Veterans of Past Wars Are Awed by the High-Tech Weapons in the Gulf : Former warriors: They mostly agree that battles and even wars would have been cleaner and shorter with new arms.

The serious talk over lunch at the Newport Beach American Legion Post and at other veterans’ clubhouses in Orange County on Friday focused on the high technology in the Persian Gulf War.

Or the lack of it during the time those veterans served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Many of them now have children serving in the military who are using the weapons they now can only wish they had.

“I wish we had it in World War II. It would have been a much shorter war,” said Gene Ross, 62, a submarine radioman during that time. “None of us had anything like that,” but he added, “This is what (Ronald) Reagan was trying to sell to the people when he was President.”

At Mission Viejo VFW Post 6024, Ed Kearns, 71, a World War II and Korean War Army veteran, said, “If we had something like this, we wouldn’t have had to drop the A-bomb on Japan.”

But in the Buena Park American Legion Post, Dan Jordan, 62, a Korean War Marine captain, feels that the story will be different if and when ground troops go into action.

“I think that is going to be pretty rough,” he said in a telephone interview. “So far, Iraq hasn’t shown very much.”

The Placentia resident added that he was impressed by the accuracy shown in televised reports of the bombing.

“We can wish for a lot of things, but we can’t turn back the clock when I served,” he said. “We won a lot of battles anyway.”

Coast Guard veteran Eli Fisher, 65, who saw action in the Philippines and on Okinawa during World War II, fought a different kind of war. “It’s all electronic now,” said the Stanton American Legion Post 783 member. “It would have been nice to have something like that. Maybe some of the cities wouldn’t have had to be wiped out.”

Also awed by the fearsome firepower was Dick Porch, Newport Beach American Legion Post board president and Korean War Army veteran.

He noted, however, that this is another era. “We can talk about it, but we can’t live in the past,” he said. “That was our time and it wasn’t the same.”

Seated next to him in the Newport Beach post, Bill C. von Each, 66, a former Navy commander, applauded President Bush and the effectiveness of modern means of destruction.

But the Korean War veteran contends that “with all the wonderful military equipment available, I think it will take longer than he (Bush) planned.”

Bill Murphy, 46, who was wounded in Vietnam, says he gets goose bumps when he sees the technology being used in the gulf.

The Anaheim resident, who said he doesn’t like to talk about the battles he fought, nevertheless was amazed at the war machine assembled by the United States and its allies.

“It’s incredible,” said Murphy, whose son is an Army helicopter ground crewman in the gulf. “A few days up the line, we will really see what will happen. It makes me proud to be an American.”

Bob Atkinson, 57, of Fullerton, a Navy Korean War veteran who served on an ammunition ship, said the pinpoint accuracy of the bombing and the missiles is helping save many civilian lives.

“I appreciate the fact they are staying away from the public,” he said. “They can do that. Did you see on television where they put a bomb down a smokestack?” he asked. “That’s modern technology and it’s awesome.”