Wikipedia entry

War nerves. People were on alert. The Americans’ most formidable Navy base had been devastated just a couple of months earlier.

If the Japanese could sneak up on Pearl Harbor, wasn’t a civilian city even MORE vulnerable?

Before 9/11, I never would have understood the feeling, but that day gave me an understanding.

On September 11, 2001 all civilian air traffic was stopped for two days. Normally airliners constantly fly overhead, but for two days all US airports were closed.

Military jets were flying. And they were zooming across my city (LA at the time, coincidentally) at low altitude, I think to reassure people. It was hazy, we couldn’t see them. But they were loud!

So everyone is in this shocked state, really stunned. Even thousands of miles away from NY and DC, life did not feel normal.

We had no idea that the attacks were over. They were so big, we expected more.

I realized, “Oh, this is what life feels like in war time”.

So imagine in 2001 you were a security guard at a library in Iowa City or a grocery store in Peoria. On September 12, 2001, you were READY for an attack.

It sounds silly, but it’s true.

So, in short, I can understand how the Battle of Los Angeles happened. As soon as one jumpy old WWI vet fired a single shell at the sky, all hell broke loose.

ALIENS ALIENS ALIENS ALIENS!

If I remember correctly, they were firing everything they had at the object, and it did not budge.
I say if it had been a “weather balloon”, that thing would have gone down.

People were jumpy. The day before a sub had shelled Coal Oil Point and Ellwood Beach in Goleta, west of Santa Barbara. False alarm due to panicky populace.