KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : Soldiers Pour Into O.C. Bases : Deployments: Arriving Marines, Army troops voice concerns about confronting fellow Americans in South L.A.

About 1,300 Marines arrived at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station on Friday with decidedly mixed feelings about the prospect of fighting fellow Americans in the streets of Los Angeles.

“It’s not really appetizing,” said Lance Cpl. James Dodd, 20, from Alabama. “This is in our own country, fighting our own people. We all feel some natural apprehension.”

At the same time Friday, about 2,500 Army personnel flew into the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to await word from President Bush on whether they would be sent to South Los Angeles. The Marines were sent to bolster the 6,000 National Guard personnel already in Southern California in what federal officials called a “show of force.”

But Mike Cox, a 21-year-old Marine from Austin, Tex., who fought in the Persian Gulf War, said, “I just can’t believe that something like this could happen in the United States.”

Added John Darnell, 20, from Columbus, Ohio: “This is different from the Gulf, because we’re here in America dealing with other Americans. These are the people we signed on to protect, not to fight.”

The Marines said they had no inkling of their potential involvement in the Los Angeles riots until they received orders early Friday morning. Then, wearing battle fatigues with flak jackets and hoisting M-16 rifles, they lumbered up the freeway from Camp Pendleton in a long line of white buses and armored personnel carriers sporting 25-millimeter cannons.

Many of the personnel carriers still bore the light brown paint used to camouflage them in the Mideast desert.

Some of the Marines said that they could identify with the anger that sparked the rioting in the first place. Columbus Wilson Jr., who is black, said that if he was not a Marine, he probably would be peacefully protesting the Rodney King verdicts himself.

“It’s kind of hard fighting against your own people,” said Wilson, 19. “It’s not basically what the Marine Corps does.”

And Jerome Robinson, also black, said that he felt very emotional about being asked to help quell the riots. “I can understand what they’re going through,” he said of the rioters. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle (the emotion), but I’ll have to face it. It’s kind of scary.”

Added Steven Stone, 19, of Atlanta: “It’s hard knowing that they are Americans just like me.”

Yet, to a man, the Marines said they would do their duty if ordered.

“We’re just doing our job,” Dodd said. “Something’s got to be done to control the situation. We’ll do what we can.”