The Los Angeles Times du lieu suivant : Los Angeles, California • Page 30

B8 TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 24, 1996 LOS ANGELES TIMES Deer Crossing HISTORY: The Battle That May Have Saved the Nation later) with perhaps 50 foreign, plunder-oriented gunfighters." Alvarado, meanwhile, marched his vaquerot and mercenaries up from the pueblo of Los Angeles to meet them. The night before they would meet the Calijorniot forces camped north of Gtahuenga Pass and Micheltorena's army bivouacked at Encino Springs. Scouts ensured there would be no surprises. Micheltorena had three cannons to Alvarado's two.

He set his up in a defensive position about a mile west of Alvarado's, about where the Ralphs supermarket is today. 0 Continued from Bl Calif ranchers prepared to do battle with the unlikely force that represented the Mexico City government The traffic was whizzing past But up there by Hughes market, Edwards figures, is the high ground where the ranchers put their two small cannons. Back then, remember, Ventura Boulevard was known as El Camino Real, and it was just wide enough for a wagon. If documentarians ever dare tackle the history of the San Fernando Valley, Edwards could serve among the sage authorities. He looks the part He is, at 69, a tall, flinty fellow with intense brown eyes and a voice that betrays his Oklahoma roots.

He was just a boy when his family came to Los Angeles, settling near another intersection that would achieve a historic distinctionFlorence and Normandie. Before settling in Sherman Oaks, he would serve in the infantry during the Korean War and earn a doctorate in psychology experiences, he says, that have helped him in his investigation into the Battle of Cahuenga. And this is his lessoni First, the name. These days, people hear "the Battle of Ca-. huenga" and assume it happened near the pass.

That's just modern bias. Way back when the battle took place, this part of the Santa Monica Mountains was known as the Cahuengas, after native people who lived in the area. Second, some political context. Spain had already established the 1 mission system and provided land grants to major ranchers. Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, but California remained as remote to Mexico City's authority as it had to Spain.

The missions had become wealthy in land and holdings, which Mexico's revolutionary government wanted to dispense to the native tribes. The Californios eyed the mission holdings for themselves. 7 In 1842, Mexico City dispatched Manuel Micheltorena to Monterey to serve as governor and keep tabs on the ranchers, including Juan B. Alvarado and Pio Pico in Southern California. Their resistance to Mexican authority ultimately prompted Micheltorena to march down with an army that numbered in the hundreds.

This wasn't the most loyal or motivated fighting force ever assembled. Micheltorena's men included "300 convicts released from prison on the condition that they soldier, 100 drilled Apache mercenaries and Johann Sutter (gold would be discovered on his land JOEL P. LUGAVERE Lm Angela Timet A deer checks its surroundings as it takes an early-autumn RESCUE: LAPD Officer Wins National Heroism Award 0 i Wash. He was on his way to a sports club with his best friend when he saw two shapes bobbing in the water. The men drove several blocks before Grasso became convinced that two people were being swept away by the roiling water.

They drove their van to the water's edge and Grasso jumped in. He managed to grab Jordan Bastasin and another man who was pulled in when he also tried to rescue the boy. The current swept the three to a dangerous spot where the wash splits, dividing into smaller tunnels and leading to a deep pool with a powerful undertow. Grasso threw himself onto a concrete divider, still clutching the boy, while the man, who told Grasso in Spanish that he didn't know how to swim, got lodged on another divider. just east of Canoga Avenue.

co-workers went to the spot the next day to see the channel. "I could see that the water could take you right down," said Sgt Frank Mika, Grasso's boss, who oversees the tactics unit "He could have easily gotten himself killed." But that successful rescue also recalled sad memories for Grasso of a strikingly similar rescue attempt but one that failed. Grasso was one of the many firefighters, police and motorists who tried desperately to pull 14-year-old Adam Bischoff from the flood-swollen Los Angeles River in February 1992. Adam, however, disappeared under the water before he even reached Grasso and the others'. When he was clinging to the divider with Jordan, Grasso said, he thought of Adam.

"I was just thinking that this was not going to happen again." West Hills, retired senior plumbing inspector for the city of Los Angeles. Crawford Mortuary, North-ridge. Tune, David Elsworth, 36, of Lancaster, farmer. Halley-Olsen Funeral Chapel, Lancaster. Weber, Robert 79, of Encino, retired self-employed railroad material manufacturer.

San Fernando Mortuary, San Fernando. Willert, Agatha 78, of Bur-bank, homemaker. Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. They are based on Information provided by mortuaries.

stroll alongside Mulholland Drive "When I was balanced on that wall, with the boy in my arms, freezing, I was thinking 'Wow, I probably could've been hurt Grasso said. When Mitzi Grasso first heard of the rescue, she didn't give it much thought Home late, she was running a bath for their daughters and listening to her messages on the answering machine. "I heard Mike's closest friend say, 'Mike saved a kid; call she recalled. "I thought 'Hmmm. Mike saved a kid, that's what Mike But the next message was Grasso's boss, telling her to call the hospital.

And almost at the same time, her daughter flipped on the television and saw her father clinging to an embankment But Grasso, Jordan and the man were all safe, suffering only minor injuries. Grasso's wife, friends and Rasmusi en, Frances 93, of Studio City, retired secretary for Sloane's. Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Russo, Julie Michael, 75, of Bur-bank, retired supervisor for Pan Metals. Valley Funeral Home, Bur-bank.

Ryder, Doris EL, 76, of Sherman Oaks, retired artist for Custom Photocraft Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Slade, George 56, of North Hills, air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration. Utter-McKinley Mortuary, Mission Hills. Thompson, Orville 78, of Obituaries Cahuenga isn't remembered alongside Waterloo and Gettysburg and Midway among the great, pivotal battles in the history of warfare. The prospect of death was real, but nobody thought they had a cause worth dying for.

Soldiers hunkered down in the gulches and many fled into the hills. Americans shouting across the lines dis-I covered that they were fighting friends. There was plenty of cannon and gun fire, but when the battle was over, the casualties amounted to one dead horse and perhaps a wounded mule. To save his life, Micheltorena promised to go home to Mexico. The Californios won and Pico became governor.

At this point Edwards likes to do something that professional historians loathe. He likes to asks "What if. What if Micheltorena's cannons had cut down a couple of vaquerot'! How quickly would the Californios have surrendered? What if the reports back to Washington, D.C., suggested that a strong Mexican army held California? Maybe, just maybe, Edwards said, President James K. Polk wouldn't have sent his forces into California. Maybe the Californios wouldn't have capitulated to Cmdr.

John C. Fremont at Campo de Cahuenga in 1847 and maybe there would have been no Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico after that Maybe Lincoln wouldn't have had the gold and silver that was needed to finance the Civil War So maybe the course of world events was dictated on that extraordinary day in the Valley. What's even more extraordinary is the way Allan E. Edwards, with tongue in cheek, still manages to keep a straight face. Scott Harris" column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie Chatsworth 91311. Please in-elude a phone number. 3sJiT Ear STIEGLER, inc. "gfflfgfi 3 -tarzana BUD LIGHT. CIKIil VALUY EDITION Join us Friday Nlfihfand receive FREE admission on Sat.

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Altruistic. Instinctual. "That's just how he is," said his wife, Mitzi Grasso, the only female director of the Police Protective League, who was formerly his partner on the job as well. "It's scary for me, but he wouldn't think twice about giving up his life to save somebody." "It was great on his part he saved my son's life," said Moreno Bastasin. "He's a good person." Grasso wasn't even on duty when he rescued 7-year-old Jordan Bastasin from the Pacoima Anderson, Bonnie 78, of Glendale, homemaker.

Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Basmadjian, Angel, 95, of Mission Hills, homemaker. Forest Lawn, Holly wood Hills. Bagdasarian, Karlen, 65, of Glendale, retired electrician for the Armenian government. Forest Lawn Mortuary, Glendale.

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Aftercare California Cremation and Burial Society, North Hollywood. Goete, John 64, of Arleta, retired mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. J.T. Oswald Mortuary, North Hollywood.

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