200 Seabees in Mideast, 1,600 More to Follow : Military: Families of the Port Hueneme-based servicemen are used to long separations. Most say only the destination is different this time.

About 200 Seabees based at the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme have arrived in Saudi Arabia and the remaining 1,600 who have received orders for Mideast duty will be there soon, officials said Thursday.

Those not yet in the Mideast will be airlifted there after their construction equipment arrives, Lt. Cmdr. James L. Gustafson said. Some of the equipment was sent from Port Hueneme and some from Puerto Rico, where one of the Port Hueneme-based battalions was deployed when the Persian Gulf crisis began.

Altogether, Gustafson said, 1,200 tons of equipment have been shipped by sea and 500 tons by air.

He said he could not disclose specific missions, but said the Navy Seabees typically build facilities for Marines. All of the Seabees ordered to the gulf are men, he said.

Barbara Conlee, director of the base’s Family Service Center, said the agency has set up a Mideast Information Center with pamphlets on 15 countries in the region. Seabee families are used to having their fathers and husbands overseas, she said, but the Persian Gulf is not a typical assignment.

Support groups for wives and children also have been established, she said, but so far there has not been much demand.

“These guys are always deployed overseas,” said Mike Coster, another Family Service Center official, noting that the Port Hueneme Seabees are routinely sent to Guam, Puerto Rico, Spain and elsewhere, typically for seven months at a time. “This is not new to Seabee wives. Just the location is new.”

One problem with the Saudi Arabian deployment is a lack of phone connections. All communication between servicemen and their families has to be by mail.

Elaine Moore’s husband, Tommy, returned from Puerto Rico only last May and will soon be leaving for Saudi Arabia.

“Military wives are behind their husbands,” said Elaine Moore, a volunteer ombudsman for other Navy wives. “We realized when they joined the service that they have a job to do and we back them 100%.”

She realizes that he may be in danger, she said, but “you can’t think about those things. You cross that bridge when you come to it.”

Moore, who keeps in touch with dozens of Navy wives, said it is tough when a husband goes to sea, but it can be rocky when they return too.

“While they’re gone, the wife does it all,” she said. “Then they get home and say, ‘OK, hand the checkbook over.’ ”