‘One of Daddy’s Bosses’ Visits : Rally: The vice president lands at the El Toro Marine base and speaks at Camp Pendleton. And he meets with the families of those killed or captured in the Mideast.

It was a pep rally of grand dimensions here Thursday afternoon as the wives’ cheers rose louder and their banners higher with each word of nationalistic pride from Vice President Dan Quayle.

But 30 yards away, outside the base hangar, El Toro-based Marine Cpl. Jeff Cayford stood in formation and squirmed, waiting for his chance to end the rallies and start the fighting.

“This is all more of a pep talk than anything else,” said Cayford, 24, scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia in a few weeks with a combat unit. “It’s not going to make much of a difference one way or the other--it’s just glorifying something (the Gulf War) that we’re not a part of yet.”

“Just the same spiel we’ve been hearing all along,” added Cpl. Robert Gill, 23, a Florida native based at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for more than five years.

When the vice president last made an official stop in Orange County in September, war was still only a tragic prospect, and Quayle had time to talk about politics and voter registration, among other topics.

But as he spoke with Marines in El Toro and Camp Pendleton on Thursday, it was the serious business of war that he chose to address.

And the emotional nature of that subject was reflected on the faces of those who came to hear him, from the glowing appreciation of military wives and excited wonder of schoolchildren to the understated skepticism of some Marines--and the boredom and confusion of a few toddlers.

“The idea that he took his time to stop by and see us, and the support it shows--I think it’s great,” said Catherine Maxwell, 24, an El Toro Marine wife whose 4-year-old daughter, Justine, got a big hug and a quick quiz on her age from Quayle after his arrival in El Toro on Air Force Two.

“I’m tired about hearing all the bad things about the war” from protesters, she added. “That doesn’t do us or the guys (in the Mideast) any good. And this does.”

Maxwell was among about 150 people at the El Toro base who stood behind a rope to greet the vice president, then jockeyed for handshakes and a few words with Quayle.

“Thanks for coming out and showing support for our troops in the Persian Gulf,” Quayle said as he walked the greeting line. “It means a lot.”

At the center of the El Toro visit was Kelly Bishop, an eighth-grader from Serrano Intermediate School in El Toro.

It was her recent letter to Quayle, telling him that she did not understand why she had heard only negative things about him, that prompted the vice president’s office to invite her school to the event. About 100 seventh- and eighth-graders, most wearing Operation Desert Shield T-shirts made especially for their school, got to go.

Quayle left El Toro to make a noon speech at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, then went by motorcade to Camp Pendleton, which has already lost 11 Marines in combat. There, Quayle spoke privately with some of the wives whose husbands have been killed or are being held prisoner.

The rally and talk there drew about 2,000 Marines, wives and children, complete with flags, balloons, banners and a military band.

Some Marines on hand with their units appeared stoic about the affair. “It’s not a big deal,” one infantryman remarked as his gunnery sergeant ordered his platoon off the site at the end of the ceremony.

Even among Quayle’s biggest boosters--the Marine wives--some expressed dissatisfaction that the vice president had not taken questions, as was rumored, and given answers to some specific concerns.

Among the questions several wives said they wanted answered: whether the forces in the Gulf will be rotated, what the long-term plan and timetable is for the war and what can be done to stop reporters from disseminating information that some wives believe could endanger their husbands.

In his talk, Quayle did not address any of these points specifically, focusing instead on a broad indictment of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a rousing prediction of victory in the “moral and just” quest of the nations allied against Iraq.

“We will win this conflict, and then as soon as possible your loved ones will come home,” Quayle said, drawing loud cheers from an audience made up largely of women and children.

Many in the audience had waited more than two hours to hear Quayle speak, with some Marine wives getting off early from work, making signs to identify their loved ones and dressing their young children in suits or fatigues to see “one of Daddy’s bosses,” as one woman described it.

Each sector of the audience tried to outshout the other in spirited fashion as Quayle listed some of the forces represented at the base, with family members of the 5th Marine Expeditionary Force appearing to take top honors for the loudest cheer.

“This is what everybody needs,” said Gunnery Sgt. David Jackson, 49, in a training unit at Camp Pendleton. “Inspiration.”