What actually happened during the military exercise in Northeast Pasadena — and how did residents experience it with no warning?
Around 8 p.m. on a June evening, giant military helicopters approached Northeast Pasadena and hovered over the former St. Luke's Hospital, disgorging paratroopers who clambered down ropes onto the building's roof. Flashbang grenades went off and simulated gunfire rattled through the surrounding residential neighborhood — all without any prior warning to the people who lived there.
The exercise was supposed to wrap up by 8:30 p.m. It did not. It continued through the night until approximately 2 a.m., leaving residents of a quiet residential neighborhood jolted awake by military activity they had no context for and no way to anticipate. The public had been informed of the exercise just six minutes before the announcement — a text from the police chief to the city council arrived at 5:24 p.m. for a 5:30 p.m. public notice — and even that notification had explicitly instructed officials not to reveal the location.
"I couldn't help but notice that nobody in the military seemed to care how everyday citizens were experiencing all this."
— Ira Glass, This American Life, episode 894Rick Cole, a Pasadena city council member who was sitting in a Municipal Services Committee meeting when the text came in, found the entire situation unprecedented. A military exercise in a residential area is unusual enough anywhere in America — but happening with effectively zero notice, and running more than five hours past its stated end time, left neighbors with no frame of reference for what they were hearing or seeing outside their windows. Cole went on to document and share what was happening, ultimately reaching nearly 8 million people with his videos about the exercise. You can hear the full story — including Cole's account of that night — on This American Life on Listenly.
See also
Rick Cole received a text from the police chief just six minutes before the public announcement stating that military exercises would take place at St. Luke's Hospital — but the message explicitly said not to reveal the location. Cole believed residents had a right to know and directed his assistant to post the location on Instagram anyway.
Multiple employees, including Claire (in her third year at age 18) and Sam (in his third summer), stated explicitly that Cole Lindberg is the reason they keep coming back, citing his leadership and the community he has built among seasonal staff.
Cedar Fair is a company that owns 11 amusement parks and six water parks, with Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri being one of its properties. Cole Lindberg manages operations at the park within this broader corporate structure.