ON THE HOME FRONT : Muffled Reaction From Tel Aviv; Funday a No-Day; Big Valentine

Sara Byrnes was shouting into the telephone receiver at her Tel Aviv home, but her voice was coming across muffled and slightly distorted Friday afternoon to a caller from San Diego. That’s because she had just finished putting on a gas mask when the phone rang.

“We’re having an emergency right now!” she screamed. “The sirens just went off.”

The 28-year-old San Diego native, a Patrick Henry High School graduate, said the alert sounded moments before a Times reporter reached her.

“Emotionally, I’m fine,” she insisted. “I’m staying with a really good friend of mine. Yes, of course, there’s panic right now”--she managed a small laugh, audible despite the gas masks and clatter behind her--”and this really isn’t fun.”

But, Byrnes added, “We need a Jewish state. We’re going to be fine. We just need for American Jews to keep supporting Israel . . . more than we ever have before.”

San Diego-area students who had been studying in Israel all left the country before the Iraqi missile attack early Friday. Some University of California students attending Hebrew University in Jerusalem elected to stay, but no San Diego residents were among them, Jon Marcum, director of the UC Education Abroad Program, said Friday. Similarly, the lone San Diego State University student at Hebrew University left in December.

The Navy said Friday that, “due to the turn in world events,” a “Funday” at Admiral Baker Field, off Friars Road near Mission Gorge Road, for family and friends of military personnel who have been sent to the Persian Gulf area, will not be held Sunday.

“It must be postponed until a later date,” the Navy said.

But news on the home front isn’t all discouraging. Local military bases have been inundated with calls from people wanting to help out in some way, from volunteering to answer phones to offers of money. One man called Miramar Naval Air Station asking if he could donate 20,000 slices of cheesecake to American troops in the Middle East.

The 49 Union Bank branches in San Diego County have invited people to come in and sign oversized Valentine’s Day cards in support of U.S. troops in the war zone. Cards can be signed through Wednesday, the last date that mail must be sent to the Persian Gulf to be received by Feb. 14.

On Friday, in place of the thousands of raucous protesters that held forth Thursday night at the Federal building downtown, were two small children for much of the day.

Frolicking on a grass knoll in front of the courthouse entrance, both children wore homemade sandwich boards of brightly colored paper that expressed support for the war.

“Thank-you for fighting for me,” read one of the boards.

But peace activists vow to remain active. About 60 African-Americans opposed to the war rallied Friday afternoon in front of the Federal Building downtown. Veteran anti-war organizer Greg Akili said that “unity centers” would be set up to counsel African-American service personnel and family members opposed to the Persian Gulf conflict. He said he believes that blacks are over-represented in the military, that they are being oppressed economically at home, and that the effect of sanctions on South Africa have been given years to work, as opposed to those against Iraq.

Post offices in downtown La Jolla and Carlsbad will be the focus of silent vigils between 11 a.m. and noon today. Another vigil will be held at the northwest corner of Balboa Park, at 6th Avenue and Upas Street, from 1:30-3 p.m.

On Sunday, the Coalition for Peace in the Middle East will hold its weekly vigil at 1 p.m. at the lily pond in Balboa Park.

Students throughout the county continued to think about the war. But about 100 students at Hoover High School in East San Diego learned about the consequences of turning a Thursday demonstration into a free-for-all march to nearby Crawford High, where they climbed fences, smashed windows and behaved like heathens, according to Hoover principal Doris Alvarez.

On Friday, Alvarez herded the students into the cafeteria and told them that they will spend time the next several weeks in “Saturday” school, or else be suspended.

“They may have First Amendment rights to demonstrate, but that doesn’t mean leaving the campus, going to another school and climbing over fences,” she said.

San Diego schools that have a large enrollment of Tijuana residents have reported more absentees than normal. Pupils apparently were opting to stay home in the face of exaggerated reports of possible border closings in the event of war.

At Our Lady of Mt. Carmel grammar school in San Ysidro, where more than half of the students are from Baja California, an administrator said that up to 20 students have been calling in absent since Wednesday--compared to the usual three or four pupils a day at the 330-student Roman Catholic school.

North, at UC San Diego, 64 professors, office workers and graduate students in the literature department signed an open letter asking that professors take part of their class time to address “the grave implications of the U.S. attack on Iraq.”

Department chairman Susan Kirkpatrick said, “There hasn’t been a good atmosphere the past couple of days” for teaching. “Our students are concerned and upset about things.” Many UCSD students have joined community protests against U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf.

The San Diego Blood Bank joined Friday with radio station Y95 to urge San Diegans to participate in a special blood drive beginning Tuesday. The blood bank sends 50 pints of blood a week to the American Assn. of Blood Banks as part of a cooperative effort with the military, said spokesman Stephanie Casenza. “We don’t want people to donate solely because of the (Gulf crisis), but with our added commitment to the military, it’s important that people respond to the increased needs,” she said.

There will be seven centers where blood can be donated. For locations and times, call 296-6393.

Security continued at unprecedented levels at Lindbergh Field. A 1991 Chrysler--so new that remnants of a price sticker were still on a window--was towed Friday from in front of the United Airlines entrance after no one responded to a Harbor Patrol call to move it. It was one of four towed by late afternoon, and police expect there will be more this weekend. An officer rifled through the trunk looking for any evidence of explosives or suspicious baggage before it was hauled away.

Times staff writers Alan Abrahamson, Michael Granberry, Patrick McDonnell, Leonard Bernstein, Nora Zamichow, Russell Ben-Ali and Vince Compagnone contributed to this report.