ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : For Those Who Defend Freedom

In war and peace, military operations are woven into the fabric of life in Orange County. The outbreak of war in the gulf has profound consequences on the home front and raises hopes and fears for those who have departed.

On many days, the sacrifices of our military personnel and families may go only faintly noticed, like one of the CH-53D Sea Stallion troop transport helicopters that routinely flies out of Tustin Marine Corps Air Station and passes over busy shopping malls. But it is not so today, in very trying emotional times for military personnel and families. Today, war has come home, directly, immediately, for them and for all of us.

For the personnel who are carrying out Operation Desert Storm are our very own. They are husbands, wives, parents, children and grandchildren. The commander in charge of Marine air power in the gulf--all of it--is the commanding officer of the El Toro Marine base. A battle-hardened Marine gunnery sergeant from San Clemente, stationed in eastern Saudi Arabia, knows from bitter experience how things can go wrong in wartime. He declared several days ago that “there’s really no way to prepare yourself.” An estimated 35,000 Marine comrades from area bases are there, having departed over these long months to prepare themselves for the unexpected now unfolding.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove), a reservist, watches for word of orders for his wife, already called up for active duty in Colorado, in a time when increasingly the news is of our women as well as our men dispatched to distant conflicts.

Someone who knows the lesson of the unexpected well, Julie Otto of Buena Park, wishes for other families that they will not be visited, as she was, by a man in uniform, bearing news of a son lost in the Panama conflict. He was killed by “friendly fire,” a nightmare come true. In today’s fighting world of “smart bombs,” our local heroes may go into battle with a scary thought: computer-guided technology could deprive them of whatever comfort there is in actually seeing one’s enemy.

Not all in Orange County today agree that war is the proper course of action, although they, too, may be stirred by patriotic sentiments every bit as deep as those who await news of loved ones. Within earshot of the county’s military installations, we have seen protests and teach-ins in recent days. We are reminded at such a time that Orange County, despite its reputation for political conservatism, is really just another slice of America--in all of its diversity of opinion.

But today we adjust to tighter security at the local airport, and think of our military people and their families. All of Orange County’s hopes and prayers are with them during these operations conducted in the name of freedom.