Relatives of Hostages Get a Briefing, Encouragement : Families: 35 of kin gather at session in Los Angeles. They get more emotional support than information.

Her married name is Davis. A native of Kuwait, she was working in a computer firm when she met the American who would become her husband. After the Iraqi tanks rolled in Aug. 2, she was able to get out with their two young sons. Her husband remains in hiding in Kuwait.

“My husband has not seen the sun in four months,” said Davis, who asked that her first name not be used. If he is discovered, she said, he would likely become one of Saddam Hussein’s “human shields” and the Arab friends who are hiding him could face execution.

Davis was among about 35 people who gathered at a Westwood hotel Wednesday for a private briefing on the Persian Gulf crisis by State Department officials. All have relatives trapped in Iraq and Kuwait and are wondering when and how their shared trauma might end.

Elizabeth Tamposi, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, said the briefing was established to help officials understand “the unique personal burdens” experienced by family members. When possible, officials said, they would offer assistance.

A State Department spokesman emphasized that the meetings “give families a chance to meet each other, to network (with) each other.”

Participants said they largely avoided sensitive discussions concerning military options. Some who are married to Kuwaiti nationals or have American relatives in hiding in Kuwait spoke of the need to drive Hussein’s troops out. But others, whose loved ones are being used as human shields at key military targets, urged patience.

The Los Angeles meeting was the eighth in a series of nine briefings organized by the State Department. The consular affairs office’s Kuwait Task Force, established to aid families of Americans held in Kuwait and Iraq, had previously briefed families in Washington, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Fla., and twice in Houston. Another briefing is scheduled for today in San Francisco.

“It was for emotional support” rather than for imparting a lot of information to the families, said Jan Chandler of La Canada Flintridge, whose brother, Kevin Bazner, is being held as a human shield in Iraq. “It gave us a chance to see the faces of people whose voices we’ve heard over the telephone the last few months,” she said of the briefing.

The Los Angeles meeting, Chandler said, was largely devoid of the expressions of anger that marked some earlier briefings. “People seemed to want to do what they could do to make things better,” she said.

There was wide agreement, participants said, for an effort to persuade the Voice of America to devote more air time to messages from home for hostages, and interest was strong in improving delivery of “care packages” via the Red Cross.