SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND THE MIDEAST CRISIS : Light Armored Marine Unit Ready to Serve

As world leaders continued to seek a peaceful resolution to the Persian Gulf crisis Tuesday, an 18-year-old Marine got ready to go to war.

“This is what the Marine Corps does,” said the quiet lance corporal who would give only his last name--Deane--and who was holding an M-16, gleaming so that it looked like a toy.

And that’s about all this teen-age warrior would say, even after being given permission by his commanding officer to speak his mind on the eve of his deployment to Saudia Arabia. Instead, Deane deferred to veterans more experienced than himself to talk about what lay ahead.

Indeed, for three weeks, Deane’s unit, part of the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion, has been on alert at Camp Pendleton, preparing to scamper across the desert sands of Saudia Arabia in their mini-tanks-on-wheels, to provide security and reconnaissance for battle commanders.

Some of these Marines say they aren’t exactly looking forward to their first possible taste of combat, but virtually each says, with all the Marine machismo he can muster, that they’re ready to put their tools and training into action.

“I figured we’d end up there someday,” said Lance Cpl. Thomas Pacheco, a tough-looking 20-year-old from Pueblo, Colo., about the prospect of joining other troops from the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion already stationed in the Middle East. He smoked a cigarette and looked through a pair of Oakley sunglasses. “There’s a lot of crazy people over there. Madmen. I really want to go over there.”

Others said they’re not as anxious as Pacheco, but they’re ready to do what Marines do.

Combat, said Cpl. Chuck Bragd, “is something we try to avoid, but, if it happens, it happens. That’s what we’re here for. That’s what we get paid for.

“Most of us want to go. Yeah, there’s a little bit of tension. There’s anxiety. But, if something happens, I don’t want to miss it. That’s why I joined the Marine Corps--to protect my country.”

The thought of flying bullets and missiles seemed to be the least of the concerns voiced by many of these Marines.

“Chemical agents,” said Sgt. Scott Englesby, 28. “We’re trained for that, but there’s always the chance you’ll be surprised by it and get hit when you’re not really ready.”

“The heat,” said Scott, who didn’t want to give his last name. “I spent 3 1/2 years at Twentynine Palms (a desert training base in San Bernardino County). “If it gets 130 degrees on the desert floor, you’re looking at another 10 or 20 degrees hotter inside this thing.”

“Lack of beer and ladies, SIR!” said Lance Cpl. Derek Sheppard, a 25-year-old from New York.

Englesby, who’s in his fifth year as a Marine, said, “I really didn’t expect to see combat when I signed up. Things were getting so comfortable with the Soviets. Obviously there’s some anxiety now, but we’re here for what the President needs us to do.”

A 23-year-old corporal named Dave offered: “When I came into the Marine Corps, I didn’t really think there would be any major conflicts that the United States would be a part of. When I first heard we might have a chance of going over there, I wasn’t overjoyed. But I’m not unhappy, either. If we’re called out to do something, it’s something we have to do.”

And so it went Tuesday at Camp Pendleton, where for the first time the media were invited to interview Marines who are preparing for deployment to Saudia Arabia. Some units within the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion are already stationed in Saudia Arabia, said base spokesman Master Sgt. George Spear. Others left for there Tuesday morning.

These guys may be the next to go.

Capt. David Olsen looked over some of the units, which were collected in a staging area within view of Interstate 5, halfway between Oceanside and San Clemente.

Some of these men had seen combat in Vietnam. Others were in Lebanon in 1983. But most, he said, are peacetime Marines. Damn well trained, but untouched by war.

“They know their vehicles and they know their job and they’re quite capable of carrying it out,” he pronounced. “We’ve been packed for three weeks. The attitude of our troops is, they’re ready and prepared to conduct business as the President directs. If we’re called upon to go to war, we feel confident to do war.”

Tuesday’s invitation to the media to come onto the base was a bit of show-and-tell, an opportunity for the media to eyeball war equipment that’s only been in the Marine Corps inventory for about five years.

They’re called LAVs, for light armored vehicles. They’re hybrids of tanks and dune buggies--they’re amphibious, too--with wheels instead of treads, allowing them to maneuver across the sand at speeds approaching 60 m.p.h.

One type is chock-full of communication equipment, to radio back to headquarters where the enemy’s been spotted, and where he’s headed. Another one is equipped with mortars; a third, with anti-tank missiles and a fourth, a 25-millimeter machine gun. Other types of LAVs include one that’s basically a tow truck and maintenance vehicle to fix or pull broken vehicles and another that can carry supplies and shuttle wounded back to medics.

“They have a limited ability to skirmish,” Olsen said. “We don’t want to get in a gunfight, but they are capable. They can shoot it out with tanks for a little while.”