OVER THERE : Area Men Part of U.S. Buildup

Some San Gabriel Valley names and faces in the Middle East:

* Pvt. Jason Ray Isett of Walnut was shipped to Saudi Arabia on Aug. 21 as part of the United States’ Operation Desert Shield.

Isett, 19, is with the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. A former prom king, football player and 1988 graduate of Walnut High School, Isett joined the Army in March, “to see some of the world,” said his father, Jack Isett, a history teacher at Walnut.

“I guess he got to see it before he thought,” his father said.

The younger Isett completed his airborne training in late July and reported to Fort Bragg, N.C., on Aug. 2--the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. “He kind of got caught up in the whirlpool effect of this thing,” his father said.

* Lance Cpl. Derick Davison of Diamond Bar is with the Marines’ 1st Light Armor Infantry Battalion at Camp Pendleton. Davison’s unit has been on alert for two weeks and is expected to leave for Saudi Arabia by next week.

* Lance Cpl. Anthony Smith of Walnut was in an advance group of Marines sent to Saudi Arabia immediately after the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Smith, 20, is a 1988 graduate of Walnut High School and was captain of the school’s varsity football team in his senior year. He joined the Marine Corps Reserves after graduating from high school and enlisted full-time a year later, said his father, Walnut City Councilman Drexel Smith.

“He was obviously very excited and most proud at having been selected as an advance group that was headed over early,” his father said.

Anthony Smith and his wife, Patty, have two sons, his father said.