Marines May Be Deployed by the Weekend

U.S. Marines--all of them based at Camp Pendleton--will be transported by helicopter from ships in the Red Sea to the Somali coast as early as this weekend to secure the airport and port at Mogadishu, officials said Thursday.

They said intelligence reports indicate that the 1,800-member initial force--all of whom will be lightly armed and dispersed among a number of sites--will probably encounter minimal resistance.

More forces will arrive late next week after several ships and more than 500 airlifts take troops and equipment to the battle-weary Somali capital, officials said. The troops would then move in strength to protect relief convoys and provide aid to the desperate Somalis.

The overall force--to be under the command of a general, also from Pendleton--is authorized at more than 60,000 soldiers and Marines, but the Pentagon has said the number who actually participate is expected to be lower, probably about 28,000.

This will be one of America’s largest overseas humanitarian deployments and a significant harbinger of post-Cold War military missions to come. But its success will also depend, Pentagon official acknowledged, on the cooperation of heavily armed Somali warlords who have pillaged food supplies in recent months and left most of their compatriots destitute.

“We don’t seek a confrontation,” Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said. “We’re not looking to go in with guns blazing--we are seeking to provide humanitarian relief.”

In Washington, officials said Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, gave preliminary operation plans Thursday to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Later, Hoar and Gen. Colin L. Powell, the Joint Chiefs chairman, briefed President Bush. They went beyond military details of what troops would be dispatched where to include legal issues, the participation of other nations and the next steps on the political front.

The President plans to brief congressional leaders this morning and then to present some public account of his plans. There have been no decisions on how Bush will inform the nation, but Administration officials did not rule out an address from the Oval Office.

Williams declined to provide overall figures for the size of the force that is expected to land in Somalia and refused to disclose any timetable for the operation. Powell and Cheney are expected to discuss that in a briefing for reporters today or Saturday.

But U.S. officials said later that about 62,200 troops--including the 50,000-strong 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton--had been ordered to stand by for possible deployment. Final decisions on the size of the force are not expected to be made until after the United Nations clarifies its mission and the first Marines reach the area.

In Oceanside, even though no formal orders had been issued, soldiers and their families at Camp Pendleton scurried to prepare themselves to be separated on short notice. Most troops expected to be shipped out within 48 hours after their orders are received. Some Marines were asking barbers for extra-short haircuts to last longer; others were doing last minute laundry and buying gear to pack for the trip.

“I’ve been doing errands for my husband all week,” said Carol Currid, whose husband, David, is a U.S. Army major at the base. On Thursday afternoon, she and her three children were in a military supply store to buy him a portable shower.

Currid said Christmas this year “is going to be kind of lonely. . . . I think it is a difficult time of year for this to come up so suddenly.”

Besides Marines from Pendleton, the operation will probably include soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Light based at Ft. Drum, N.Y., and special operations units from Ft. Bragg, N.C.

Hoar recommended these units participate because they are lightly armed, readily deployable and can be moved into crude airfields and ports. The entire 10th Mountain Division, including the troop-carrying Huey helicopters and Cobra attack choppers that make them so mobile, can be moved to Somalia in less than four days using only C-141 jet transport planes, which can land on substandard airstrips.

The Marines and the 10th Mountain Division also are extensively trained in dealing with large civilian populations in distress. The 10th Mountain Division only recently returned from Florida, where it was engaged in Hurricane Andrew relief operations.

Except for the amphibious assault vehicles that Marines are expected to bring ashore, troops operating in the midst of Somali small-arms fire would be equipped with only a small number of armored troop carriers.

Initially, during the period of highest peril, Marine units from the amphibious ships Tripoli, Rushmore and Juneau are expected to operate off their ships, ferrying by helicopter into Somalia as needed.

Pentagon officials said they believe that the organized resistance of Somali gunmen will dissolve in the face of well-equipped and highly trained U.S. troops.

Hibaaq Osman, the Somali director of communications of Fund for Peace in Washington, said, “Ninety percent of the job for the military is already done” because the warlords have announced that they support the U.S. intervention.

Asked if the warlords can be trusted to keep their ill-disciplined troops in line, he said, “They are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts; they are doing it because they know they are no match for the Marines.”

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, Norman Kempster and Art Pine in Washington and Leslie Berkman in Oceanside contributed to this report.