From: ipser@solomon.technet.sg (Ed Ipser)
Subject: To Alter or Abolish
Organization: TECHNET, Singapore
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 01:18:36 GMT



Though resolved to bear as long as prudence and policy dictated, they
were all the time preparing for the last extremity. They were
furnishing themselves with arms and ammunition, and training a
militia.

Provisions were also collected and stored in different places,
particularly at Redondo Beach, about 20 miles from downtown Los
Angeles. General Gage, though zealous for his federal masters'
interest, discovered a prevailing desire after a peacable
accommodation. He wished to prevent hostilities by depriving the
residents of the means necessary for carrying them on. With this view
he determined to destroy the stores which he knew were collected for
the support of a local militia.

Wishing to accomplish this without bloodshed, he took every precaution
to effect it by surprise, and without alarming the city. At eleven
o'clock at night a batallion of 800 paratroopers from the 82nd
Airborne, the flower of the US Army, set out from Los Angeles
International Airport, where a brigade had recently been stationed,
and marched for Redondo Beach, under the command of lieuenant colonel
Smith.

Neither the secrecy with which this expedition was planned -- the
privacy with which the paratroops marched out, nor the severing of
telephone and radio communications from the airport, were sufficient
to prevent intelligence from being sent to the local militia, of what
was going on. About two in the morning 130 of the Manhattan Beach
militia had assembled and errected barricades along Sepulveda
Boulevard to oppose them, but the air being chilly and intelligence
respecting the paratroopers uncertain, they were dismissed, with
orders to appear again at the sound of the emergency sirens.

They collected a second time to the number of 70, between 4 and 5
o'clock in the morning, and the paratroopers soon after made their
appearance. Major Pitcairn, who led the advance recon company, rode up
to them and called out, "Disperse you rebels, throw down your arms and
disperse." They still continued to man the barricades, on which he
ordered his humvee to advance nearer -- discharged his pistol -- and
ordered his soldiers to fire.

This was done with a huzza. A dispersion of the militia from the
barricades was the consequence, but the firing of the recon unit was
nevertheless continued. Individuals finding they were fired upon,
though dispersing, returned the fire. Three or four of the militia
were immediately killed in the street. A few more were shot after they
had begun to disperse.

The batallion proceeded on to Redondo Beach, and executed their
commision. They siezed eleven RPGs, destroyed over 15,000 rounds of
amunition, and set fire to about 60 crates of MREs.

Mr. John Butterick of Redondo Beach, major of a minute regiment, not
knowing what had passed at Manhattan Beach, ordered his men not to
give the first fire, that they might not be the aggressors. Upon his
approaching near the paratroopers, they fired, and killed captain
Isaac Davis, and one private of the local minute men. The fire was
returned, and a skirmish ensued.

The federal troops having done their business, began their retreat
back towards the airport. This was conducted with expedition, for the
adjacent residents had assembled with all manner of arms, and began to
attack them in every direction. In their return to Manhattan Beach
they were exceedingly annoyed, both by those who pressed on their
rear, and others who pouring in from all sides, fired from buildings,
and such like coverts, which supplied the place of lines and redoubts.

At El Segundo the paratroops were joined by a detachment of 900
additional men, under Captain Piercy, which had been sent out by
General Gage to support lieutenant colonel Smith. This reinforcement
having two LAV-25s awed the residents, and kept them at a greater
distance, but they continued a constant, though irregular and
scattering fire, which did great execution. The close firing from the
windows and rooftops of neary buildings by good marksmen, put the
paratroopers in no small confusion, but they themselves kept up a
brisk retreating fire on the militia and minute men. A little after
sunset the paratroopers reached the airport, worn down with excessive
fatigue, having marched that day between thirty and forty miles.

There were never more than 400 residents engaged at one time, and
often not so many. As some tired and gave out, others came up and took
their places. There was scarcely any discipline observed among them.
Residents fired when they were ready, and saw an army uniform without
waiting for a word of command. Their knowledge of the city streets
enabled them to gain opportunities by taking back roads, and to act as
flanking parties against the federal troops who kept to Sepulveda
Boulevard. Units dispatched for flank security from the main force of
paratroops were threatened with defeat in detail so that lieuenant
colonel Smith had no choice but to suffer the incessant sniping upon
his main force during the long retreat.

The paratroops had 65 killed, 180 wounded, and 28 made prisoners. Of
the residents 50 were killed, and 38 wounded and missing.

Even as President Clinton appeared on television that night to declare
Los Angeles ungovernable and to order all non-military federal
employees to leave the city, the battalion net was still crackeling
with cries for assistance from units which had become separated from
the main force, and trapped, during the long retreat.



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