 or we really ticked them off. And they're heading back 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:27.440