Local Marines Could Head Out for Mideast : Military: While officials refused to confirm any movement, Marines and their dependents at El Toro and Tustin reported greater activity at bases.

With tensions rapidly escalating in the Middle East, Marine Corps troops from El Toro and Tustin could soon be called into action to provide air support for American forces being dispatched to Saudi Arabia, Pentagon sources and the local military said Thursday.

Military officials would not confirm reports of troop movements, but enlisted men and their families at the El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps air stations said both bases were buzzing with heightened activity.

Also, some sources indicated that plans were being made to move troops and equipment to the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, a 932-square-mile desert base in San Bernardino County.

Twentynine Palms is headquarters for the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, a specially trained group designed to “deploy in response to contingencies threatening U.S. vital interests,” according to the base’s public affairs office.

If that brigade is activated to respond to the crisis in the Persian Gulf, troops from El Toro and Tustin would join thousands of others from Southern California, Arizona and Hawaii as part of a 17,000-man rapid-deployment unit that combines air, land, naval and amphibious forces.

That brigade is one of three that could be sent to Saudi Arabia in coming days, Pentagon sources said, the others being based in Hawaii and at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The chosen brigade could be flown to the Persian Gulf as early as Saturday, when ships loaded with equipment will begin to arrive there, the sources added.

On Thursday, several of the bases that provide troops to the 7th Brigade were bustling with activity, leading soldiers and family members to speculate that deployment was not far off. A helicopter mechanic at the Tustin base would not comment on whether troops are already being dispatched from the base but said it was probable that they would be.

At El Toro, a woman whose husband is a radar technician said that Marines there are working extra-long shifts and have been ordered to pack their bags.

“He thinks they’re going, but I don’t want (him) to go,” the woman said. “I’m too scared. This is the second time we’ve been scared. Before, with Panama, we were scared, but they didn’t choose his squadron.”

If a Marine expeditionary brigade is dispatched to the Middle East, forces from throughout the region would likely participate, military literature indicates.

The 7th Brigade, whose motto is “One call gets its all,” includes combat ground units from Camp Pendleton and air combat forces from El Toro, Tustin, Pendleton and Yuma, Ariz.

A service-support group, known in military circles as “beans, Band-Aids and bullets,” would accompany the troops. It would be drawn from Camp Pendleton.

Relatives of soldiers at Pendleton said they too had heard that units were heading for Twentynine Palms. According to the wife of one Marine lieutenant, her husband told her that his 900-man battalion was heading to the San Bernardino base on Tuesday and Wednesday. He did not say where they were going after that, the woman added, “but by how he acted--and I know him--I got the impression he was going to the Mideast.”

A Marine Corps major based at Camp Pendleton, who requested anonymity, warned that military families may be overreacting to troop movements, which might be little more than routine training exercises.

“We’re not officially on alert,” he said. “But various units have been told to do the things their units would normally do to bring themselves up to readiness and to be ready to move out. . . . We’re at an administrative be-prepared status. People are drawing in to their units, getting records in line and packing up.”

If the 7th Brigade is called into action, forces would likely be dispatched from Twentynine Palms and would link up with the group’s five supply ships, which are normally based on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Ships from there have already been sent to the Persian Gulf, and they contain enough weapons, vehicles, parts, fuel and rations to support the brigade for 30 days of combat.

El Toro and Tustin would supply that force with its military aircraft, and as such would be responsible for providing air cover to the thousands of troops on the ground, using a combination of helicopters and warplanes.

El Toro is home to the F/A-18 fighter jet, RF-4 Phantom jet, A-6E fighter-bomber, A-4 Skyhawk jet and KC-130 tanker. The air station at Tustin, a helicopter base, houses the CH-53E Super Stallion, the CH-53 Sea Stallion and CH-46 Sea Knight.

Some 7,700 Marines are stationed at El Toro, 4,300 at Tustin and more than 40,000 at Camp Pendleton.

The El Toro base is the command center of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, the Marine Corps’ largest such group, encompassing four western U.S. bases and more than 500 aircraft. The aircraft range from the small but deadly Cobra helicopter based at Camp Pendleton to the sophisticated F/A-18 Hornet at El Toro.

The wing has 16,200 Marines based at El Toro, Tustin, Camp Pendleton and Yuma, Ariz. The fighters and the helicopters, including giant Ch-53E Super Stallions based at Tustin, are worth more than $50 billion, and some of the helicopters and fighter planes are valued at more than $20 million each.

Times staff writers Melissa Healy in Washington, Nancy Wride in Orange County and Tom Gorman in San Diego contributed to this article.