Bush Looking for Upbeat Troop Image in Saudi Visit : Morale: His Thanksgiving trip is being choreographed to avoid incidents that might show signs of discontent.

President Bush’s Thanksgiving visit to the desert is being carefully orchestrated to project a positive and intensely patriotic image of military morale, according to officials here.

The arrangements appear intended to minimize the prospect that soldiers will embarrass the President and dominate news coverage by carping about going home or offering him warm, stale water to drink, as some have done during past visits by high-level U.S. officials.

Instead, Bush will address audiences composed largely of soldiers handpicked from units across Saudi Arabia and moved to locations chosen specifically for their ability to provide a suitable military backdrop.

In a closely choreographed tour, the President is scheduled to visit the Air Force, Army and Navy before arriving for dinner at a forward-based Marine headquarters just in time to appear live on morning television across the United States.

“It’s going to be God, country and pumpkin pie,” one military planner said.

In defending the decision to limit access to the President to selected soldiers, military officials insisted that the policy was based on a desire to reward good troops, not to muzzle discontent.

“You don’t do yourself a favor by trying to silence the guys,” one senior officer said, “because someone’s going to stand up and say--’Hey, they told me I couldn’t say anything, but. . . .’ ”

Some officials acknowledged, however, that they hope to avoid repetition of the unflattering spectacle conveyed by the widely covered griping by soldiers to visitors. For instance, Secretary of State James A. Baker III was greeted by members of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division with a scornful invitation to share hot drinking water with them.

“You can be sure no one wants to see that happen again,” one field commander said.

Bush’s visit to the Arabian desert comes at a time when high-ranking officers here are particularly sensitive about any impression that soldiers’ spirits may be flagging.

While insisting that reports of low morale have been exaggerated, commanders say that the impression that soldiers are unhappy could further undermine public support for what appears to be a prolonged military operation.

Indeed, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the senior U.S. commander in the gulf region, was so disturbed by a newspaper article quoting unhappy soldiers in the 24th Mechanized Division that he later flew by helicopter to the unit to seek an explanation, an aide confirmed. There remains no indication that soldiers’ discontent yet poses any problem to military preparedness or combat operations.

In scores of interviews in recent weeks, however, many American soldiers made clear that they are growing ever more bored and weary of uncertainty. Their spirits sagged perceptibly after the Pentagon announced two weeks ago that plans to bring them home on rotation had been postponed indefinitely.

And with the holidays approaching, many voiced new frustrations about the restrictions on their conduct imposed by the military in deference to Saudi sensitivities. Among the traditional diversions to be banned are USO shows and the public display of Christmas trees.

“It’s kind of hard to think you’re protecting democracy when you’ve got all the religious laws here,” said Lance Cpl. Kenneth Gardner, a reconnaissance Marine from Daytona Beach, Fla. But, he added quickly, “it’s not something we can’t handle.”

In addition to Baker, other high-level officials, including Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been pestered at virtually every stop during visits here with questions from soldiers about when they might go home.

Fed up with the complaints, Gen. Alfred Gray, the Marine Corps commandant, sternly preempted one assembly, ordering: “There will be morale!”

At each of his four stops, the President will deliver remarks and then take a few questions from soldiers. After “grip and grin” sessions featuring the commander in chief extending a hand to a long line of troops clad in combat fatigues, the President is expected to join them in four different Thanksgiving meals, each featuring turkey roll and mashed potatoes.

The audiences primarily will be composites made up of small groups of soldiers dispatched by their commanders. A Marine brigade, for example, would be permitted to assemble just one company-sized group.

Preparations for the visit, which begins when the President arrives here Thursday morning after spending the night in Jidda, have all but consumed military officials whose principal job is to serve as escorts to the press.

Although the military has played a key role in preparations for the visit--the first by an American President to a potential combat zone since Lyndon B. Johnson touched down in Vietnam in 1966--its principal choreographers are a White House team headed by Sig Rogich, a former Las Vegas advertising executive.

The presidential backdrops chosen include a Navy ship whose flight deck offers what officials described as a “perfect shot--a vessel abuzz with helicopters and aircraft.”