Some old-timers may remember it, and a few local history buffs jokingly refer to it as the Battle of Palmdale. But those who moved to the city as part of the post-1980 population boom may not realize Palmdale is one of few Southern California communities to have suffered through an air-launched rocket attack. Though inadvertent, the attack came in the summer of 1956 when U.S. Air Force fighters were scrambled to shoot down an out-of-control Navy drone that threatened to fall on Los Angeles. Instead of downing the drone, a pair of Air Force fighter-interceptors blasted holes in the desert...