2 Southland Marines Lost in Combat : Casualties: Pilot and observer, based at Camp Pendleton, are the first from California to be declared missing.

Two U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are missing after their military reconnaissance plane went down in action against Iraqi targets near Kuwait, defense officials said Saturday.

Lt. Col. Clifford Acree, 39, and Chief Warrant Officer Guy Hunter, 46, formed the two-man crew of the Marine OV-10 Bronco, a turboprop plane used for observation in support of other aircraft.

The two are the first Southern California-based members of the Operation Desert Storm forces to be listed as missing in action.

In an interview Saturday afternoon, Hunter’s wife, Mary, said her family had moved to Camp Pendleton only two weeks ago. She said the Marine Corps officers who showed up at her door were the first members of her husband’s squadron that she had met.

When she saw the three officers standing outside at 3:45 p.m. Friday she knew immediately that they bore bad news about her husband, who had shipped out to the Middle East last fall.

“I felt like somebody stuck a dagger into my heart,” she said, crying. “I just wish I knew if he was alive or dead. . . . I just want him back.”

She said she was told that her husband and Acree, commanding officer of the observation squadron, were downed while flying over the desert. Acree was piloting the plane; Hunter was the observer.

It was Hunter’s first mission during Operation Desert Storm, his wife said.

She spent Saturday receiving calls from longtime friends and from people she didn’t know. Men in her husband’s squadron called to say they had heard that his plane had been hit by enemy fire. They said Hunter had a flare, water and a weapon and so would be able to survive if he was not severely injured.

“I don’t want to think about him being tortured. I don’t want him to die a slow death,” Mary Hunter said through her tears. “I am trying to put my senses to him--like to reach him in my mind. I want him back. With my mental vibes, I want him to know I care for him whether he is in heaven or in a sand dune.”

Military officials at Camp Pendleton, however, would not provide any information about the two men or the circumstances under which they were lost. The allied military has reported that 10 aircraft have now been lost in the Gulf War. Nine U.S. airmen are missing in action.

The multipurpose OV-10 carries one pilot and one supporting arms coordinator and can reach speeds of 281 m.p.h. It is designed to help direct other aircraft conduct missions, but it also can be armed with rockets, bombs, gun pods and missiles and provide air cover for troops. The plane is used by two Marine observation squadrons.

The Hunters and their three children moved to Camp Pendleton Jan. 4 from North Carolina. Guy Hunter had taught aircraft observation at the New River Marine Corps Air Station.

Mary Hunter said she and her husband had met at Camp Pendleton, a quarter mile from where she now lives, and the couple had always wanted to return to the Oceanside community. She said she planned to go Sunday to the chapel where they were married 15 years ago.

“I didn’t know this was going to happen,” she said. “I thought of all the good, fun times. I found my happiness here. I always had a wonderful, happy life.”

She said she and her husband had often spoken of the risks of his career. A Marine for 29 years, Guy Hunter had served four tours of duty in Vietnam, she said. He planned that this assignment in the Middle East would be his last tour of duty before retiring.

Since his departure, Hunter had sent her flowers three times and called her four times. She had also gotten numerous letters from him--and in his recent letters he always closed by asking her to drive carefully.

She said that during his telephone calls to her from the Middle East, he would plan trips with their children, Laura Charlotte, 12; William Raymond, 9, and Mary Elizabeth, 7, when he returned. He mentioned a trip to Disneyland, which the children had never visited.

Hunter told his wife that he had received a Navy Commendation Medal in the Middle East, but he refused to say how he had earned it, she said.

“He was very concerned about the money and my decisions, and the children--their well-being and where they were going to be raised,” she said of her husband, who grew up in Moultrie, Ga., one of 12 children. “My husband is just a good ‘ol boy.”

People at the Acree household in Oceanside declined to be interviewed on Saturday.

Neighbors said they had received a Christmas card last year that showed Acree’s wife, Cindi, a daughter, Stephany, their dog Camit and cat Murphy on the cover. Both animals wore yellow ribbons. On the inside of the card was a photo of Lt. Col. Clifford Acree and his airplane.

“We both join in wishing you a merry Christmas and happy and peaceful New Year,” the card read.

In an interview with a San Diego television station earlier this year, Acree had said his squadron of observation planes had flown to the East Coast, then north to Canada, and on to Scotland, England, Spain, finally reaching Saudi Arabia. Since the OV-10 can only fly six hours at a time, it was necessary for the planes to make the trip in short hops.

Acree declined to tell the television crew how many planes flew over.

“We brought enough to meet our needs here,” he had said.

Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell contributed to this report.