While out in the yard Sunday afternoon I heard a rumble from the sky and looked up to see the stealth bomber. We've seen fly overs on New Years mornings to start the Rose Parade. It is an awesome sight. Isaac Garcia's blog reports that this was a practice run for January 1.
UPDATE
As Laurie (of the excellent Glimpses of South Pas blog) commented, the stealth bomber flyover was to commemorate the passing of former Secretary of Air Force Verne Orr. Mr. Orr's funeral was held Sunday afternoon at the Pasadena United Methodist Church, which happens to be on the parade route on Colorado Blvd. This was reported in Frank Girardot's Crime Scene Blog for the SGV Tribune and at http://www.altadenablog.com/. I wondered why the bomber would have to practice flying over the parade route.
Not everyone gets a stealth bomber flyover at his funeral. So, I checked Vern Orr's obituary in the LA Times. As you might guess, he was one of Pasadena's more eminent residents. After serving as a Naval officer in WWII (where he was awarded the purple heart), he returned to Pasadena to run the family car dealership. He went on to head a local bank and then was tapped by Gov. Reagan to head the state DMV and later named by Pres. Reagan to serve as Sec. of the Air Force. In the later role he oversaw inception of the stealth bomber program. He served as dean of the University of La Verne School of Business. Then, four years ago at the age of 88, he earned his doctorate degree from Claremont Graduate School.
