Residents of a quiet California neighbourhood have been left shaken and angry after a late-night U.S. military urban warfare drill took place without adequate warning. The exercise, held at the former Saint Luke’s Medical Center in Pasadena, involved simulated gunfire, flashbang grenades and low-flying helicopters dropping soldiers onto the building’s roof, according to local reports.
The Pasadena Police Department had advised the public at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday that “limited helicopter activity, controlled explosions and simulated weapons fire” might be noticed until 1 a.m. in the northeastern part of the city. However, the training continued past that window, with Pasadena Councilman Rick Cole documenting the disruption lasting until at least 2 a.m.
In a video posted to social media, Cole described the scene: “It has been quite the evening here for the residents who are literally across the street. It’s 2 a.m., and we’ve just been treated to 45 minutes of simulated gunfire and flash bang grenades, not to mention just absolutely deafening noise from the helicopters coming and going.” He added, “Good luck to the people who have got to get up and go to work tomorrow morning.”
Neighbours expressed frustration that the notice provided by authorities was too short and failed to convey the scale of the noise and disruption. The Pasadena incident coincided with a separate, tightly controlled military training exercise held roughly 45 miles south in Orange County, where authorities had warned of helicopter activity but explicitly said that “no other training activities will be visible to the public.” That drill concluded without the community backlash seen in Pasadena.
