Surviving the the ’92 Los Angeles Riot
One of the more exciting times I had at Northrop was the LA Riots. At the time, I was working in a building that Popular Mechanics called the most classified building in the country. I worked there on many of the highly classified contracts for Northrop. At that time, I was the Deputy Director of Engineering for the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile, or TSSAM.
To make matters even better, my manager was off-site on a special assignment, so I was responsible for 350 people in 35 organizations.
The workday started like any other. The issue had already started two miles from our plant. Some people were receiving calls from worried relatives, so we checked the news and found that riots were occurring around the plant, with many within a mile.
As the day progressed, more people became worried, and I met with the Program Manager, who was considering closing the facility and sending everyone home. He was aware of the danger around the plant. He contacted the Police Department and got current information in the area around the plant. We sent people to the top of the building to monitor the area. They reported back that multiple fires were burning along most of our typical routes to the freeways.
Fires were confirmed by the police and on the news, and we discovered that the Hawthorne Mall was on fire about half a mile away. It was clear to all the managers that we couldn’t just let everyone go because of the danger. Our only plan was to assemble caravans and help groups of people reach the freeways. Luckily, the Program Manager got three police cars to lead each of the routes.
I spent the next hour checking with the Program Manager and the updates he was getting from the police department. I organized the 350 people into four groups. People who lived locally and wanted to take their own paths to their homes. One group was heading west on El Segundo Boulevard to the 405 and then north, another was traveling east to the 110, and the last was going south through Hawthorne to connect with the 405 heading south.
Each was challenging. The people heading west to the 405 had to pass by the burning Hawthorne Mall; those going east passed near the center of the riots, and I was part of the group going south to the 405, where there was scattered rioting.
Luckily, everyone made it home okay. I remember seeing the rioting as we drove by, along with trucks full of furniture and TVs.
Not a couple of hours I want to repeat.
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